Amusing, if highly contrived, adaptation of the then recent wildly popular book of the same title. This was by no means the first screen pairing of the long established leading Hollywood actors Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert. They seemed to have great chemistry in doing this fish-out-of-water comedy. From Claudette's viewpoint, this screenplay is rather like a triple fusion of her roles in "It Happened One Night", "Drums Along the Mohawk" and "Boomtown", among her best remembered film roles. At age 44, she was still the cutest woman in Hollywood, with her big soulful deer-like eyes, perfect natural smiley face, and hourglass figure. Like Gable in the former film, Fred has supreme self confidence , not always warranted, in handling various unfamiliar situations., dragging Claudette along with his unexpected dreams.We have the dichotomy of two 'gentlemen' farm operations run by displaced rich city folk vs. various indigenous rural neighbors. Fred(as Bob} and Claudette(as Betty) are newly arrived city folk on a rundown former chicken farm. Their seriously overloaded truck they arrive in is a hoot, with a complete inventory of farm animals. Later, they will meet Harriet Putnam(Louise Allbritton), the multi-divorced owner of a large modern-equipped farm, also emphasizing chickens. It soon becomes clear that Harriet is a man-eating nymphomaniac, with Bob next on her menu. This seems all too clear to Betty, but Bob keeps insisting that he isn't going to be tempted to abandon Betty for this siren. Thus, we have a situation rather similar to that in "Wife vs. Secretary" and "Boomtown" in which Clark Gable was spending many evenings and trips with his sexy secretary(Jean Harlow, or Hedy Lamarr), causing his wife(Myrna Loy, or Claudette) to assume they were having an affair, thus running home to mother and considering a divorce. Thus, for a portion of the film, while Bob and Harriet are doing various things together, Betty often is in the company of neighbor Ma Kettle, a poor neighbor with endless children and a mostly useless bumpkin of a husband(Percy Kilbride)This was the first pairing of these latter two, who would graduate to the leads in the "Ma and Pa Kettle" film series, one of which was made each year from 1949-57, the last two without Percy. They would continue their characterization established in this film throughout this popular series. Having viewed most of this series, I say they were better in supporting a major star(s), as in the present film, as opposed to endless contrived situations in their lead Ma and Pa Kettle personas, usually involving getting mixed up with gangsters. Soon after the present film, they were reteamed in the comedy "Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' ", starring Don O'Connor, in which they played somewhat more dignified characters, with Marjorie as the mayor of a tiny dusty western town. Without Percy, during this era, Marjorie also appeared in her 'tough old broad' guise with Abbott and Costello in "The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap" and with her previous frequent costar, Wallace Berry, in "Big Jack". She was Judy Garland's mother in the rural musical "Summer Stock", and Fred Astaire's blustery guardian aunt, as well as Vera Ellen's boss in the NYC musical "Belle of New York". In my opinion, Percy didn't have any special comedic talent. Occasional mishaps and a variety of eccentric visitors and animals keep things interesting at the McDonald farm. Bob chops down a tree to make room for an expansion of the chicken house. Despite Betty's persistent claim that it's going to fall on the chicken house, he repeatedly assures her that he has experience as a lumberjack and knows precisely where it will fall. Well, you can guess what happens. This is the comedic equivalent of Gable's thumbing-a-ride caper in "It Happened one Night". The final straw is when a fire that starts from Pa Kettle's moonshine still spreads to consume their animal shelters(Apparently, it didn't consume the Kettle's farm??). Interestingly, Bob then wants to quit trying to be a farmer, but formerly very reluctant farmer Betty doesn't want to quit. Just then, all the neighbors show up, organized by the sheriff, to offer help in rebuilding their farm. Siren Harriet shows up with supremely grumpy old Mr. Henty, apparently the only egg buyer in this region, whom she has instructed to offer the McDonalds an egg contract(We have our suspicions what hold she has over him). Nonetheless, Bob and Harriet soon secretly strike a deal where Bob buys her farm.(He seems to have an endless money supply). Unfortunately, Betty assumes they are, instead, having an affair, and leaves the farm for mother. After a baby and several more flip flops near the end, the McDonalds are finally reunited in the end. The parting take home message is similar to that articulated by Jimmy Stewart in the finale of "Wife vs. Secretary", whether you believe or not Bob's claimed innocence.Louise Allbritton didn't always play 'the other woman'. In her film roles during WWII, she usually played strong women, such as Harriet. Her role as Lillian Russell is particularly memorable, rather reminding us of Marlene Dietrich.

Newlyweds leave behind city life to become chicken farmers. Hilarity ensues - or so hoped the filmmakers. Unfortunately, the comedy is forced and unfunny and it goes on much too long. Although based on a best-selling novel, the episodic script fails to sustain any kind of narrative flow. It runs out of steam long before the final credits roll. Colbert and MacMurray have both made some fine comedies and they try hard here, but aren't given much to work with. Also, they were a wee bit too old to be playing young newlyweds. Surprisingly, this anemic comedy was a hit at the box office and launched the Ma and Pa Kettle series of films, as well as the "Green Acres" sitcom.

I have always had fond memories of this film ever since I first saw it on TV as a child. The comic situations seem tailor-made for the juvenile mind – chiefly the slapstick sight gags involving the inevitable mishaps suffered by urbanites adapting to farm life, including uproarious encounters with barnyard animals and rural eccentrics. In fact this seems like the inspiration for the 60s TV series GREEN ACRES. The screenwriters have taken liberties with Betty MacDonald's original memoir, retaining only the shell (married couple acquires chicken farm in isolated setting) and a few of the subsidiary characters (chiefly the Kettle family, thereby ensuring their cinematic immortality). Most of the incidents are invented for the screen in a feat of imaginative skill, some inspired by passing commentary in the source material. One of the major changes is taking original characters whose ages are 31 and 18, respectively and casting them with Fred MacMurray (pushing 40 at the time) and Claudette Colbert (mid-40s). Also, MacDonald herself grew up in rural surroundings and was somewhat familiar with "farm livin'", whereas the Colbert character comes from a distinctly urban and even pampered upper-class background making the transition to farm wife that much more extreme, with funnier results. The depiction of the dilapidated farmhouse is much stronger on film than on the page. The wood-burning stove (so intimidatingly difficult to handle that MacDonald personified it with the name "Stove" in the book) is cleverly brought to life; Colbert has many wonderful moments as she interacts with this hilariously inoperable monstrosity. MacDonald's descriptions of the timid dog Sport are also rendered deftly and hilariously thanks to the interaction between a well-trained canine actor and the inimitable Colbert.The screenwriters give the Kettle family (headed by the great Marjorie Main at her scene- stealing best as "Ma" and Percy Kilbride as "Pa") several more at-home children (in the book it's only 6 or 7 – the rest being grown up, married and off to their own lives) and successfully explore choice details of their lives (farm animals in the kitchen, Ma Kettle's personal tics – like itching her torso -- the family rush to dinner, the way Ma tosses a few ingredients together and comes up with extraordinarily delicious baked goods, etc.). Colbert and Marjorie Main make an excellent oil-and-water team (Main has said she and Colbert didn't exactly warm to each other during filming). The film is well paced – nothing goes on too long and every scene contains a funny or touching quality. Colbert makes you care about her character; you're rooting for her all the way as the demands of the farm are far more challenging to her than to her husband. Throughout is a parade of colorful rural characters, the Kettles being the most spectacular.Regarding "political correctness," some people may wince at the way Colbert initially reacts to some local Indians who help her husband hunt game. She screams in terror as if they're going to scalp her. Other than that, they are portrayed as rather taciturn individuals who are always hanging around the edges of the action. But if you want florid political incorrectness of the most extreme variety, check out the original book wherein MacDonald goes on for paragraphs trashing the Indians right and left. She even describes a picnic of Indian families in which their behavior is depicted as slovenly, unsanitary, violent and irresponsible. If anything, the screenwriters seem to have been aware of the author's slanted views and done their best to minimize them. In fact, Colbert is promptly corrected by MacMurray for unnecessarily hysterical behavior.It's also a wise screen writing move to have eliminated the baby daughter from the core of the narrative. A baby would have diffused our focus on the central characters.So – those who have never seen this, give it a try. It's light entertainment with the extra zing of the unusual. You can't go wrong with Claudette Colbert and Marjorie Main in top form.

This charming, lively and atmospheric sojourn into the country is one of the most famous and influential of all "rustic" films. Like "Mr. Blandings Builds His dream House" and "George Washington Slept Here", Betty MacDonald's "The Egg and I" tells the cautionary tale of a city dweller and his wife trying to establish a new life form themselves far from the city's amenities. Usually one partner is more enthusiastic about the relocation than is the other--in this case, a young wife played by Claudette Colbert--while the mate is hell-bent on leaving the city's inconveniences behind--in this case Fred MacMurray. The film has a deceptively simple plot-line. In pursuit of the goal of running an egg-producing farm, MacMurray drags his new wife into the country; the remainder of the film comprises three plot lines: 1. The way they are rooked, helped, charmed and appalled by their bucolic neighbors, especially Ma and pa kettle played for the first time on the screen my Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride; 2. Involvements with a gorgeous neighbor (Louise Allbritton) whom Colbert thinks is a rival for her husband's affections; and 3. Difficulties with a very old and run-down physical property owing to long-term prior neglect, bad weather, etc. This bare summary of events I suggest captures the essence of the storyline rather succinctly; but it also omits the hysteria of Colbert's reactions, her distaste at first for the entire project, and the genial atmosphere of "what next" that permeates all the couple's dealings with nature, their neighbors and their own negotiations about their new marriage and the terms on which it is to be lived. Unlike many incompetent later so-called comedies, this is a true comedy--something that cannot end badly for the participants if they physically persevere; and it is quite realistic, if broadly mounted. How many other films can you the viewer recall which introduces Ma and Pa Kettle, a slinky blond egg-ranch owner, a 300 pound ladies man, a run-down chicken ranch, a college-trained hillbilly engineer and a succession of incompetent workmen? Frank Skinner provided suitable comedic music; the film was directed by veteran Chester Erskine, from a story and screenplay he adopted from the Macdonald novel along with Fred F. Finkelhoffe. The two produced also along with Leonard Goldstein, and they produced an instant classic and a box-office smash. Milton Krasner supplied a consistent cinematography, helped along by a very fine production design by Bernard Herzbrun and inventive set decorations by Oliver Emert and Russell A. Gausman. The fine cast is headed by Fred MacMurray as a believable Bob Macdonald, and Claudette Colbert, very powerful as always and only a bit too old for the part. As the rival egg rancher, Louise Allbritton is cultured, and brilliant as usual. Billy House as the amorous Mr. Reed, Elisabeth Risdon as Betty's mother, Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride and Richard Long as the Kettles are all very much up to their parts, which in lesser hands might have turned into caricatures. others in the well-chosen cast include Samuel S. Hinds as the Sheriff, Ida Moore, Fuzzy Knight, Isabel O'Madigan, Esther Dale, Donald MacBride and John Berkes. It is hard to say enough nice things about the consistent style of this B/W treasure. What makes it work apart from the straightforward direction and the sincere professional actors I suggest is the categorical theme--Betty (Colbert) finally wanting her marriage to work, rather than her husband's equally legitimate desire to make a go of the egg ranch project he has always wanted to head, even if it means making his wife uncomfortable for a while. This is a film many admire, myself among them, and many more like even better that they admire it. It is a fine autumn film any night you want some genuinely-earned laughter.