Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950)

Director:

Charles Lamont

Writers:

Martin Ragaway (story)
Leonard Stern (story)

Release Date:

1 April 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Plot:

When Pa wins a jingle-writing contest, he and Ma head for New York City. They they get in trouble with...

Plot Keywords:

New York City | Sequel | City Country Contrast | Grand Central Station New York City

Cast

Marjorie Main	...	Ma Kettle
Percy Kilbride	...	Pa Kettle
Richard Long	...	Tom Kettle
Meg Randall	...	Kim Parker Kettle
Gregg Martell	...	Louie
Charles McGraw	...	Shotgun Mike Munger
Kathryn Givney	...	Mrs. Victoria Masterson
Jim Backus	...	Joseph 'Little Joe' Rogers
Elliott Lewis	...	Detective Sam Boxer
Paul McVey	...	Harold Masterson
Bert Freed	...	Dutch, Third New York Henchman
Hal March	...	Det. Mike Eskow
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Barbara Brown	...	Elizabeth Parker (scenes deleted)
Ray Collins	...	Jonathan Parker (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Going to Town (UK)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

France:U | Australia:G | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #14177)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

Third of eight films in which Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride portrayed Ma and Pa Kettle.

Quotes:

Pa Kettle: Three bathrooms and I still can't get in.
Ma Kettle: Ya got to expect that when ya got 15 kids.
Pa Kettle: Maybe we should have had less kids and more bathrooms.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm (1951)

Chapter two for ma & pa kettle

Also released on April Fools Day, this next Ma & Pa Kettle flick has most of the same cast as the first. At the very end of first one, Pa had won a trip to the big city as part of a contest, and that's where this one picks up. It opens with Ma making breakfast, and there's a great joke with popcorn and pancakes... another funny is the Native American's plan to buy back Manhattan.... keep an eye out for Jim Backus as a thug in a smallish part, YEARS before he was Thurston Howell III, and Richard Long (Nanny & the Professor, died quite young). Dan Yowlachie, plays the neighbor "Crowbar" in this one as well; he was a Yakima Native American who was probably glad to do something other than Westerns, and was also an opera singer. In this picture, we flash back and forth between the Kettles chasing after those disappearing bags in NYC, then back to the crook babysitting the children back at the house. The plot is a little more complicated and disjointed than the first Kettle movie, but it all works out in the clothes-wringer! Good, clean cut fun with jokes and gags thrown into the cops and robbers story.