Ma and Pa Kettle at Home

After a bit of globetrotting the Kettles come back to Arkansas to both of their homes, the one that Pa Kettle won in a radio jingle contest in town and the old family farm. It's the old family farm and essay that son Brett Halsey wrote about life on same that forms the basis of the plot of Ma And Pa Kettle At Home.

Halsey's essay has put him in line for a two year college scholarship. He's tied with neighbor Alice Kelley whose father Irving Bacon has a top of the line farm in the county. He's also a miserly man whose small change still has buffaloes on the nickels and who spends more on his livestock than the family.

A pair of judges from New York from the magazine who ran the essays will decide who gets the scholarships. Ross Elliott gets into the country spirit, but Alan Mowbray is the most nervous sickly man ever created on the big screen or small until Adrian Monk. Living at the Kettle farm with the now 13 kids drives him to distraction.

The climax is an old fashioned country Christmas with the Kettles and the only thing that makes me curious is why Universal didn't hold this one up in release until the holiday season. It was released in March of 1954. In the end while Irving Bacon runs an efficient farm, Ma and Pa Kettle know how to run a happy home.

One of the best the Kettle series.