Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation

Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
April 20, 1953
Universal
Comedy
VHS
C+

The vacation is to Paris, France, with Kim's parents, who appeared in the couple series entries I'm missing.  Sixty-something Pa almost went to France during the first World War, but they "didn't scrape the bottom of the barrel."  He and Ma are of course fish out of water, but not much humor results from this.  (I did like Ma protesting "wife-beating" by interrupting Apache-dancing.)  As if aware that this wasn't enough to work with, the script throws in an espionage plot, with the Kettles facing the Marxes' old nemesis Sig Ruman.  Citizen Kane's nemesis Gettys, on the other hand, played by Ray Collins, is friendly in-law Jonathan here.  The movie never quite clicks, although there are moments, as when an irate Frenchman speaks ill of the Marshall Plan, and when Pa (whose real name is Franklin) thinks the bobbysoxers are chasing him rather than the Sinatra lookalike.  I was most interested in, one, the view of air travel (from Idlewild Airport); and two, the way that Pa luring the French police to the rescue somewhat foreshadows Paul's grandfather's maneuvers in A Hard Day's Night (although it's much funnier there).

We don't get much of the Kettle "childrun," since they're just in the scenes at home.  The eleven returning Kettle kids:

• Donna Leary, then 16, as Sally
• Ronnie Rondell, Jr., then 16, as Dannie
• Elana Schreiner, then 16, as Nancy
• George Arlen, then 12, as Willie
• Beverly Mook, then 12, as Eve
• Sherry Jackson, then 11, as Susie
• Gary Lee Jackson, age unknown, as Billy
• Jackie Jackson, age unknown, as Henry
• Margaret Brown, age unknown, as Ruthie
• Billy Clark, age unknown, as George
• Jenny Linder, age unknown, as Sara (and no, I don't know why a family has siblings named Sally and Sara, or Willie and Billy for that matter)

And two newbie Kettle kids:

• Mark Roberts, 31 (!), takes over from Eugene Persson as Teddy.
• Jon Gardner (age unknown), who was in Singin' in the Rain, replaces Teddy Infuhr as Benjamin.

Tom doesn't appear, but "Kim and the baby" are visiting him "in camp," presumably a military camp.  Rosie isn't mentioned but probably is away at college.  That gives a total of fifteen kids for Ma and Pa, after the oddity of sixteen in the previous movie.

Oliver Blake and Teddy Hart return as Indians Geoduck and Crowbar.  We learn that they can't read and they're hoping Pa will bring them back spicy French postcards.

Sam Harris was in Citizen Kane.  Suzanne Ridgeway was in Citizen Kane and It's a Wonderful Life.  Franklin Farnum was in Sunset Blvd.  Eugene Borden also played a Frenchman in All About Eve.  Rita Moreno plays a soubrette, the one singing the can-can song.

Stewardess Alice Kelley would show up in a different role for Ma and Pa Kettle at Home.  Gloria Pall, the French Girl Walking Poodle, was actually Brooklyn-born, so it's more appropriate that she would shortly play Tall Girl in New York in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, which would also feature Russ Conway, Harold Goodwin, and Jack Kruschen.  Manuel Paris would soon be in The Band Wagon.  Alphonse Martell, a restaurant manager here, would be a headwaiter in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  Jack Chefe and Jean de Briac would also be in Gentlemen Prefer.

Singin' in the Rain

Singin' in the Rain
April 11, 1952
MGM
Musical, Comedy, Historical
DVD
B

A sometimes joyous musical, as well as a funny look at the transition from silents to talkies.  You could quibble that the rich Technicolor (my first color movie without Judy Garland, although of course it's MGM) is wasted in the scenes that are purporting to be moments in black & white movies.  (After all, if in real life Harpo Marx had to change his red wig to a blond-looking one, why would someone bother to dye a fur pink?)  I have a more serious problem with the "Broadway Melody Ballet" sequence (hereafter referred to as BMB), which, although only thirteen minutes long, brings things to a crashing halt, being not only a bore but stylistically an anomaly.  (It's "modern," i.e. supposed to be 1920s American rather than pre-revolutionary French, but it looks like the sort of bloated 1950s Hollywood/Broadway number that has not aged well.)  The rest of the numbers are much better, with my favorite being the playful, zippy "Good Morning."  In that number as well as many others, such as "Fit as a Fiddle," I like how two or three people (Gene Kelly with Donald O'Connor and/or Debbie Reynolds) are doing the same or similar steps, but with individual touches.

Without BMB, I still probably would give the movie only a B+, because it doesn't cross over into the lovability of such different movies as The Wizard of Oz and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.  It's very entertaining, and I can see why Reynolds became a big star, but I don't feel I want to stay in this world after the movie ends.

Kay Deslys was in The Big Store.  Julius Tannen, who's in the sound demo short, was Mr. Rafferty in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.  Brick Sullivan was in It's a Wonderful Life.  Mike Lally was in Citizen Kane and Wonderful Life.  Angi O. Poulos was a peddler in Easter Parade, too.  Jimmy Bates, Patricia Jackson, and Joi Lansing were also in Easter Parade.  Gloria Moore was Rosie Kettle in the earliest Ma and Pa movies.

Rita Moreno, then about 20, is almost unrecognizable as red-haired Zelda.  She would appear in Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation the next year.  Cyd Charisse, who's the seductress in BMB, would have a much larger role in The Band Wagon.  Paul Maxey and Joseph Mell would go on to Monkey Business.  Dee Turnell, who was in Copacabana and Easter Parade, would go on to The Band Wagon.  Lyle Clark, Fred Datig, Jr., Peggy Murray, Charles Regan, Joette Robinson, and Jimmy Thompson would all also be in The Band Wagon.  Shirley Wilson would do Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as well as The Band Wagon.  A. Cameron Grant and Judy Landon would be in Gentlemen Prefer, too.  Margaret Bert and Kenner G. Kemp would be in Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, while Jon Gardner and Timmy Hawkins would be Benjamin and Teddy Kettle in Ma and Pa Kettle in Waikiki.  Tommy Walker would go on to There's No Business Like Show Business, Ann McCrea to Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and John Logan to Some Like It Hot.  Robert Fortier, who plays a gangster in BMB, would turn up almost three decades later as the town drunk in Popeye.  Sue Allen would be a voice in the chorus of Heidi's Song.