April 6, 1953
Universal
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C+
First of all, they never go to Mars. They go to New York (twice), New Orleans during Mardi Gras, and Venus, which is-- you're not going to believe this-- populated only by women! Pretty cutting edge, eh? The Venusians include a lot of beauty queens and Anita Ekberg. The script is nonsensical, and Ma and Pa Kettle director Charles Lamont does his best with it, but it never gets silly enough, or achieves dream-logic. (You may scoff that the scientists back home watch the flight of the spaceship on their monitor, but even that gets old.) Mainly worth watching for the almost funny antics of Bud and Lou, the now lame special effects, and the blink-and-you'll-miss-it debut of nine-year-old Harry Shearer. (He's the brunet boy in the opening scene.) Martha Hyer, as she does in the more enjoyably bad Bikini Beach, provides the voice of reason when possible.
Brick Sullivan was in It's a Wonderful Life and Singin' in the Rain. Mari Blanchard (Queen Allura) was a Copa girl in Copacabana. Juanita Close, Lester Dorr, Frank Marlowe, Syd Saylor, and Harold DeGarro were in Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair. (DeGarro was the scarecrow on stilts, while here he's a policeman on stilts.) Jack Kruschen, Russ Conway and Gloria Pall were in MaPK on Vacation. Rex Lease, who plays the police sergeant, is the sheriff in the MaPK series. James Flavin would be in MaPK at Home, Harold Goodwin and Sally Yarnell in MaPK at Waikiki. Jack Tesler would appear in The Band Wagon, Ed Fury in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Carl Sklover in Some Like It Hot.
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