Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki

"Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki" is a fun movie. It's a solid entry in the series. There are quite a few laughs and a ton of goodwill. As usual, Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride deliver the goods. The both get a lot of laughs. The supporting cast is good too. At 79 minutes "Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki" doesn't come close to wearing out its welcome. I enjoyed this installment and I plan on watching it again real soon.

I wonder why there is such a persistent tradition in movies to depict low class folks comically.

Its usually done with apparent sympathy to the honest or simple values of our rubes, and the only people treated harshly are the rich (and bankers). "Beverly Hillbillies" was the extreme, I guess.

But the root of the thing is a sort of white minstrel mentality. While we chuckle over the dumbness (and in this case laziness) of these trailer park dummies (who seem to do nothing but rut and make more), isn't the point that we are superior?

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

"Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki" is the last of the films in this series that starred Percy Kilbride as the title character, Pa Kettle. Considering the decline in quality, his choice to retire from films was not a bad one. Some fans of the series might really enjoy this one but others will probably just find it bizarre and ill-conceived.

When the film begins, you learn that over the years Pa Kettle has been corresponding with a cousin who now lives in Hawaii. The cousin is very successful and used to court Ma before she married...so Pa is trying to impress him with letters filled with all sorts of lies which make him sound like a business tycoon. The cousin surprisingly believes this and when his business and health are tottering on the edge, he calls for Pa to come to Hawaii to help him turn the company's fortunes for the better.

I actually did enjoy many of the Ma and Pa Kettle films but this one is ample evidence that the series had jumped the shark. Why are these country bumpkins in Hawaii, after all? And, the ending involving a Kettle-like Hawaiian family and organized crime is just slopping and stupid. Overall, a major disappointment and perhaps the reason Kilbride decided to call it a day. Also, the film sat for two years before being released...evidence that the studio also knew this one was a turkey.

Although this was the last movie that Pa Kettle was in it was a funny one. When Pa Kettle gets kidnapped and Ma starts looking for him it is so funny how after a while she is pulling the two wheeled cart that the local boy was once pulling her in. Then it gets really funny when both Ma and Pa meet that native lady and her husband who have 12 children. I think that native man and his wife are Hawaian versions of Ma and Pa because the Husband is as lazy as Pa Kettle and the Wife is as hard working as Ma Kettle. Plus the Children of the two native people match up to the 12 younger Kettle children because both sets of children have weapons to fight with. The Kettle Children have the Sling Shots to shoot with and the Hawaian children have things to trow coconuts with. This is one funny movie that should be watched over and over.

Like the others, these movies are of a caliber that we do not have nowadays. In the mainstream of today's Hollywood we have lost the true concept of humor, as is expressed in the movies of old. Ma and Pa Kettle are right up there with Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Buster Keaton, etc. Very few of today's comic movie (and comedians) come close to the slapstick and antics of old. This movie was the last one with Percy Kilbride, too bad, for Ma and Pa could of went on for quite some time in my opinion. Overall, I think everyone ought to watch all of their movies, but this one was kinda unique in that it was (officially) their last together for Main and Kilbride. The latter ones just were not quite the same. I do have a question that maybe another person can answer, out of sheer curiosity does anyone know the lady in the swimsuit that walks by the pool on board the ship? Hell she's a knockout and she is not listed in the cast credits.