Fresh off Pa Kettle's first winning jingle contest in "Ma and Pa Kettle", Pa (Percy Kilbride) is back at it with another prize entry for Bubble-Ola soft drink in this follow up feature which sees them off to the big city - New York that is, clear cross country from their home in Cape Flattery, Washington. It probably wouldn't have been too much of a stretch to combine this picture with the last one because the continuity is almost seamless. We get a few more gags at the expense of bank robber Shotgun Mike Munger (Charles McGraw) who has just as much trouble dealing with all the new fangled features of the Kettle's new home as they did when they first moved in.
Just prior to boarding the train heading East, Pa's Indian friends Crowbar (Chief Yowlachie) and Geoduck (Lester Allen) present him with a chest full of costume jewelry to buy back Manhattan for their tribe. If made today, this bit would have gone over about as well as the name Washington Redskins, which is a shame because all the political correctness stuff is being taken way too seriously by popular culture.
I got a kick out of the spilled water gag from the top of the Empire State Building. What could have made it just a bit better would have been for Pa to catch it back in his cup when he got out to the sidewalk. I wonder why the film makers didn't think of that.
The running bit with the bank robbers and the repeatedly stolen bags was a little over done for this viewer, but it did set up Pa for that nifty square dance number that snagged the bad guys to wrap up the story. Ma Kettle (Marjorie Main) came out of the trip with a nifty do-over at the Lucien et Louise de Paris Salon which surprised even Pa, but in the end, the story proves that you could take the Kettles out of the country, but you couldn't take the country out of the Kettles.
Just prior to boarding the train heading East, Pa's Indian friends Crowbar (Chief Yowlachie) and Geoduck (Lester Allen) present him with a chest full of costume jewelry to buy back Manhattan for their tribe. If made today, this bit would have gone over about as well as the name Washington Redskins, which is a shame because all the political correctness stuff is being taken way too seriously by popular culture.
I got a kick out of the spilled water gag from the top of the Empire State Building. What could have made it just a bit better would have been for Pa to catch it back in his cup when he got out to the sidewalk. I wonder why the film makers didn't think of that.
The running bit with the bank robbers and the repeatedly stolen bags was a little over done for this viewer, but it did set up Pa for that nifty square dance number that snagged the bad guys to wrap up the story. Ma Kettle (Marjorie Main) came out of the trip with a nifty do-over at the Lucien et Louise de Paris Salon which surprised even Pa, but in the end, the story proves that you could take the Kettles out of the country, but you couldn't take the country out of the Kettles.