The Egg and I (1947)
Grade: 57
"The Egg and I" is a comedy. The film stars Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray as a newlywed couple. MacMurray, who has recently returned from the war, decides against the 9 to 5 routine and buys a chicken farm in the country. While MacMurray seems to know everything about chicken raising and is eternally optimistic, many things go wrong, especially for Colbert. Tension develops between the newlyweds, as Colbert becomes jealous of neighbor Louise Allbritton, who has designs on MacMurray.
"The Egg and I" introduces the characters Ma and Pa Kettle. Neighbors to MacMurray's farm, they are down to earth bumpkins. They have fifteen children who run wild on the Kettle farm. Ma (Marjorie Main, who received the film's only Academy Award nomination) can't even remember all their names. The success of the movie and the popularity of the Kettles led to nine sequels starring Ma and Pa Kettle, keeping Universal Studios in the black.
One the Kettle children is Tom (Richard Long). He is a Dana Andrews lookalike, with no accent. It isn't credible that he would have grown up in the Kettle household.
The story of "The Egg and I" is told from Colbert's point of view. Her struggles to succeed as a farmer make her a comic foil, sort of a Lucy Ricardo of the 1940s. This is certainly a change from the glamourous roles she played in earlier movies such as "Cleopatra."
While "The Egg and I" has its entertaining moments, the depth isn't there to qualify as a particularly good movie.
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