The Egg and I (1947)
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- Director(s):
- Chester Erskine
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Based on the humorous autobiographical book by Betty McDonald, The Egg & I casts Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray as Manhattan-dwelling newlyweds. When MacMurray enthusiastically purchases an upstate farm in the hopes of cleaning up in the egg business, Colbert cautiously goes along. The film's humor is derived from the efforts of these two hopelessly citified slickers to adapt themselves to the rigors of rural life. In a plot complication added to the film, pretty neighbor Louise Allbritton upsets the equilibrium of MacMurray and Colbert's union, but both husband and wife are happily reunited at the finale (in real life, Betty McDonald and her husband were splitsville before the book even hit the stands). Retained from the novel, though heavily laundered, were the earthy characters of farmers Ma and Pa Kettle and their huge brood of children. Marjorie Main as Ma and Percy Kilbride as Pa struck so responsive a chord with filmgoers that Universal headlined them in their own "Kettle" series of B pictures, which endured until 1956. The Egg & I would be adapted into a live TV comedy serial in 1952, with Pat Kirkland and John Craven in the leading roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Complete Cast:
- Claudette Colbert - Betty MacDonald
- Marjorie Main - Ma Kettle
- Louise Allbritton - Harriet Putnam
- Billy House - Billy Reed
- Donald MacBride - Mr. Henty
- Esther Dale - Birdie Hicks
- John Berkes - Geoduck
- Isabel O'Madigan - Mrs. Hick's Mother
- Joe Recht - Goon
- George Lloyd - Farm Hand
- Ralph Littlefield - Photographer
- Fuzzy Knight - Cab Driver
- Howard Mitchell - Announcer
- Jack Baxley - Judge
- Joe Ploski - Goon
- Beatrice Roberts - Nurse
- Jesse Graves - Porter
- Fred MacMurray - Bob MacDonald
- Percy Kilbride - Pa Kettle
- Richard Long - Tom Kettle
- Ida Moore - Old Lady
- Samuel S. Hinds - Sheriff
- Elizabeth Risdon - Betty's Mother
- Victor Potel - Crowbar
- Dorothy Vaughan - Maid
- Diane Florentine - Kettle Child
- Teddy Infur - Kettle Child
- Nolan Leary - Announcer
- Joe Bernard - Pettingrew
- Herbert Heywood - Mailman
- Hector V. Sarno - Burlaga
- Louis Mason - Bergheimer
- Robert Cherry - Goon
- Sam McDaniel - Waiter
- Director(s):
- Chester Erskine
- Writer(s):
- Chester Erskine, Fred F. Finklehoffe
- Producer(s):
- Fred F. Finklehoffe, Chester Erskine
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- Subtitles:
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