Ma and Pa Kettle

When you watch Ma and Pa Kettle, you get what you expect - lazy Pa, all-enduring Ma, raising 15 kids, who, except for oldest son and college graduate Tom (Richard Long - yes, that Richard Long from Big Valley) are mostly just there for the sake of chaos. But the gags can be a good laugh as Pa wins a new modern house in a contest and the Kettles move from the rundown farm to the high-tech home of the future. The beds in the new house that fold into the wall unexpectedly, the closet in the old house where everything falls out when you open the door, Pa's clothes all shrinking when he gets stuck in the clothes dryer, and my favorite - Pa flopping up and down in his chair to turn on the radio (which somehow is always playing "Hold That Tiger.").

A love interest for Tom (Meg Randall), a magazine writer who wants to write about the Kettles, exposes some of Tom's embarrassment about his family and their poverty as he has moved on to higher education and sophistication, but love will win out and so will the Kettles just being who they are. This is not a deep thinking movie and not even high comedy, but it's fun.