The Egg and I [Blu-ray]

Director: Chester Erskine

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/17/2018
UPC:	0025192331992
Original Release:	1947
Rating:	NR
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:48:00
Sales rank:	27,766

Special Features

Claudette Colbert: queen of the silver screen; 100 years of Universal: the Carl Laemmle era; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Claudette Colbert	Betty MacDonald
Fred MacMurray	Bob MacDonald
Marjorie Main	Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
Percy Kilbride	Frank 'Pa' Kettle
Louise Allbritton	Harriet Putnam
Richard Long	Tom Kettle
Billy House	Billy Reed
Ida Moore	Old Lady,Kettle Child
Donald MacBride	Mr. Henty
Samuel S. Hinds	Sheriff
Esther Dale	Mrs. Hicks
Elisabeth Risdon	Betty's Mother,Betty's Mother
John Berkes	Geoduck
Victor Potel	Crowbar
Fuzzy Knight	Cab Driver
Isabel O'Madigan	Mrs. Hick's Mother
Dorothy Vaughan	Maid
Sam McDaniel	Waiter
Jesse Graves	Porter
Herbert Heywood	Mailman
Joe Bernard	Pettingrew
Ralph Littlefield	Photographer
Jack Baxley	Judge
Carl Bennett	Attendant,People at Social
Howard Mitchell	Announcer
George Lloyd	Farm Hand
Robert Cherry	Goon
Joe Hiser	Goon
Joe Recht	Goon
Sammy Schultz	Goon
Joe Ploski	Goon
Hector V. Sarno	Burlaga
Louis Mason	Bergheimer
Judith Bryant	Kettle Child
Gene Persson	Kettle Child
Diane Florentine	Kettle Child
George McDonald	Kettle Child
Colleen Alpaugh	Kettle Child
Teddy Infuhr	Kettle Child
Robert Winans	Kettle Child
Diane Graeff	Kettle Child
Kathleen Mackey	Kettle Child
Robert Beyers	Kettle Child
Nolan Leary	Announcer
Beatrice Roberts	Nurse
Bob Perry	People at Social
William Norton Bailey	People at Social
Polly Van Bailey	People at Social
Vangie Beilby	People at Social
Nella Spraugh	People at Social
Taylor Holmes	Actor

Technical Credits

Chester Erskine	Producer
Fred Finklehoffe	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Though it's largely overlooked today, The Egg and I helped spawn two separate pop-culture phenomena a decade and a half apart. Its most obvious direction offshoot manifestation is the Ma and Pa Kettle movies, which were built around two characters (played by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride) from the movie and the original book by Betty MacDonald. It was also the distant precursor to the 1960s television series Green Acres, if not its direct inspiration. The whole notion of transplanting otherwise level-headed city-dweller Fred MacMurray and his genteel, sophisticated (and quietly skeptical) wife Claudette Colbert to a broken-down farm is close enough, but the entire scene in which the pair examine their newly acquired home -- all she sees is a wreck, while he enthuses, goofily smiling and eagerly anticipating the country life ahead of them -- are practically the storyboard for the first half of the first season of Green Acres. Indeed, most of the cast of supporting characters from that series are here in embryonic form, along with the essentials of the marriage: the serious husband with that one nutsy flaw -- he wants to be a farmer -- and the overly dignified, ladylike wife, both learning to cope with rustic neighbors. MacMurray is especially fascinating to watch here, playing a role that's a complete reversal of the part he played in Murder, He Says (1945), a rural comedy in which he is the big-city fellow who is totally flabbergasted at the habits of the country folks he encounters. Here, he's the calm, dopily enthusiastic visitor and Colbert is the one who is bewildered by all she finds around her. She also shows a knack for style that anticipates Lucille Ball's comedic art, and the setup of the would-be macho husband and the sophisticated, sharp-tongued, slightly goofy wife prefigures any number of I Love Lucy episodes, as well as her role in Vincente Minnelli's 1954 feature The Long, Long Trailer.