You Should Read the Book

I love Fred's maniacal grin.

The Egg and I  (1947)

Our great family friend, Leslie, introduced us to the marvelous Betty MacDonald when we were pre-teens, starting with The Egg and I and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and flourishing out from there. The Egg and I was so funny and so cherished that I was really reluctant to see the movie version (when I learned there was one), particularly since it had the guy from My Three Sons playing Bob, and that seemed wrong to me (forgive me; I was only 11-ish). This film was directly responsible for my enduring lack of enthusiasm for Claudette Colbert and was probably the first time I ever considered that a book may be better than the movie. Consider that I have always been a comparatively lazy reader (compared to my mother and sister, that is, but they were voracious and unnatural), so that is saying something.

Now every time I see this picture, I have to pretend I never read the book and I can enjoy it just fine. I was quite wrong about Fred MacMurray not being right for Bob. His clueless enthusiasm is delightful. Once you get past the first half hour of Betty's madcap adjustment to rural farm life, complete with stupidities like sawing herself off a tree limb, falling in the pig pen, fighting with the cookstove, hyuk hyuk hyuk, it gets into a very good rhythm.

The Story: Bob informs Betty on their wedding night that it has always been his dream to run a chicken farm and that he has bought them one (isn't that great?!) in the middle of nowhere on the Olympic Peninsula ("No running water, no Frigidaire, just plenty of elbow room!"). The farm is a wreck, the neighbors are wacky, and the animals uncooperative.  The wackiest neighbors of all are the Kettles, sweet, workhorsey Ma (Marjorie Main) and shiftless Pa (Percy Kilbride), with their zillions of children and animals in the kitchen. A very young Richard Long plays the unlikely eldest son of the Kettles, a non-farming type who yearns to go to college.

There is a complication in the form of a beautiful, wealthy neighbor called Harriet (Louise Allbritton) who runs the fancy farm and who can converse with Bob about livestock and such (while giving him the once-over). What are you going to do: it's basically a farce. 

It's a fine vehicle for Fred MacMurray and Marjorie Main, but Claudette Colbert is no Betty MacDonald.