Themes: Foibles of Marriage, Fish Out of Water, Eccentric Families
Main Cast: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Louise Allbritton
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
Plot
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
Review
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. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Leonard Goldstein - Associate Producer, Fred F. Finklehoffe - Co-producer, Frank Shaw - First Assistant Director, Chester Erskine - Director, Russell Schoengarth - Editor, Frank Skinner - Composer (Music Score), Bernard Herzbrun - Production Designer, Milton Krasner - Cinematographer, Chester Erskine - Producer, Chester Erskine - Screenwriter, Fred F. Finklehoffe - Screenwriter, Betty MacDonald - Book Author
It tells the story of young married couple who become chicken farmers. Betty has been raised to follow her husband's dreams with him, and Bob's dream is to be a successful chicken farmer. The problem is their home is old and needs to be repaired and the baby chicks need constant care. When a rich single woman with a new house and new farm equipment flirts with Bob, Betty questions their decision to move to the farm in the first place.
Deviations from the book
While the book is anectodal, liberties were taken with the stories that MacDonald wrote about. During her years on the chicken ranch, MacDonald was married to Robert Heskett, whom she divorced in 1931. In the book, MacDonald's husband was simply referred to as "Bob". For the movie, studio executives decided that the character would be named "Bob MacDonald" to avoid the specter of Betty MacDonald's divorce, and tie better into the public's perception of the author.
As noted above, the Heskett's were on the chicken ranch from 1927 to 1931. The movie takes place in (then) "present day", which was then "1947".
