Winning an advertising contest for a product he abhors, Pa (Percy Kilbride) takes Ma (Marjorie Main) to Manhattan and leaves a bank robber to babysit the kids. Don't worry about the kids; Feel sorry for the bank robber! Giving Ma and Pa a bag full of money he claims is empty, the robber has his men meet Ma and Pa at their Waldorf Astoria hotel, but every time Pa turns around, the bag he keeps replacing either gets stolen or disappears. The gang follows the Kettles all over Manhattan to get ahold of the bag of loot, but what they end up with is a bag of trouble.
Basically three episodes of a TV sitcom rolled into one (a la "I Love Lucy Goes to Hollywood"), this is one of the series funnier entries, with Main unknowingly inventing Kettle Corn Cakes and Pa milking a cow to the Blue Danube. He discovers how long it takes for water dropped off the top of the Rock to land, goes to jail for feeding a monkey in the Central Park Zoo and thrills taking Ma on a romantic buggy ride in Central Park.
She, on the other hand, gets a make-over that makes her the toast of the precinct, and later helps Pa lead a group of high society types into a square dance to foil the villains. That group includes a very serious Jim Backus. While the Kettles don't run into Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and a group of sailors while on the town, they certainly will return home singing "New York New York, A Wonderful Town", whether they ended uptown in the Bronx or downtown in the Battery.
Basically three episodes of a TV sitcom rolled into one (a la "I Love Lucy Goes to Hollywood"), this is one of the series funnier entries, with Main unknowingly inventing Kettle Corn Cakes and Pa milking a cow to the Blue Danube. He discovers how long it takes for water dropped off the top of the Rock to land, goes to jail for feeding a monkey in the Central Park Zoo and thrills taking Ma on a romantic buggy ride in Central Park.
She, on the other hand, gets a make-over that makes her the toast of the precinct, and later helps Pa lead a group of high society types into a square dance to foil the villains. That group includes a very serious Jim Backus. While the Kettles don't run into Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and a group of sailors while on the town, they certainly will return home singing "New York New York, A Wonderful Town", whether they ended uptown in the Bronx or downtown in the Battery.