With Pa out of the way, Ma and the kids head out to help Pa's brother Sedgewick with his farm in Mournful Hollow, Arkansas. Ma and 13 of her 16 kids waste no time in turning both the train station waiting room and the train's day coach into a complete shambles.

Upon arrival, Ma discovers Sedgwick is at least as lazy as Pa, if not worse. And he's been keeping his fiancé Bedelia waiting for 20 years to marry him. Ma is determined to nudge Sedgwick towards the altar.

Sedgwick is renting out his barn to three men who have "Gangster" written all over them; and they are working an illegal moonshine liquor still in the barn. Disposing of the waste product from the still proves problematic. Every time the crooks go into the woods, they have problems with Mother Nature (bears, a hornet's nest, etc.).

When they dispose of the waste at the farm itself, it seeps into the groundwater. The result is a barnyard full of very tipsy animals.

Ma tricks the gangsters into taking part in a taffy pull contest. The taffy dough has been liberally spiked with glue, and the criminals' hands are trapped tight until the authorities come to arrest them.

Sedgwick and Bedelia are married, despite the minister's lips being accidentally glued shut when he tries the tainted taffy.

• Marjorie Main as Ma Kettle
• Arthur Hunnicutt as Sedgewick Kettle
• Una Merkel as Miss Bedelia Baines
• Ted de Corsia as Professor
• Olive Sturgess as Nancy Kettle
• Richard Eyer as Billy Kettle
• Cheryl Callaway as Suzie Kettle
• Paul Wexler as Reverend Martin
• Richard Deacon as "Big Trout", The Indian
• Pat Goldin as "Small Fry", The Indian
• Sid Tomack as Benny
• Joe Sawyer as Bancroft Baines, Bedelia's Brother
• Bonnie Franklin as Betty Kettle

• List of American films of 1956

• The Kettles in the Ozarks at IMDb