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Directd by Arthur Lubin
Former actor Arthur Lubin had directed over 40 features—most of them B pictures, with an occasional A picture like the 1943 Technicolor version of Phantom of the Opera—when he approached Universal in 1949 with a proposal for a World War II comedy about a talking Army mule named Francis. Contract actor Donald O’Connor starred as Peter Stirling, an inept second lieutenant who is rescued on the battlefield by the mule at the film’s outset, only to be serially committed and released from the mental ward by unbelieving superiors whenever he explains Francis’ role in his subsequent adventures. (In the time-honored tradition of supernatural fantasies, Francis only talks to Peter and only when no one else can hear them.) The mule’s voice was supplied by veteran character actor Chill Wills, a fact Universal tried to keep a secret, perhaps to little avail given the familiarity of Wills’s voice to audiences at the time. Lubin always refused to divulge how he got the mule’s mouth movements to match his dialogue—although there were rumors that liberal applications of peanut butter were required.
Francis returned a healthy profit of $2 million on an expenditure of $125,000, and was credited with rescuing Universal from bankruptcy at a time when all the Hollywood studios were reeling from the impact of television. Universal released six more modestly budgeted Francis comedies between 1951 and 1956. Lubin directed and O’Connor and Wills starred in all but the last feature, Francis in the Haunted House. O’Connor, whose career on loan from Universal during the same period included acclaimed performances in Singin’ in the Rain (1951), Call Me Madam (1953) and Irving Berlin’s There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954), always chafed at being trapped in a series where, as he put it, the mule got more fan mail than he did. After 1957, Lubin worked almost exclusively in television, where he recycled the talking animal formula in the popular series Mr. Ed, producing and directing over 140 episodes between 1961 and 1966.
—Charles Hopkins
Universal-International Pictures. Producer: Robert Arthur. Based on the novel by David Stern. Screenwriter: David Stern. Cinematographer: Irving Glassberg. Editor: Milton Carruth. Cast: Donald O’Connor, Patricia Medina, ZaSu Pitts, Ray Collins, John McIntire.
35mm, b/w, 91 min.
