The Adventures of Francis the Talking Mule, Vol. 1 (Francis the Talking Mule / Francis Goes to the Races / Francis Goes to West Point / Francis Covers the Big Town) (1950) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The listing says that the DVD is in color. But the movies definitely aren't, and never were.
The transfers were OK by me, but I'm no expert. It looked clean.
While I've seen these movies since I was a kid, and always loved them, I was surprised to see who some of the secondary actors turned out to be. In the first movie there's Tony Curtis. In the third one, there's David Janssen and Leonard Nimoy.
This was a formulaic series of films, but they had their hearts in the right place. Francis is an always entertaining guardian angel with a little bit of attitude. And Chill Wills managed to get several octaves in on almost every line, which brought a hee-haw effect to his speech. It's... endearing.
Donald O'Connor is definitely believable as Pete. He's a hoot. Maybe someday that character will actually get it, and won't need Francis to take care of him any more.
Interestingly, on the "Singin' in the Rain" 50th anniversary DVD, Donald O'Connor says that the reason that he's not in the big finale production number is that the studio sent him off to make another Francis movie (West Point, I think). Because I cherish Francis so, that's just fine by me.
Also, the first 3 films actually have continuity, mentioning things from previous adventures. That's kind of nice.
Perhaps they'll release the rest of them on DVD, and I can tell you why Mickey Rooney just couldn't quite make it work. No offense to Mickey, of course. It's just that Donald O'Connor is the one and only real pal to my favorite mule.
Long Live Francis!!!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Adventures of Francis the Talking Mule, Vol. 1 (Francis the Talking Mule / Francis Goes to the Races / Francis Goes to West Point / Francis Covers the Big Town) (1950)

ADVENTURES OF FRANCIS TALKING MULE V1 - DVD Movie

Get 12% OFF

Click here for more information about The Adventures of Francis the Talking Mule, Vol. 1 (Francis the Talking Mule / Francis Goes to the Races / Francis Goes to West Point / Francis Covers the Big Town) (1950)