Francis Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Francis Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 22, 2022

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the Francis the Talking Mule 7 Film Collection.

None other than the legendary Stephen Sondheim opined that "you gotta have a gimmick" in one of his more celebrated lyrics for Gypsy, which true trivia fans will know was subtitled as "a musical fable" in its original Broadway incarnation. That sobriquet may help to elucidate that Sondheim was offering near "Aesop moral" levels of advice about what was needed to achieve success in the wild and woolly world of show business. In that regard, Arthur Lubin had a long and interesting career in both the theater and film (and, later, television) industries, and his career in Hollywood lasted for decades, resulting in a number of well remembered projects in a rather dazzling array of genres, including several films starring Abbott & Costello, the 1943 version of Phantom of the Opera and Technicolor exotica like Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. If some online data aggregators insist that Lubin is "best remembered" these days for having offered Clint Eastwood his first contract, some folks may counter that Lubin is at least as "immortal" (in certain circles, anyway) for having carved out one of the weirdest niches in show business history by (here comes the "gimmick" part) first spearheading a series of films featuring a talking mule, and then slightly tweaking that premise some years later for the decidedly similar television sitcom Mister Ed: The Complete Series (note that the link points to a DVD release). Now Kino Lorber and Universal are offering the complete Francis the Talking Mule series on Blu-ray, all advertised as having been "newly remastered in 2K", and all having some rather interesting and surprisingly far reaching commentaries included as bonus features.

The first Francis film hews closely to the source stories and/or novels, and in fact opens with the original book by David Stern being pulled off of a bookshelf, as if to kind of hilariously suggest a "literary" imprimatur for the movie version. A kind of sadsack Army Second Lieutenant in World War II named Peter Stirling (Donald O'Connor) finds himself separated from his battalion and foraging through the jungles of Burma, where he's surprised, to say the least, to literally stumble upon Francis, a talking mule who, despite being in Burma, speaks in rather colorful English. That sets up the frankly basic premise that underlies all of the Francis films, with Peter and Francis becoming an ersatz "comedy duo" and with a lot of the comedy stemming from the fact that Francis only ever tends to talk around Peter, leading everyone else to believe Peter is out of his friggin' gourd if he has the temerity to mention having spoken with (and been spoken to by) a mule.

As commentator Lee Gambin gets into in his interesting analysis of the film, the repeated "joke" of people thinking Peter is suffering from some kind of "shell shock" or post traumatic stress disorder may not strike contemporary sensibilities in quite the same way as it probably did in 1950, but it's all played for such buffoonish laughs that any even slightly serious import is definitely left by the wayside. Though arriving in 1950, this film is probably understandably the most "glued" to the World War II era, though that said, the entire World War II aspect is delivered via flashback from Peter's "current" (i.e., circa 1950) position as a bank teller everyone still thinks is crazy. As he recounts the story of Francis to his bank manager, the plot dynamics ultimately feature a pretty woman named Maureen Gelder (Patricia Medina) who may have some ulterior motives up her sleeve. Zasu Pitts is also on hand in the first of several repeated appearances as a kind of harridan psychiatric nurse.

Francis Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Francis is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber and Universal with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.38:1. Many of the films in this set share the same strengths and occasional weaknesses, and that's the case with this first presentation. While there is definitely some age related wear and tear regularly on display, for the most part the transfer offers a distraction free experience, though eagle eyed folks won't have any problems noticing manifold scratches, nicks, dirt and other blemishes. Occasionally more than minor damage can intrude (see screenshot 4 for a particularly nasty scratch), but on the whole these problematic moments tend to come and go quickly. Lubin isn't especially fond of close-ups, and a lot of the film plays out in midrange framings, but detail levels are generally quite good, and when the camera does move in a bit, things like the bristly hide of Francis are rendered very well. Contrast is generally solid, though I found this transfer to be a little less well defined than some of the others in the set, at least in terms of really deep black levels. Grain can be on the thick side at times, but resolves without any issues.

Francis Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the video side of things, many of the soundtracks for these films share a same basic quality, and the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track on Francis is a good example. While dialogue and effects are definitely delivered without any major issues, there's a thinness to the sound, especially noticeable in some of the higher frequencies, and there is also some minor but recurrent background noise and/or hiss. Optional English subtitles are available.

Francis Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Francis the Talking Mule and Francis Goes to the Races share a disc. The disc features the following supplements:

• Audio Commentary for Francis the Talking Mule by Author / Film Historian Lee Gambin


• Audio Commentary for Francis Goes to the Races by Film Historian Eddy Van Mueller


• Francis Goes to the Races Trailer (HD; 1:03)

Francis Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The first Francis films sets everything up pretty much perfectly, with O'Connor a fidgety, near neurotic presence who is the hapless straight man to Francis' more raucous approach toward things. Yes, the film is awfully like a sitcom, and in fact the whole film series can be seen as the 1950s film franchise equivalent of a sitcom, but there are still a lot of laughs in this feature, and it holds up surprisingly well. Technical merits are fine, if not outstanding, and the commentary by Lee Gambin is very interesting. Recommended.