Francis Covers the Big Town Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Francis Covers the Big Town 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.

Many of the commentators who offer analyses of various Francis films in this set overtly mention how they've loved the Francis films since they were kids, including Stephen Vagg talking about this particular film, which he cites as his favorite among all seven of the Francis films. While some may quibble with his assessment, it's not hard to see why Vagg is so enthusiastic about the film, because after an at least relatively sluggish Francis Goes to West Point, moving the perceived "comedy duo" of Peter Stirling (Donald O'Connor) and Francis (voiced of course by Chill Wills) to the "big city" offers a somewhat refreshing change of pace. Also somewhat interestingly, this film actually doesn't feature Francis all that much, instead spending more time on Peter's ascent in a newsroom, which while not overly developed (he basically goes from janitor to reporter through the "magic" of a dissolve) is maybe at least somewhat akin to J. Pierpont Finch's rise in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Once again, there are two women involved in the tale, a kind of blowsy gossip reporter named Alberta Ames (Nancy Guild, whose surname was famously touted at the time as rhyming with "wild", unlike how Vagg pronounces it), and a sweet and demure Italian girl named Maria Scola (Yvette Duguay), who repeatedly tries to catch Peter's eye throughout the film, when Peter's eye is most definitely on the alluring Alberta. Suffice it to say that Peter's reporting "instincts" are helped immeasurably by the interstitially presented Francis, who has a "nose" for news. The upshot is that Peter finds himself in serious hot water with any number of folks, including his superiors at the paper as well as an organized criminal network that Peter ultimately of course brings to justice, again with a little help from Francis.

This is another entry in the Francis franchise that goes to almost absurd lengths to present Francis as laconic when anyone other than Peter is around, supposedly leading to harried comedy, only to completely ditch that premise and in this case have Francis testify in a court proceeding! Location photography in New York City helps to set the stage appropriately, and the film, while certainly not at the level of The Front Page or His Girl Friday, crackles with a certain spark that may not have been quite as evident in the previous film in the series.

Francis Covers the Big Town Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Francis Covers the Big Town is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber and Universal with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.38:1. As I mention in the Francis Goes to West Point Blu-ray review, that film and this struck me as being the best looking of the Academy Ratio offerings in this set. Detail levels are generally very good to excellent throughout this presentation, and there are a couple of backlit shots where you can clearly make out the many bristly hairs emerging from around Francis' mouth (pay attention, though, to how artfully Lubin frames things so that he often doesn't have to show Francis' mouth). This is another presentation where the grain field can be a bit gritty looking, but which resolves organically. Location footage occasionally doesn't offer the same levels of clarity and precision as the studio set sequences. The typical kinds of relatively minor age related wear and tear are also noticeable. My score is 3.75.

Francis Covers the Big Town Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Francis Covers the Big Town features another DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. Despite the supposedly urban setting, this is actually almost more of an "office comedy" at times, and as such is pretty dialogue heavy almost all of the time, without the use of stock sound effects like crowd noises that are heard in some of the other films. While there's a bit of background hiss evident in quieter moments, the track provides more than capable support for the spoken elements, occasional effects and score. Optional English subtitles are available.

Francis Covers the Big Town Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Francis Goes to West Point and Francis Covers the Big Town share a disc. The disc features the following supplements:

• Audio Commentary for Francis Goes to West Point by Film Historian Toby Roan


• Audio Commentary for Francis Covers the Big Town by Film Historian Stephen Vagg


• Francis Goes to West Point Trailer (HD; 2:19)

Francis Covers the Big Town Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Modern sensibilities may chafe at bit at some of the "ethnic" Italian stereotypes offered as passing comedy moments here, but this is a nicely energetic story that frankly might benefit from the fact that Francis doesn't show up every 30 seconds to opine sarcastically about Peter's predicament. This is one of only a handful of films that Nancy Guild made, and she's quite winning in a kind of quasi-harridan role. Technical merits are generally solid, and the commentary enjoyable. Recommended.