Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Francis in the Navy 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.

As mentioned in some of the supplemental commentaries included with this set, Donald O'Connor had had about enough of the Francis movies when his Universal contract was coming to an end, and he reportedly only agreed to do Francis Joins the WACS and Francis in the Navy if somehow, someway, he were given some kind of acting challenge in the films. As I mentioned in the Francis Joins the WACS Blu-ray review, Chill Wills got a bit of "double duty" in that film, offering both voice work as Francis and the on screen portrayal of a martinet general, but finally in Francis in the Navy, O'Connor gets a dual role, first as his "traditional" character in the series, Peter Stirling, but this time also as a lookalike named Slicker Donevan, a Bosun's Mate in the Navy.

Typically it's Francis who is traditionally saving Peter in some way or other, but in this film, it's Peter's efforts to rescue Francis, at least in a manner of speaking, the end up generating the identity confusion and getting Peter and Francis involved in yet another branch of the armed services. Unfortunately, if the film was designed to give O'Connor a chance to strut his stuff, which I guess it does (evidently fans were completely shaken by the somewhat rougher Donevan), the comedy is decidedly more forced in this venture, despite the apparent effort to give this outing a jolt of innovation.

Lubin along with O'Connor had long been on record (at least privately) as thinking the Francis films had definitely run their course, and by the time Universal got around to offering a seventh (and final) film, Lubin, O'Connor and Chill Wills had departed, though it's interesting to note that several sources, including some of the commentaries included on this set, mention that Mickey Rooney, who stars in the last Francis film, Francis in the Haunted House, had actually been the first choice to play Peter back in 1950, until Universal snagged the rights to the character and subsequent stories and assigned the project to O'Connor.

Francis in the Navy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Francis in the Navy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber and Universal with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1, mimicking the aspect ratio of its immediate predecessor. While admittedly somewhat similar in appearance to Francis in the WACS, I'd argue that clarity and detail levels are probably at least marginally improved in this presentation, and fine detail in particular tends to look very good despite once again there being a relative lack of extreme close-ups (screenshot 15 is a notable exception). Some of the presentation definitely has the same kind of fuzzy look that Francis Joins the WACS does, but for the most part there's a commendable level of detail supported by solid contrast and an organically resolved (if at times pretty heavy) grain field. There's some day for night footage late in the film that is not especially convincing.

Francis in the Navy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Francis in the Navy features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that has a nicely full bodied range and which mostly avoids some of the thin brashness that can be heard in the higher frequencies of some of the other soundtracks included on this set. A bouncy, boisterous music score is warm sounding, and dialogue and effects are all rendered without any major issues. Optional English subtitles are available. My score is 3.75.

Francis in the Navy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Francis Joins the WACS, Francis in the Navy and Francis in the Haunted House share a disc. The disc features the following supplements:

• Audio Commentary for Francis Joins the WACS by Author / Film Historian Lee Gambin and Film Journalist / Author Staci Layne Wilson


• Audio Commentary for Francis in the Navy by Author / Film Historian Lee Gamin and Film Historian Paul Anthony Nelson


• Audio Commentary for Francis in the Haunted House by Film Historian Eddy Von Mueller


• Francis Joins the WACS Trailer (SD; 00:58)


• Francis in the Navy Trailer (SD; 2:22)


• Francis in the Haunted House Trailer (SD; 2:07)

Francis in the Navy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is probably a step down from Francis Joins the WACS, but like several other films in this series, it's going to be a treasure trove of character actors for Baby Boomers in particular, who will recognize everyone from Jim Backus to, yep, Clint Eastwood tooling around the edges of the story. Technical merits are generally solid, and as with all of the films in this set, the commentary is very enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.