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Hollywood had a long history of trying to have animals look like they're talking realistically on the screen. Arthur Lubin was the first to successfully pull off the most natural-looking speaking animal when he directed February 1950's "Francis," featuring a mule who could converse in English no less. Skeptical at first when Lubin approached Universal Pictures with his novel idea, the studio gave him $10,000 to make a demonstration reel. His results were enough to convince studio executives to produce the movie about a mule who will talk only to a U. S. Army officer during World War Two. The comedy was a massive hit, inspiring Universal to create an addition six feature films on Francis, the talking mule. Previous attempts at having real-life animals speak in a human voice proved laughable, beginning with MGM's 1929 'Dogville Comedies,' which consisted of making dogs bark, then inserting human voices. 'Looney Tunes' animation director Tex Avery used rudimentary special effects in Paramount's 'Speaking of Animals' 1941 series, overlaying drawn moving lips placed around the animals' mouths to make it appear they were talking. Lubin went in a different direction Key to the "Francis" films was the casting of the perfect mule to play the main character. Lubin sought out horse trainer Les Hilton, owner of Hollywood's premier horse stable, which included the horse in 1942's 'My Friend Flicka.' Famed mule breeder Edward D. Frazier in Drexel, Missouri, provided the female Molly, beating out eight other competing mules because of her "appeal, great personality, long eyelashes and photogenic face." Molly appeared in all seven 'Francis' movies. Actress Mamie Van Doreen, star of 1954's 'Francis Joins the WACs,' observed, "Of course, Francis was really a female because the censors would not allow a mule's slong on screen, effectively upstaging everyone!" Molly was the first to win Picture Animal Star of the Year, sponsored by the American Humane Association, in 1951, and was runner up for the next several years. Molly retired to Hilton's ranch after her last movie, 1956's 'Francis in the Haunted House.' Donald O'Conner, star of six out of the seven 'Francis' movies, said of Molly, whom he referred to as a male, "Francis never attempted to hurt me in any way or step on me, even when I would walk behind him and hold on to his tail. He was the most docile animal I've ever worked with. Francis had three understudies, but nine out of ten times, they'd balk and he'd have to do it anyway. He was a trouper." Molly even made an appearance on the 1952 game show 'What's My Line?' Actor Chill Wills voiced Francis, whose mouth realistically moved. Hilton tied a nylon fishing line into Molly's mouth, contorting it as she was trying to free the line. Francis (Wills) always speaking sarcastically. Adapted from former newspaper reporter David Stern's 1945 collection of stories titled 'Francis,' all the films have a military setting, largely because Stern was in the service when he wrote his series. Stern, who wrote most of the 'Francis' screenplays, used his talking mule to satirize the stubbornness and incompetency of the higher-ranked Army officers whose orders oftentimes went against common sense. In Francis' first film second lieutenant Peter Sterling (O'Connor) finds himself separated from his squad behind enemy lines. An American bombardment sends him stumbling upon an Army mule, whom he discovers can talk. The mule, calling himself Francis "with an 'I,'" gets Sterling back to safety. No one believes Sterling, who's committed to an Army mental hospital. Seeing his friend in trouble, Francis eventually opens up to others, saving Sterling from permanent residency in an insane asylum. With each new 'Francis' film, however, the mule reverts back to only speaking privately to Sterling. O'Connor, 24, was mostly known for his musicals before selected for the 'Francis' movies, As a childhood film actor, O'Connor shared scenes with Gary Cooper and Betty Grable before he was drafted during WW2. O'Connor loved the role of Sterling, but found the Francis films demanding. Long afterwards he remembered they "were fun to make. Actually, they were quite challenging. I had to play straight in order to convince the audience that the mule could talk." By the seventh film, 1956 'Francis in the Haunted House,' O'Connor, director Lubin and voice-actor Wills dropped out of the series, with the lead going to Mickey Rooney as bumbling reporter David Prescott. The series was a springboard for David Janssen of TV's 'The Fugitive,' appearing in the third film, 1952's "Francis Goes To West Point.' Clint Eastwood, whom Lubin was the first to audition him when the former U. S. Army men arrived in Hollywood in 1954. "He was quite amateurish," recalled Lublin on Eastwood's first audition. "He didn't know which way to turn or which way to go or do anything." The director saw potential in Eastwood and, after drama classes and a couple of brief movie roles, gave him a part as a sailor in 1955's "Francis in the Navy." A decade later, Lubin resurrected the talking horse technique when he produced and directed a few episodes of the 1960s TV series 'Mr. Ed.' Unable to secure the television rights to 'Francis,' Lubin turned to author Walter Brooks' 1937 magazine story 'The Talking Horse,' hiring Les Hilton again with his fishing line. The palomino stallion Bamboo Harvester was fed the nearly invisible line through his headstall. Anytime Mr. Ed was required to speak, Hilton pulled on the string, moving his mouth. Sensitive to his children viewers, actor Alan Young made up the story the trainer used peanut butter in the horse's mouth to make it move. Bamboo got wise to the string after the first season, and automatically moved his mouth after Young stopped talking, putting the string-puller Les Hilton out of a job.

The Three Stooges revisited one of their all-time classics with Curly, this with Shemp taking the retired Stooge place in October 1949's "Vagabond Loafers," a title totally non-descriptive of the hard-working plumbers. The Three inexperienced plumbers answer an emergency call needing to patch a basement leak while a posh party celebrating the unveiling of an expensive painting takes place upstairs. Just as Curly did in 1940s "A Plumbing We Will Go," Shemp reroutes the bathroom's pipes into the electric wiring ducts. In fact, some of the footage in the earlier short film is sliced into the update, including regular Dudley Dickerson as the wide-eyed cook. But Dickerson's new scene is memorable after he battles with several water leaks throughout his kitchen. Wearing a raincoat, he announces to the hungry guests, "dinner's postponed on account of rain." The film, Dickerson's seventh Stooges' appearance, was his last, although the studio used a few of his previous scenes for remakes. Another regular's last credited appearance with The Three Stooges was Symona Boniface, whose films with the three comics dates back to 1935's "Pardon My Scotch." In "Vagabond Loafers" Boniface plays Mrs. Norfleet, typical of her characters with the Stooges as a snobbish, upper crust wife. Here she just purchased a 'Van Brocklin' painting for $50,000. The painting's name is a joke on the Los Angeles Rams' 1949 rookie quarterback, Norm Van Brocklin. When the Stooges as plumbers enter through the front door to fix the leak, she bellows, "How dare you come in here and mingle with my guests! Such impertinence!" She turns to her butler and commands, "Wilks, get them out of here and put them to work!" The Stooges have the last laugh when its discovered the 'Van Brocklin' painting has been stolen-by invited guest Mr. (Kenneth MacDonald) and Mrs. Allen (Christine McIntyre). Boniface was in a handful of uncredited roles and played in a Buster Crabbe 1950 serial episode before succumbing to pancreatic cancer in September 1950 at age 50.

November 1949's "Dunked in the Deep," the comics delve into current political events, something they only did infrequently in the past. The Jules White-directed short sees the Stooges as friendly neighbors to Borscht (Gene Roth), who's smuggling microfilm hidden in three watermelons overseas. He asks the three to meet him on a boat transport to deliver him the melons. Stuck on the ship as stowaways, the Stooges ultimately discover the hidden microfilm, sparking an adventurous chase that has to be seen to believe. The Felix Adler script refers to the highly publicized 'Pumpkin Papers,' which led to the conviction of U. S. government official Alger Hiss for colluding with the Soviets. An editor for Time magazine, Whittaker Chambers, had been a Communist spy in the 1930s for the Ware Group, a covert unit of the Communist USA party, of which Alger was a member. As the courier for the group, Chambers took a few documents in 1938 right before quitting just in case the Wares got tough with him. Ten years later Chambers knew Congress was focusing on him and his Communist ties. He placed the incriminating papers and microfilm inside a pumpkin on his Westminster, Maryland farm, implicating, among others, US State Department official Alger Hiss.

Gene Stutenroth, who shortened his name to Gene Roth, plays the Soviet agent in "Dunked in the Deep." The soon-to-be actor was a successful businessman visiting Universal studio to watch a movie in progress when a member of the film crew spotted him, thinking he looked like a friend of German dictator Adolf Hitler. Gene was in high demand during and after WW2, eventually appearing in over 250 films and TV shows. Of all the roles he had played, his most famous line was delivered to Shemp who had the microfilm in "Dunked in the Deep," "Giff me dat fill-um!" ("give me that film" with a Russian accent.). Shemp had hurt his hand while opening a door while filming, and yes, that's Moe's voice on the radio in the movie's opening.