Francis Goes to the Races

The one where Francis does the Bottle Cap Challenge. Take that, Statham!

'Francis Goes to the Races', while still a lacklustre and repetitive affair, surprisingly manages to improve upon the poor original. The main reason for that is the fact that the racing setting actually fits much better with the silliness of a talking mule, as opposed to the setting of war as seen before.

Donald O'Connor continues the make the films more bearable than they'd otherwise be. Elsewhere, Chill Wills, Piper Laurie, Cecil Kellaway and Jesse White are all alright. It's a tough sell for the cast these films, so I respect their commitment to be fair!

Peter Stirling (Donald O'Connor) is still the owner of Francis, the talking mule, after bringing him back from Burma. He gets fired after showing Francis to the bank president. They head out on the open roads and end up at a horse racing track.

This is a mildly humorous franchise and this is perfectly mildly humorous. I like Francis. I like Donald O'Connor. It occurs to me that this would be funnier if Francis is only able to talk to Peter. It would also make more sense. It's fine to get Peter out of the bank. There are some fun scenes, but the main comedy continues to be various people finding Francis talking.

This is the second in the Francis, the talking mule series. Picking up from the first one, we find Peter Stirling (Donald O'Connor) fired from his banking job. He ends up at some stable with some owner of a horse and his daughter-Frances, yes, they went there-who's played by a pretty young woman named Piper Laurie. As before, the premise is that Peter knows some info and when he's asked by various people, he hesitates at first because he knows they won't believe him but since they insists, he tells and is of course, isn't! This gets repetitious after a while so the only real laughs one gets from this is mainly at what wisecracks Chill Wills is made to say and the way he says them. Still, this was a pretty enjoyable entry and I liked hearing O'Connor sing a little at the end. So on that note, Francis Goes to the Races was pretty enjoyable. P.S. It was a nice surprise to see Hayden Rourke-best known to me as Dr. Bellows on "I Dream of Jeannie"-as one of the players. Also, Jesse White-best known to me as the Maytag repair man-as well.

In the second film of the series. Our Lt. Goes home and find Francis the mule, previously assumed dead in a plane crash. When Francis starts communicating with race horses and giving the Lt hot betting tips, troubles follow, and it's all good fun. Watch the original (Francis) first, but don't miss the rest of the series!

Peter and his talking mule Francis part company at Oakvale Farms where race horses are stabled. Francis finds it more comfortable at the stables as he can communicate with fellow equines for a change. He gets to know the race horse's secrets and find out which of them is on form. He imparts this knowledge to Peter. The racing world become suspicious of Peter when he successfully predicts the outcome of races. I think the idea that horses have psychological problems that they discuss together is a good gag. For all we know they may do. Molly who plays Francis won the Picture Animal Star of the Year Award for 1951. She played Francis for all seven entries in the franchise. I think this entry is my favorite of the series because of Francis' communication with those lovely race horses.