Sunday, May 10, 2020

Cinema Sunday: Francis

This past Saturday, we sat in our living room of the Fortress of Ineptitude cautiously observing our new resident, Rosie, our new dog.

Meanwhile, our new dog Rosie was cautiously observing these humans who had brought her into their home.

I turned on the TV and found that TCM was running "Singin' In the Rain", the classic musical starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. This seemed like a nice, fun movie to welcome our new canine family member.

We watched "Singin' In the Rain" last summer and the family quite enjoyed it  then so we figured why not watch it again? 

It's a nice, fun movie, perfect to share with a new dog.  

After the movie was over, TCM moved on to another Donald O'Connor movie, "Francis".



"Francis" is a 1950 black and white comedy set during World War II in battle against Japan. The Francis in the title of the movie is a talking mule.

So hilarity ensues.




Like Michigan J. Frog, Francis will only speak for one person, a young nebbish Second Lieutenant Peter Stirling  (O'Connor).  Naturally, no one believes his tale of a talking mule which leads to him being treated in a psychiatric hospital. To make things even more complicated for Lt. Stirling,  Francis seems to have access to some particularly useful intelligence. 

The main gag of the picture can get repetitive. 

  1. Francis the mule tells Pete something. 
  2. Peter acts on the information. 
  3. Peter is treated like a hero. 
  4. A superior demands to know where Peter is getting his information.
  5. Peter tells the superior about Francis.
  6. Peter winds up in the psychiatric hospital. 

Each time the lieutenant  finds himself back in the hospital,  the bamboo basket Peter is weaving gets slightly larger. 

It's a silly premise but it's a enjoyable diversion. 

Apparently the studio got a lot of mileage out of this premise with Donald O'Connor and Francis the Talking Mule pairing up for about 6 more movies in this series.  

I had fun watching Francis but I think one of these movies will do me just fine.

OK, we're up to the closing credits. I'll be back next week with another Cinema Sunday. Until then, stay safe and remember to be good to one another.  


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