Tonight's Movie: Francis Goes to the Races (1951) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

FRANCIS GOES TO THE RACES (1951) is the second film in the Francis the Talking Mule Blu-ray collection from Kino Lorber.

The seven-film series begins with FRANCIS (1950), which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago.

Donald O'Connor returns in this second film as Peter Stirling, who as the movie begins has been fired from his bank job because of his claims to be friends with a talking mule, Francis (played by Molly, voiced by Chill Wills). Peter and Francis met when Peter was serving in Burma in World War II.

Peter and Francis are wandering down the road when they happen upon a horse racing farm owned by Colonel Travers (Cecil Kellaway). The colonel has a pretty granddaughter named Frances, "with an e" (Piper Laurie). (As opposed to Francis with an "i," of course!)

Francis happens to know one of the Travers' horses, and Peter gets a job working at the farm, becoming entangled with the horses, a mobster (Barry Kelley), and the FBI.

FRANCIS GOES TO THE RACES is a mildly amusing 88 minutes, thanks chiefly to the sunny Laurie and a nice cast of character faces. There are some cute incidents as Francis coaches troubled racehorses, but I didn't find this film on a par with the original FRANCIS, which had some genuinely amusing moments which made me chuckle out loud.

The cast also includes Hayden Rorke, Jesse White, Larry Keating, Don Beddoe, and Bill Walker.

The racetrack cashier in one scene is played by John Beradino, who at the time was still a pro baseball player. The future longtime GENERAL HOSPITAL star's film career had begun in 1948.

The screenplay was written by David Stern and Oscar Brodney, from a story by Robert Arthur, based on Stern's characters.

Arthur Lubin directed, with black and white photography by Irving Glassberg. The racing scenes were filmed at Santa Anita racetrack. Despite that interesting location, one of the film's drawbacks is its exceedingly bland visual style.

The nice Kino Lorber print is from a brand-new 2K master. The disc also has a newly mastered trailer and a commentary track by Eddy Von Mueller.

Look for reviews of the other films in the Francis Blu-ray set over the course of the summer, with FRANCIS GOES TO WEST POINT (1952) coming up next!

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection.

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