Francis Goes to West Point (1952)

Francis the talking mule gets his owner in and out of trouble while he is taking basic training at West Point.

Director:

Arthur Lubin

Writers:

Oscar Brodney, Dorothy Reid (additional dialogue)

Stars:

Donald O'Connor, Lori Nelson, Alice Kelley

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Donald O'Connor	...	Peter Stirling
Lori Nelson	...	Barbara Atwood
Alice Kelley	...	Cynthia Daniels
Gregg Palmer	...	William Norton (as Palmer Lee)
William Reynolds	...	Wilbur Van Allen
Les Tremayne	...	Col. Daniels
Otto Hulett	...	Chadwick - Football Coach
David Janssen	...	Cpl. Thomas (as Dave Janssen)
James Best	...	Cpl. Ransom
Molly	...	Francis (as Francis the Talking Mule)

Storyline

Francis the talking mule gets his owner in and out of trouble while he is taking basic training at West Point.

---

Plot Keywords:

mule | horse | talking animal | horse actor | sequel | 

---

Taglines:

That Talking Mule Is Back and the Army's got him Again!

---

Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

July 1952 (USA)

Also Known As:

Francis all'accademia

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Donald O'Connor's third of six "Francis" movies.

---

Goofs

In one scene when Donald O'Connor finishes talking with Francis in the barn and leaves, Chill Wills is clearly seen standing behind the paddock. He's wearing a cowboy hat and ducks down after he realizes he's on camera. Actually, if you freeze frame that part of the scene, the person ducking out of camera range is clearly not Chill Wills; it's actually Francis'(Who's real name is Molly) trainer Lester L. Hilton.

---

Quotes

Coach Chadwick: Francis is a good friend of Sterling's and mine, and he's been helping me with the backfield.
William Norton: Helping you?
Coach Chadwick: Well, he's not the first jackass to try to tell me how to run the team.

---

Connections

Followed by Francis Covers the Big Town (1953)

---

Soundtracks

Anchors Aweigh
(uncredited)
Music by Charles A. Zimmerman
Played before football game

User Reviews

Francis Goes to West Point is another pretty funny entry in the series

This is the third in the Francis, the Talking Mule series. It begins with Peter and Francis at a plant where they save the building from being blown up. So Stirling now ends up at West Point. Some later familiar faces turn up here: David Janssen (credited as Dave, later of "The Fugitive") and James Best (yes, the later Roscoe P. Coltrane on "The Dukes of Hazzard"!) as a couple of guards at the place giving Peter a hard time, and Leonard Nimoy (partially recognizable as a younger version of Mr. Spock from the original "Star Trek" despite not wearing his hair with bangs and no pointy ears!) as one of the cadet football players. As usual, the funniest scenes involve Chill Wills' voice as the mule and his interactions with not only Donald O'Connor but some of the supporting players who discover Francis talking to them. So on that note, Francis Goes to West Point is worth a look.