Francis the Talking Mule

Francis the Talking Mule was a mule celebrity, featured in seven movie comedies in the 1950s. The character originated in a novel by writer David Stern, and soon Universal Studios bought the rights for a film series, with Stern adapting his own script for the first entry, simply titled Francis.

Film series actors

The distinctive voice of Francis was provided by veteran character actor Chill Wills, whose deep, rough vocal texture and Western twang was perfectly matched to delivering the lines of the cynical and sardonic mule. As was customary at the time, Wills never received billing for his vocal work, though he was featured prominently on-screen as blustery General Ben Kaye in the fourth entry, Francis Joins the Wacs.

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The actual mule who appeared on-screen was not a male at all, but a female named Molly, selected because she was easy to handle. According to author Pauline Bartel, Universal paid $350 for the animal, but made millions from the film series. Molly was trained by Les Hilton, a former apprentice of Will Rogers who would also go on to train Bamboo Harvester, the horse who played Mr. Ed. To create the impression that the mule was actually talking, Hilton used a thread fed into the animal's mouth, which when tugged, would cause Molly to try to remove it by moving her lips (the same technique used for Mr. Ed).

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The seventh and final entry in the series, Francis in the Haunted House, was made without any of the key creative personnel. O'Connor had quit, citing the fact that after six movies, the mule still received more fan mail than he did. Mickey Rooney replaced him as a new but similar character, David Prescott. Director Lubin and Chill Wills were also absent, replaced by Charles Lamont and voice actor Paul Frees, who did a creditable approximation of Wills' voice. No real explanation was given or attempted as to why Francis had left Peter Stirling, or why he suddenly decides to befriend reporter David. With the original elements gone, the movie, a standard tale of fake ghosts and gangsters, was poorly received and is widely viewed as the worst entry in the series.

Related Topics:
Mickey Rooney - Charles Lamont - Paul Frees

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