Francis in the Navy

Francis in the Navy (1955)

That talking mule is back... and the Navy's got him!

In the U. S. Army intelligence office, bumbling lieutenant Peter Stirling receives a coded message from his friend, Francis, a talking mule. The note urges Pete to hurry to the Coronado, California naval base, where Francis is about to be sold as surplus. Pete rushes to the train station, but before he can board, nurse Betsy Donevan mistakes him for her shell-shocked brother, Navy boatswain Slicker Donevan. She tries to forcibly remove his uniform so he will not get into trouble for impersonating an Army officer. Finally she realizes that Pete is not Slicker but merely his mirror image.

Date of release
1955-08-24
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (25)
Runtime
1h 20m
Genres
Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Romance
Director
Arthur Lubin
Collection
Francis the Talking Mule Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

Francis in the Navy is a 1955 American black-and-white comedy film from Universal-International, produced by Stanley Rubin and directed by Arthur Lubin. The film stars Donald O'Connor and Martha Hyer, and marked the first credited film role of Clint Eastwood. The distinctive voice of Francis is a voice-over by actor Chill Wills.

Production

Donald O'Connor was reluctant to make the film but agreed to do one more at the request of his daughter (in addition to a "financial inducement" from Universal studio head Edward Muhl). Lubin said O'Connor "got a little bored with it [the Francis series], on the last one. He got very difficult and was not very pleasant to work with."

It was once known as Francis Weighs Anchor and started filming February 15, 1955.

The film was partially shot at the U. S. Navy base in Coronado California, not far from downtown San Diego.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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