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Francis Covers the Big Town
Francis Covers the Big Town is a 1953 American black-and-white comedy film from Universal-International, produced by Leonard Goldstein, directed by Arthur Lubin, that stars Donald O'Connor, Yvette Duguay, and Gene Lockhart. The distinctive voice of Francis is a voice-over by actor Chill Wills. This is the fourth film in Universal-International's Francis the Talking Mule series continuing the misadventures of Peter Stirling and his friend Francis. Diabolique argued it was the best in the series.[2] PlotPeter lands a job at a big New York City newspaper and while on assignment gets framed for a murder. Cast
ProductionProduction of the film was announced in July 1951 and was to be the third in the Francis series.[3] Oscar Brodney was assigned to write the script.[4] David Stern reportedly also worked on the script.[5] Filming started in August 1951 and involved ten days location shooting in New York.[6] Francis was flown to New York and back on a cargo plane, which cost $700 plus airfares for his trainer and two handlers.[7] At one stage of production, the film was going to be known as Francis, Racket Buster.[8][9] Director Arthur Lubin complained during filming that he was becoming typecast as an animal director. He hoped to make The Interruption from a suspense story by W. W. Mason "just to remind producers that I can direct people too."[10] Home mediaThe original film, Francis (1950), was released in 1978 as one of the first-ever titles in the new LaserDisc format, DiscoVision Catalog #22-003.[11] It was then re-issued on LaserDisc in May 1994 by MCA/Universal Home Video (Catalog #: 42024) as part of an Encore Edition Double Feature with Francis Goes to the Races (1951). The first two Francis films were released again in 2004 by Universal Pictures on Region 1 and Region 4 DVD, along with the next two in the series, as The Adventures of Francis the Talking Mule Vol. 1. Several years later, Universal released all 7 Francis films as a set on three Region 1 and Region 4 DVDs, Francis The Talking Mule: The Complete Collection. References
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