| Francis Covers the Big Town | |
| Director: | Arthur Lubin |
| Producer: | Leonard Goldstein |
| Starring: | Donald O'Connor Yvette Duguay Gene Lockhart Nancy Guild |
| Music: | Frank Skinner Herman Stein |
| Cinematography: | Carl E. Guthrie |
| Editing: | Milton Carruth |
| Studio: | Universal Pictures |
| Distributor: | Universal-International |
| Runtime: | 86 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Gross: | $1.8 million (US)[1] |
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]
Peter lands a job at a big New York City newspaper and while on assignment gets framed for a murder.
Production 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]
The 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.