Francis Joins the WACS (1954) User Reviews (6)

Not the worst 'Francis' film, but that's hardly a plus point.

[r96sk · 5/10 · 3 January 2022]

Yet another yawnful entry from this series, unfortunately.

The cast are the only thing about 'Francis Joins the WACS' that is worthy of minimal praise. Donald O'Connor is solid again, Julie Adams is OK and Chill Wills' move into the live-action cast (whilst still voicing Francis) is relatively amusing. Still, the problem remains that Francis feels sidelined in these more recent follow-ups.

In fairness, this fourth sequel got one-or-two more minor chuckles out of me - not that that helps raise the film up, as those moments are few and far between amid a myriad of predictability and repetitiveness. You can also imagine the low standard of humour used here, given Stirling joins the Women's Army Corps.

Not the worst 'Francis' film, but that's hardly a plus point. 'Francis in the Navy' is next.

Naught Here Added To The Formula.

[rsoonsa · 4/10 · 9 January 2005]

Fifth in the series of Universal Studios' talking mule movies, this entry provides very little that is not predictable since the Francis films, in spite of their scripted absurdity, were calculable successes at the box office and there was scant cause to use innovation. Peter Stirling (Donald O'Connor), is recalled to active Army duty, but when the hapless lieutenant is assigned to a Women's Army Corps (WAC) detachment due to a flawed clerical procedure in the Pentagon, neither he nor his new distaff officer companions are pleased with a nonsensical situation. His WAC superiors believe that Peter has been planted as a scout and is being used to undermine their efforts opposing a men's army unit in an upcoming War Games matchup, and Peter and Francis invent a method to persuade the women that he is not there for clandestine purposes. The quaint pair is capable of attempting this because Peter's proxy specialty is training women soldiers to become camouflage experts and since the Games are going to be focused upon just such activity, the situation is readied for crucial events. The film was completed in Spring of 1954, shot primarily at California's Fort Ord, with numerous WACS assigned there being employed as extras in a film that pleasingly reflects the result of high-quality production values contributed by the Universal management. Arthur Lubin, director of all six of the O'Connor featured Francis films, offers sluggish pacing with this item, largely due to an overly complicated scenario that weighs down the final section dealing with camouflage competition between the military men and women. As with all Francis pictures, a primary interest in this one relates to early performances of well-known actors, including the initial yelps of fear from "Scream Queen" Allison Hayes, and Universal ingénues Mamie Van Doren and Julia Adams, although the best playing is by veteran ZaSu Pitts as an undone Army nurse; clever thematic scoring by Irving Gertz was used years later by the Studio for other releases.

Hilarious battle of the sexes, in a war game farce

[weezeralfalfa · 9/10 · 29 November 2016]

Since Francis the talking mule was being transferred to a WAC base, naturally, Don O'Conner(as Peter Sterling), his confident, was mistakenly transferred there too. The WAC officers can't seem to get through the red tape to get him transferred elsewhere. Hence, he becomes the much laughed at leader of a platoon, training them to take part in a camouflage exercise with a men's company looking for them, to squirt them with dye to prove they were found. Francis shores up Don's confidence that women can be good at camouflage by observing that "Every beauty salon is a camouflage operation."

The hard-boiled Major Simpson(Lynn Bari)suspects that Don is a spy for the men who will compete in the war game. She hatched a plan to discredit Don(being a man) as a platoon leader by putting him in charge of the platoon that has been lagging behind in practices. The plan backfires, as Don whips this platoon into shape, with the help of Francis, after a very shaky start. Francis also plays a major role in the war game, giving advice, and supplying smoke grenades. When Don switches walkie-talkies so the WACs could listen in on the men's communications, he forgot that the men could then listen in on the WACs communication.

Captain Jane Parker(Julie Adams)has a hilarious run in with Don when she goes to the train station to receive a new officer. Don knocks her down when running, then throws his suitcase out the window onto her head, then soaks her with water from the train water tower when he grabs onto to rope that releases the water. She continues to be very negative toward him, but eventually softens, especially when she discovers that Francis can really talk.

Starting with Don, each person is sent to the base psychiatric ward when they claim they heard Francis speak. This is especially funny when Major Simpson and General Kaye end up there.

Don O'Connor was Francis's pal in the first 6 films in this series. Chill Wills was the voice of Francis in each of those films. This film is unique in that Chill also played an important part in the screenplay, meaning that Francis could say things attributed to him, which much contributed to the comedy.

I haven't yet seen the other films in this series, but find it difficult to imagine any being more fun than this one. Director Arthur Lubin would go on to direct and produce the rather similar Mister Ed TV series.

Yes, That's A Movie All Right!

[boblipton · 4/10 · 28 November 2023]

In the fifth installment of the series, Donald O'Connor is ordered back into the Army. He discovers he has been assigned to a WAC unit, and that Francis the Talking Mule is there too.

At this point, to get my summary over with quickly and relatively painlessly, I would write "hijinks ensue" or perhaps "hijinks fail to ensue." Here, I'll leave it to noting that stuff happens, that Chill Wills appears in the flesh as a general, that there are some lovely ladies on hand, including Julie Adams, Mamie Van Doren -- who tried to get out of this movie -- Joan Shawlee, Lynn Bari, and Zasu Pitts, and that Dorothy Davenport Reid is credited with "additional dialogue". I will not speculate as to what lines she penned. Also, Molly, which is the name of the animal who starred as Francis. In common with many gender-bending animal stars, Molly was not a mule, which is a male. Molly was a..... well, I am informed that the term for a female mule is a molly.

It's not that this movie is bad. If your idea of a good movie premise is that there's a talking mule who speaks only to Donald O'Connor, then this is a movie for you. Apparently there were large numbers of people for whom that was the case; as I noted above, this was the fifth in the series, there was another, and director Arthur Lubin later was in charge of Mr. Ed. Neither is this as bad as, say the Old Mother Reilly movies. It's simply not engrossing. It is the sort of movie you could put on the TV while you are vacuuming without missing much of interest to anyone whose intellectual age is older than six, which has included me for some time now.

A Mule for All Seasons

[masercot · 8/10 · 23 April 2017]

I have a lot of fond memories for the Francis movies, having watched them as a child. I recently purchased all seven of them. This was the first on I watched because it was the most memorable.

To start off, Donald O'Connor is greatly ignored. I think a lot of it has to do with when he performed and what he performed. The fifties were a transition period in movies. Movies started to take themselves serious in the fifties with people like Marlon Brando and James Dean. However, there was still a market for comedies. Physical comedy was less in demand and O'Connor was a pretty physical guy.

This movie is remarkably sexist. More sexist than you can possibly imagine. Much of the sexism is from the General; however, Francis is also very sexist. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that mules can't procreate. Must make them pretty bitter...

But, Francis beats Mr. Ed by a mile. Mr. Ed was a pet, essentially. Francis is kind of a father figure to Peter. The voice is great AND in this movie we get to see the man behind the voice. A General and a mule with the same voice is a recipe for comedy and also a recipe for a nice lentil soup...

Zasu Pitts is reprising her earlier role as a psych nurse. She's a joy to watch. Mamie Van Doren is there, front and center. A lot of pointy breasted fifties beauties with the hots for the little guy who was mistakenly appointed to a WAC unit.

Will he help the WACs to defeat the males in a publicity-stunt war-game? I can only say, "Possibly!"

The strangest and weakest film in the series.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 12 February 2023]

"Francis Joins the WACS" is Donald O'Connor's and Chill Wills' penultimate Francis film. While the studio would make two more films in the series, inexplicably, the final one stars Mickey Rooney and an all new voice for Francis, Paul Frees. Considering the series had seen better days and continuity was simply a mess!

In the first film, "Francis", Pete (Donald O'Connor) is a lieutenant in the Army. Later, in "Francis Goes to West Point", Pete now is attending West Point...which is odd as he already WAS an officer in the Army. To make things more confusing, in the next film, Pete is a reporter and there's no mention of his prior military service...even though West Point graduates owe the military eight years of service! Now in "Francis Joins the WACS", Pete is back in the military...but wow is the plot difficult to believe...even for a Francis the Talking Mule film!

When the story begins, Pete has been reactivated in the Army, and you assume he's in the Army Reserves. But through a bizarre clerical error, he's assigned to a WAC unit (consisting of only women)! And, once more, the military thinks Pete is insane.

Clearly, even for the Francis films, the plot is amazingly tough to believe. In fact, it feels as if the series had long jumped the shark and was breathing on fumes. Amazingly, the next film, which didn't star O'Connor or Chill Wills, was actually very good and breathed a bit of life into the series. Of all the movies, "Francis Joins the WACS" is possibly the weakest and least enjoyable.