Word: connore
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Francis is an Army mule who can talk. He gives orders in a voice which sounds like Wallace Becry imitating an Army mule; these orders are taken by an amicable idiot played gracefully by Donald O'Connor. Francis knows how to win the war single-footedly, and O'Connor can wiggle his cars and heehaw softly. Together they make an unbeatable combat team, but they do not make a very funny movie...
Obsessed by a strange type of affection, the omniscient Francis gives information about Japanese troops to second lieutenant O'Connor. When O'Connor becomes a hero and tries to share the credit with Francis, the lieutenant is gently hustled off to the psycho ward to weave baskets. A major-general, a colonel, some war correspondents and a large part of the audience also become candidates for the basket-weaving ward during the course of the picture...
Francis (Universal-International) is the name of a talented Army mule (already celebrated in David Stern's 1946 comic novel) who not only talks but makes more sense than the whole chain of command. By confiding Japanese secrets to a bewildered Burma campaign shavetail (Donald O'Connor), Francis throws the enemy for a loss and the U.S. brass into a tizzy...
When Lieut. O'Connor bags a Japanese observation post on information supplied by the mule, his colonel (Ray Collins) treats him like a hero. When he tries to share the credit with Francis, he is put to weaving baskets in the neuropsychiatric ward. Released, O'Connor goes on heroically fighting the one-mule war; as his coups get bigger, so do the baskets...
...makes the grade as comedy. Not content to have Francis show up his military superiors, Author-Scripter Stern lets the mule go on haranguing them as well. But in its best scenes, the picture kicks up enough fun to numb a tolerant moviegoer to its shortcomings. Actor O'Connor makes an amiable nitwit, and Francis (voice by horse opera's Chill Wills) is a tribute to the patience and technical skill of moviemaking...