Francis the Talking Mule – 7 Film Collection
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1950 – 1957 / 1.33:1, 2:1, 1.85:1
Starring Donald O’Connor, Chill Wills, Piper Laurie, Julie Adams
Written by David Stern, Oscar Brodney
Directed by Arthur Lubin, Charles Lamont
Born in 1909, David “Tom” Stern III was a journalist who lived a long and prosperous life—his father was media magnate J. David Stern, publisher of the now-defunct Philadelphia Record, the New York Post, and New Jersey’s Courier-Post. The younger Stern emulated his father’s success in the newspaper business; by 1949, Stern III was able to purchase the New Orleans Item-Tribune for 2,000,000. The rest of his fortune arrived in 1946 with Francis, The Talking Mule, Stern’s tall tale about a loquacious donkey. The scope of the book’s success was almost as unreal as the mule itself. In 1999, on Stern’s 90th birthday, a friend dedicated this verse;
Here’s a toast to Tom Stern
A man of great class.
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1950 – 1957 / 1.33:1, 2:1, 1.85:1
Starring Donald O’Connor, Chill Wills, Piper Laurie, Julie Adams
Written by David Stern, Oscar Brodney
Directed by Arthur Lubin, Charles Lamont
Born in 1909, David “Tom” Stern III was a journalist who lived a long and prosperous life—his father was media magnate J. David Stern, publisher of the now-defunct Philadelphia Record, the New York Post, and New Jersey’s Courier-Post. The younger Stern emulated his father’s success in the newspaper business; by 1949, Stern III was able to purchase the New Orleans Item-Tribune for 2,000,000. The rest of his fortune arrived in 1946 with Francis, The Talking Mule, Stern’s tall tale about a loquacious donkey. The scope of the book’s success was almost as unreal as the mule itself. In 1999, on Stern’s 90th birthday, a friend dedicated this verse;
Here’s a toast to Tom Stern
A man of great class.
- 5/14/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
The Brass Bottle
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1964/ Color / 1.85:1 / 89 Minutes
Starring Tony Randall, Burl Ives, Barbara Eden
Directed by Harry Keller
Possessed of a commanding baritone and an even more elegant delivery, Tony Randall was a natural for radio, cutting his teeth as program announcer for Wtag in Worcester before landing the role of a two-fisted detective in the early ’40s with I Love a Mystery. It was a voice—silky but full of import—ideal for Shakespeare in the Park yet the actor’s nervous-nelly demeanor would make him a standard bearer for light comedy. After flaunting his versatility in Broadway’s Inherit the Wind and television’s Mr. Peepers, Randall laid down an actor’s gauntlet with his gender-bending, shape-shifting turn as a mysterious carny barker in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. Based on Charles G. Finney’s 1935 satire—a cynical diatribe transformed into a cozy fantasy by George...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1964/ Color / 1.85:1 / 89 Minutes
Starring Tony Randall, Burl Ives, Barbara Eden
Directed by Harry Keller
Possessed of a commanding baritone and an even more elegant delivery, Tony Randall was a natural for radio, cutting his teeth as program announcer for Wtag in Worcester before landing the role of a two-fisted detective in the early ’40s with I Love a Mystery. It was a voice—silky but full of import—ideal for Shakespeare in the Park yet the actor’s nervous-nelly demeanor would make him a standard bearer for light comedy. After flaunting his versatility in Broadway’s Inherit the Wind and television’s Mr. Peepers, Randall laid down an actor’s gauntlet with his gender-bending, shape-shifting turn as a mysterious carny barker in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. Based on Charles G. Finney’s 1935 satire—a cynical diatribe transformed into a cozy fantasy by George...
- 1/8/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Sherman Hemsley decided after a decade starring as iconic loudmouth George Jefferson on “The Jeffersons” that it was time to take a shot at big screen superstardom. Not only did he star in and croon the theme song to the 1987 comedy Ghost Fever, he also funded the film out of his own pocket, eventually bankrupting him.
How could a family comedy about racist ghosts in a Southern plantation not have been a financial hit?
Sherman Hemsley had dual roles as one half of a bumbling police duo (along with original “Electric Company” player Luis Avalos) and as the ghost of his slave grandfather assisting him throughout the movie. You see, these two cops have been sent to serve an eviction notice to two beautiful sisters living in an old Atlanta antebellum home haunted by the ghost of its original crazy, slave-owning, racist owner. Hijinks ensure!
That Ghost Fever’s style...
How could a family comedy about racist ghosts in a Southern plantation not have been a financial hit?
Sherman Hemsley had dual roles as one half of a bumbling police duo (along with original “Electric Company” player Luis Avalos) and as the ghost of his slave grandfather assisting him throughout the movie. You see, these two cops have been sent to serve an eviction notice to two beautiful sisters living in an old Atlanta antebellum home haunted by the ghost of its original crazy, slave-owning, racist owner. Hijinks ensure!
That Ghost Fever’s style...
- 2/25/2012
- by Foywonder
- DreadCentral.com
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