FRANCIS GOES TO THE RACES 1951 (UNIVERSAL)

Arthur Lubin again handles the directing chores for this fun little comedy from Universal.

Donald O' Conner again stars as Peter Sterling, a young man who has a very odd friend in Francis the Talking Mule. This is the first sequel and Francis helps Peter collect money by betting on the races and this gets old Pete into a lot of trouble.

Gangsters get involved in Peter's affairs and the trouble snowballs until Francis intervenes once again. The cast includes Cecil Kellaway, Piper Laurie, Jesse White, Vaughn Taylor and Hayden Rorke.

This film made enough money to garner another sequel, but it is a rather pedestrian entry in the series and probably the slowest of all seven films.

I like the film as it is very soothing because of what it is, but for fans thinking there are a lot of belly laughs, they might have to look elsewhere.