Although the eponymous Francis (Chill Wills) is a talking mule, he has little in common with his equine relative Mister Ed, or indeed his leporine contemporary, Harvey (1950). No, the premise for Francis-a facetious creature in possession of privileged knowledge who obstinately collapses the human hierarchies which he encounters-goes back to the Menippean satire of The Golden Ass. Substituting wartime Burma for the ancient Roman world, and introducing Peter Stirling (Donald O'Connor) as the hapless pariah, Francis addresses serious topics about military ways with a mulish cynicism.