The pilot for a long running TV series set in the time just after the 2nd world war, this show became a very popular and well loved weekly TV series in the 1950?s. Peter Stirling has returned home form the war, but instead of the usual ?Hero?s Welcome?, Stirling has become the subject of cruel gossip and faced; innuendo, malice and open hostility, all because he met Francis.

Posted to Burma, Stirling was a lowly first lieutenant in the armed forces fighting the Japanese. Stirling gets separated from his platoon and is stranded in the jungle, worn out from stress and fatigue Stirling falls into a long deep sleep, he awoken by fighting

close by and is sure is will meet his death when he comes across and Mule, that can talk. Stirling is wounded so the mule rescues him and returns him to army headquarters. On his recovery Stirling is commended for his bravery, but once he mentions that the mule

saved him; Stirling?s mental capacity is in serious doubt and he is quickly sent to the psychiatric ward for further recovery.

Stirling soon realises the best way out of the psychiatric ward is to deny that the mule every talked, so once released, Stirling soon resumes his army life. Things are once again turned upside down for Stirling when he comes across Francis again and Francis offers him sensitive army intelligence information. Stirling uses this information to capture two Japanese scouts and is spoon back in the psychiatric ward for crediting the talking mule with the intelligence.

Stirling entire tour of duty is a series of successful missions run by the talking mule, but Stirling is never credited as a hero, and his mental health is constantly in question. Francis knows the peril of talking to everyone else and so no one ever believes that Francis can talk. When the general himself gets involved things get tricky for Stirling as he tries to prove he is sane and not lying.

The second feature on this disc is Francis goes to the races.

Stirling has returned home from the war and has found Francis again; they are on the road together one day when Francis meets up with a racehorse who is his long lost cousin. Francis is invited to attend the race day with the horse and the antics begin when he gives Stirling a hot tip and Stirling wins big at the track. The police believe he is a race fixer, but the owner of the racehorse believes he is genuine and offers him a job in his stables. Stirling desperately needs this job, so he has to try to convince the police he is not a horse expert whilst trying to convince the daughter of the racehorse owner that he is.

This is a funny and thoroughly entertaining movie for kids to watch, the age of the movie makes the pace of the show a bit slow and lacking in action, but the simplicity of the plot and the lack of any violence or graphic language makes it a perfect movie for younger kids. We watched this late on a lazy Sunday afternoon and my four kids aged 4 to 9 loved it. My boys thought the beginning was a bit time-consuming and there were times when they were in a ?get on with it? frame of mind but once the scene was set the movie was good fun. The whole DVD is in black and white but this adds to the charm of the show and after a while the lack of colour was not an issue. The picture was wonderfully clear and I was impressed with the crisp and precise sound (obviously remastered for DVD). There a few laughs to be had on this show, but like many of the older TV shows, the humour is a bit dated and some of the comedy is a tad lost. Still if like me you just love the innocence of this era of TV these shows are brilliant and a must have. The best bit about this genre is that there is no need for censorship, the entire disc is appropriate for all ages and there is not need to ?explain? anything.

My parents enjoyed watching this too, after not seeing it for many year they enjoyed the trip down memory lane; my dad reminisced that it used to be on every Saturday afternoon when he was a lad, and my kids were impressed that they has seen it before! We love to have a wide variety of movies that our kids can watch by themselves or with friends and know that they will not offend any audience so Francis the Talking Mule was a welcome addition to our home collection.

THE EXTRAS

No bonus features however I want to say how great it was to find that this DVD has the added value of subtitles something I totally did not expect