Before
Mr. Ed there was
Francis the talking
mule. Francis starred in seven movies between 1950 and 1956. In the first six movies
Donald O'Connor was Francis' co-star and in the seventh it was
Mickey Rooney. Also appearing in Francis' movies were
Leonard Nimoy,
Clint Eastwood,
Jim Backus,
Piper Laurie,
David Janssen,
Allison Hayes and
Gail Gordon.
Not only did Francis precede Mr. Ed, but he had much the same off-screen supporting cast. His producer was Arthur Lubin - who went on to do the Mr Ed television series. And his handler was Les Hilton - who went on to train Mr Ed. Hilton had apprenticed under Will Rogers.
Chill Wills was Francis' voice in the first six movies, Paul Fees in the last one. Francis also had a brief line of Dell comic books and one record album.
Filmography:
Francis (1950)
Francis Goes to the Races (1951)
Francis Goes to West Point (1952)
Francis Covers the Big Town (1953)
Francis Joins the WACs (1954)
Francis In the Navy (1955)
Francis In the Haunted House (1956)
http://members.tripod.com/~horsefame/francis.html