MacLeod castle was brought over from Europe stone by stone and reassembled in America. Since then, a rumor has circulated that the castle is haunted by a ghost knight on a horse that roams the castle grounds. Twenty years ago, Lorna MacLeod (Virginia Welles) was taken by her mother to live in Europe. After her father died three months ago the castle was willed by Lorna who has now returned to America to accept her inheritance.
David Prescott (Mickey Rooney) met Francis when David was young. He used to visit the mule at his uncle’s farm. Francis still lives at the Fletcher Farm. Francis liked David’s uncle, and the uncle liked David, so Francis decided that he needed to keep an eye on the man and keep him out of trouble. David never knew that Francis could talk, at least until the mule visits him. He tells David that he saw a couple of shifty guys from the castle kill someone by pushing a rock down an embankment and rolling it over a car thereby pushing the car off a cliff. He then heard a woman scream from behind a window of the castle. David tells authorities. The dead man turns out to be Roger Andrews (Phil Harvey), one of the castle’s lawyers.
David ends up being the primary suspect as more strange things happen at the castle. When the police hear about Francis, they think David is either trying to shift the blame for the murder to someone else or is working toward an insanity plea. They grill him to get him to confess. When he doesn’t Mayor Hargrove (Ralph Dumke) calls in three expert criminologists (John Eldredge, Olan Soule, Fred Nurney) to question him. They use a lie detector truth serum and hypnosis, all to no avail. David doesn’t change his story.
David gets further and further into trouble as Francis does some investigating on his own. Before the truth can come out, Francis must save David, who ends up being on the list of people being eliminated so that evil can win.
“Francis in the Haunted House” was released in 1956 and was directed by Charles Lemont. It is an American comedy fantasy mystery with horror and old dark house elements.
There are seven “Francis the Talking Mule” films in the original Universal cannon, “Francis” AKA “Francis the Talking Mule” 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, and “Francis in the Haunted House” 1956. The main actor in the first six films was Donald O’Connor. The voice used for Francis in the first six films was Chill Wills, a man with the perfect bray of a voice to use for the character. As for the seventh and final film the main actor was Mickey Rooney, and the voice of Francis was done by Paul Frees. Frees wasn’t exactly Chill Wills but was close enough.
The Francis character was created by David Stern. He used the character in three stories that were published in Esquire. The stories were eventually combined into one book “Francis”.
It is a corny movie geared mostly for children but has enough substance in it to amuse adults at the same time. Andy Rooney fans will enjoy it as well as anyone that’s into comedy mysteries.
The actual mule used in the film was named Molly. The castle was a set piece on Universal’s back lot that was used for several Universal films.