FRANCIS GOES TO THE RACES (1951)

Taking up immediately where the original film ends, FRANCIS GOES TO THE RACES finds the kind-hearted dummy Peter Stirling (Donald O’Connor) and his shit-talking buddy Francis hanging out at a racetrack.  Peter has the hots for the granddaughter (Piper Laurie) of a local thoroughbred owner but he fails so fantastically at flirting with her that he ends up nearly being fitted for “cement slippers” by a local crime boss!  Francis has to save the day.

Obviously, FRANCIS GOES TO THE RACES isn’t going to be the height of Cinema, but for entertainment, I was completely satisfied.  And I was impressed by the performances of the entire cast.  Literally everybody played the entire thing straight.  The overall tone of the film felt serious and it worked because it made the shit-talking by Francis just that much more humorous.

The only negative thing I have to say about FRANCIS GOES TO THE RACES is early on in the film Francis wanted to split up with Peter.  That made me sad and really depressed, but eventually Francis changed his mind and they were buddies again.  That made me happy, but I was still sad.

I know this is dumb, but the shot at 1:30 of Francis and Peter walking down the road side-by-side reminded me of the original opening credits of The Andy Griffith Show made 9 years later.

Part 1 - Francis (1950)
Part 3 - Francis Goes to West Point (1952)
Part 4 - Francis Covers the Big Town (1953)
Part 5 - Francis Joins the WACS (1954)
Part 6 - Francis in the Navy (1955)
Part 7 - Francis in the Haunted House (1956)

THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE (1978)

Not to be confused with The Human Centipede from Outer Space, THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE is the mildly delightful tale of an alien, Jake, who is forced to land on Earth to repair his space ship.  Jake is just a normal cat, except that he's very smart and has a highly advanced collar that pretty much gives him god-like powers.  It can freeze people in place, make objects fly or speed up or slow down and all kinds of other stuff.  It can also make his voice appear inside your head as a way of communication.  Anyway, Jake's small space ship is taken by the military, so Jake needs human help to assist him in getting the large quantity of gold needed to repair his craft.  He enlists the help of some local scientists who take to rigging (with the help of Jake's powerful collar) sporting events and gambling on the results.  No word on the thousands of gamblers whose lives were probably destroyed by the insane results of these events.

In a weird way THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE reminds me of THE MILLION DOLLAR DUCK.  Cute critter with a special ability is hunted by the government and needs the help of a small group of well-meaning humans that include Sandy Duncan.  And that's not a bad thing because I like THE MILLION DOLLAR DUCK alright.

Medium pace, super cute cat (or cats?) as Jake, impressive cat "acting", cast full of well-known old Hollywood faces, Roddy McDowall as a bad guy, lifeless direction, very impressive aircraft stunts that looked dangerous as fuck, tons of plot holes, goofy humor mainly directed at children, zero tits, zero gore, dumb ending.  Modern audiences would probably find TCFOS to be a boring turd, but it does have a certain innocent charm to it.  I'd watch it again and I would totally 100% love to see a remake!