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 FACULTY (1998)

"Guaranteed to jack you up."

 

Borrowing heavily from the INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS idea, THE FACULTY is about a small group of teenagers who start to notice weird shit going on at their high school.  Turns out the faculty and most of their fellow students have been taken over by some outer space buttholes and if they don't stop 'em they're gonna take over the world!

 

As far as high school sci-fi horror movies go, THE FACULTY isn't too bad.  If you saw it as a teen back in '98 you probably have a special affection for it, but even without that it still holds up alright.  The story is about as unoriginal as it gets, but the acting is good and it was a lot of fun seeing a young Elijah Wood gettin' all stressed out and chased by a multi-tentacled monster.  Poorly lit (fake) topless scene, nice pace, worms, boring direction, a mic hanging down into the shot, a Venom shirt, a little blood, stereotypical high school cliques, zero gore.

 

Would make an okay double-feature with DISTURBING BEHAVIOR.