Truly Dreadful Film

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

I recently rediscovered this delightful series after not having seen it since I was a small child. MR. ED, I think, often gets incorrectly bracketed with such "silly" mid-1960s fantasies as THE MUNSTERS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY and I DREAM OF JEANNIE. Maybe a talking horse just seems too foolish to take seriously. As a matter of fact, this is an extremely inventive, witty and sharply written show - one in which the character of Mr. Ed, the equine hero, is used to comment on human foibles. It is also a comedy about values and conflicting familial duties. What makes MR. ED work is the magical illusionism of a talking horse combined with a perfect, likable cast. Wilbur Post, the hapless owner of Mr. Ed, is played by the late Alan Young. Young combines an easy-going Bing Crosby vibe with a bumbling innocence reminiscent of Danny Kaye. His dialogues with Mr. Ed, conducted in the barn which doubles as his office, form the comedic core of the show. The attractive Connie Hines plays Wilbur's charming but demanding wife Carol. The highly original "triangle" which forms between Wilbur, Connie, and Mr. Ed fuels many of the plots.For the first three seasons, the couple next door - MR. ED's equivalent of the Mertzes - were the acerbic Roger and Kay Addison. This elegant couple are the perfect foil to the homespun Wilbur and Carol, and their sophisticated bickering repartee is a key part of the show's success.MR. ED himself is played by a palomino named Bamboo Harvester and voiced by Allan "Rocky" Lane in an inimitable Western drawl. Ed not only talks, he also sings, reads, writes notes, uses the telephone (a lot!), watches TV, does exercises, and shows at times a high level of erudition. He combines a cheeky insouciance with a the neediness of a little kid and in fact is practically a surrogate child for Wilbur. How they got Bamboo Harvester to perform some of the tricks required of him throughout the series is anybody's guess! The genial bucolic setting (for the most part a convincing set, although some scenes are filmed outdoors) conjures up a specific place, the San Fernando Valley in California. The pastoral atmosphere is one of the most appealing aspects of the series, which was a unique contribution to the genre of the rural comedy. MR. ED remained in glorious black and white to the end of its run, even as many other shows were switching to color. MR. ED has become one of my favorite early '60s sitcoms, alongside LEAVE IT TO BEAVER and THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. It is entirely worthy to keep company with those shows and remains a unique comic experience for audiences of all ages.

As one who never saw many of the episodes of the series back in the 60's when it first aired, I had to see the series from the beginning on THIS-TV. I have to disagree with a poster earlier who said this was made for kids; the books may have that the series was based on but if you watch it today you see much of the humor and dialog is aimed at adults. The interaction between Wilbur and Ed was made even better by the fact that Allan 'Rocky' Lane voiced his Mr. Ed lines right there on set, not recorded later in a voice-over studio. The palomino used as Mr. Ed was very well trained as you notice when viewing the series and the still secret method of making his mouth move was just an extra added attraction. Those disguises on Ed like the large glasses just added to the reality of the show. You have to think what was going through the mind of that horse when filming the series. The supporting players were great on this series from the original couple next door to the last couple next door. Larry Keating having been the neighbor to Burns and Allen for year on their show fit right in as a neighbor and Leon Ames, a veteran TV actor, perfect as Wilbur's former Commander. And what can one say about the beautiful Connie Hines as his bewildered wife? Guest stars were numerous on the series and must have loved the exposure, even Mae West and Zsa Zsa wanted to guest. Until you view this series today, to say that it was totally for kids is a big mistake.

You have to look beyond the obvious words always used to describe shows like this -- i.e., "inane" and "silly" to see that Mister Ed was (1) pure, good-natured escapism from a time that was terribly tense the world over and (2) simply part of the rural trend that shaped situation comedies of the period -- e.g., Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and the others that let us "get away from it all" for 30 minutes every week.The real value of Mister Ed, then as now, was to remove us from the world at hand and let us imagine a life of clean living folks, simple tragedies and happy endings. Mister Ed is still a pleasant sight for eyes made sore by all that's so coarse and unsightly around us today. That's why I hope this inoffensive program stays in reruns another 40 years. And so should you. ~~

Wilbur Post (Alan Young) seems like an average person, with a wife named Carol (Connie Hines), a house, and a steady job as an architect, except for one thing: his horse.As the theme song reminds us: "A horse is a horse, of course, of course..." But Ed is no ordinary equine. He talks, albeit only to his owner (Ed calls Wilbur "the only person worth talking to"). Not only does Ed talk, he causes all sorts of trouble, which always gets pinned on Wilbur. Whether eating Carol's tomatoes or pulling down neighbor Roger Addison's (Larry Keating) TV antenna, that palomino always has something up his sleeve, er...hoof. Oftentimes, Ed will do something around a stranger, causing a lot of confusion for the latter.As for other aspects of the show, Wilbur somehow always has the worst luck, not even necessarily caused by Ed's tricks. Carol is truly one hot babe. Roger and Kay (Edna Skinner) can fluctuate between sour and good-neighborly. Overall, the show is pretty silly, but it's not doing any harm. I recommend it.