Still image from the 1950 film The Great Rupert.

The Great Rupert

Directed by Irving Pichel

A squirrel becomes the guardian angel for an impoverished family.

1950 1h 26m Comedy TV-G

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CAST
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Irving Pichel, Director
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Irving Pichel
Director

1

Jimmy Durante, Mr. [Louie] Amendola
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Jimmy Durante
Mr. [Louie] Amendola

2

Terry Moore, Rosalinda [Amendola]
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Terry Moore
Rosalinda [Amendola]

3

Tom Drake, Peter Dingle
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Tom Drake
Peter Dingle

4

Frank Orth, Mr. [Frank] Dingle
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Frank Orth
Mr. [Frank] Dingle

5

Sara Haden, Mrs. [Kate] Dingle
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Sara Haden
Mrs. [Kate] Dingle

FULL SYNOPSIS

On the day before Christmas, down-on-his-luck entertainer Joe Mahoney rehearses his trained squirrel Rupert in his shabby apartment, but his last hope is shattered when agent Phil Davis informs him that the talented rodent has no box office potential. Dejected and penniless, Joe is evicted by his landlord, Frank Dingle, who lives upstairs with his wife Kate and son Peter. After setting Rupert free in the park, Joe encounters his old friend Louie Amendola, who used to have a human pyramid act with his wife and daughter Rosalinda, but has since fallen on hard times. The Amendolas go to Joe's vacant apartment, and Peter is so taken with Rosalinda that he lets them move in with no money down, to the annoyance of his tight-fisted father. Meanwhile, Rupert, unable to adapt to life in the wild, finds his way back to his old home and settles in the rafters. Dingle receives a notice from the bank telling him that a gold mine he invested in years before has finally paid off, and that he will receive weekly checks for $1,500. Upon cashing the first check, Dingle hides the money behind his bedroom wall, poking it through a hole he has drilled in the baseboard, while Rupert watches from the other side. Downstairs, Mrs. Amendola has just finished praying that their lot in life will be improved when Rupert tosses the money down through the hole in the skylight. Assuming that the money has come from heaven, the Amendolas pay a holiday visit to the Dingles, and Peter and Rosalinda play ...


ARTICLES
Beloved animation producer George Pal fled the Nazis but made good at Paramount with his Technicolor Puppetoon short subjects, which won him seven Academy nominations and one Honorary Oscar. Pal made the leap to live-action feature productions with The Great Rupert (1950), a low-budget fantasy that offered comedian Jimmy Durante the sentimental role of Louie Amendola, the impoverished paterfamilias of a family of vaudevillians that can no longer do their human pyramid act - he's too old, his wife (Queenie Smith) is too fat, his daughter Rosalinda (Terry Moore) has grown too big to play an angel. Mrs. Amendola's prayers are answered by money that seems to fall out of nowhere. As roughly $1500 a week continues to appear out of the wall, Louie helps his poor neighbors and invests it in local businesses. Then the secret of the 'miracle' is revealed: the money belongs to the miser upstairs, (Frank Orth). He's been stuffing it into the wall for hiding, not realizing that a mischievous squirrel named Rupert has been pushing it right out again, into the room below. George Pal's animation background comes to the fore with the title critter, which is animated by stop-motion - it even dances in one scene. A happy ending ensues, even after the building is badly burned. Jimmy Durante sings two songs and another is saved for comic Jimmy Conlin, as a squirrel trainer. Despite being about 'praying for money,' the unpretentious film generates warmth and charm, an opinion that was echoed by Va...

NOTES

The working titles of this film were Rupert and Rupert II. According to a news item in Daily Variety, the title of Ted Allen's original screen story was "Money, Money, Money." A Hollywood Reporter news item reported that George Baxter had been cast, but his appearance in the final film has not been confirmed. A July 6, 1949 news item in Hollywood Reporter stated that eden ahbez had been signed to collaborate with composer Fred Spielman on the lyrics to "Melody for Two Orphan Instruments," but the song was performed in the film as an instrumental duet for harp and tuba.
       "Rupert" was portrayed by both a trained squirrel and a puppet animated through stop-motion photography. The Great Rupert was producer George Pal's first feature film, after many years working on the "Puppetoon" series.

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