Movie Type: Family-Oriented Comedy, Animal Picture
Themes: Actor's Life
Main Cast: Jimmy Durante, Terry Moore, Tom Drake, Frank Orth, Sara Haden
Release Year: 1950
Country: US
Run Time: 86 minutes
Plot
Jimmy Durante plays the patriarch of a down-on-their-luck family of acrobats, who suddenly finds a great deal of money hidden in his house amid the depths of the Great Depression. The authorities suspect Durante of being a thief, but in fact the culprit is a benevolent little squirrel named Rupert. This clever critter has been pilfering money from the obnoxious, wealthy miser who lives in the adjoining house and who decided to stash most of his funds in the wall separating the two residences. The stop-motion animation is the handiwork of George Pal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A modestly entertaining holiday film, The Great Rupert (often also known as A Christmas Wish) is not on a level with It's a Wonderful Life or The Bishop's Wife but it does have a certain charm. It also stretches things a little to call Rupert a holiday film; while part of the film does take place at Christmas, much of it is set after the season has ended. Still, it has enough of a connection to make the classification stick. Some may be bothered by the fact that Rupert on one level equates money and happiness. That isn't really the creators' intention, but they were rather artless in conveying the message, causing this confusion. More bothersome to some will be the lack of a first rate screenplay; Rupert is sweet and moderately engaging, but the script just barely gets by. Modern viewers used to sophisticated CGI animation tricks may also be put off by the title character. George Pal's stop motion animation is charming but undeniably jerky and, to eyes raised on Pixar, not totally realistic. If they can get past this, however, they will probably find Rupert a lovable little character. Even moreso is Jimmy Durante, who has one of his best screen roles in Rupert and who displays his unique talent to very good effect. Terry Moore and Tom Drake are only adequate, hampered by roles that are fairly dully written, but Queenie Smith is a lot of fun. Irving Pichel's direction is fine, hampered a bit by budget constraints but accomplishing what it sets out to do. Rupert is a nice change of pace from the Christmas films one has seen dozens of times -- although it's not one that bears dozens of viewings itself. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Ernst Fegte - Art Director, Irving Pichel - Director, Duke Goldstone - Editor, Fred Spielman - Composer (Music Score), Leith Stevens - Composer (Music Score), Buddy Kaye - Composer (Music Score), Lionel Lindon - Cinematographer, George Pal - Producer, Ted Allen - Screen Story, Harry Crane - Screenwriter, James O'Hanlon - Screenwriter, Laszlo Vadnay - Screenwriter, Ted Allen - Screenwriter, David D. Martin - Technical Director, Jane Huizenga - Production Director, George Pal - Stop-Motion Animation
The story revolves around a little animated squirrel who, with lots of charm, accidentally helps two economically distressed families overcome their obstacles. George Pal's stop-motion animation used in creating the illusion of a dancing squirrel (Rupert) was so realistic that he received many inquiries as to where he located a trained squirrel.
In 1999, Arnold Leibovit Entertainment re-released the film on DVD.
