THE GREAT RUPERT (1950)

[Xenorama ™]

Jimmy Durante ... Mr. Amendola
Terry Moore ... Rosalinda
Tom Drake ... Peter Dingle
Frank Orth ... Mr. Dingle
Sara Haden ... Mrs. Dingle
Queenie Smith ... Mrs. Amendola
Chick Chandler ... Phil Davis
Jimmy Conlin ... Joe Mahoney
Rupert ... Himself the Squirrel
Hugh Sanders ... Mulligan
Don Beddoe ... Mr. Haggerty (as Donald T. Beddoe)
Candy Candido ... Molinero
Clancy Cooper ... Policeman
Harold Goodwin ... F.B.I. Man
Frank Cady ... Tax Investigator

it's a cute Capra-lite movie, cornball but Durante gets great lines and the overall story is very sweet without being syrupy. and there's some good stop-motion in it as well.

Terry Moore made this right after MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, but she had no scenes with the stop-motion squirrel. Durante was a last minute addition to the cast. Mr. Dingle, the greedy old father, doesn't even change his ways! so it's an unusual movie, that's for sure.

i was under the impression Rupert talked, but am completely wrong about that.

[Gwangi]

It was indeed a surprise that Terry Moore didn't share any scenes with the stop-motion Rupert, like she did with Mighty Joe Young.

And like MJY, Terry was suppose to be the top billed, but when they got Jimmy Durante to play the lead in the last minute, she had no problem at all getting second billing. Note that one-in joke where Durante is saving his polar bear fur radio(!), from a fire, so that he can hear "The Jimmy Durante Show"!

It is a likeable film and it doesn't play cutesy like in a lot of Disney films of today. (It does help that there were no little children in this one).