Der Weihnachtswunsch

I ran across this oddity in the video store which I assume would find most of its fans from those who collect George Pal films. He's the famous science fiction and fantasy producer/director (The Time Machine, War of the Worlds) who patented a technique known as Puppetoon visually similar to today's Claymation. It stars the great Jimmy Durante, and B-movie favorites Terry Moore (the original Mighty Joe Young), and Tom Drake. Disney animation had its pulse on the public and other studios were looking to cash in too via live action. So why not a live action film with a very talented squirrel? Why not? It's a family film, fun, original, and quite different. The squirrel looks a little like the contemporary mice in the "The Mouse and The Motorcyle" and the Jim Henson film "The Witches." This film however always has its feet firmly planted in reality with the squirrel seeming more like an organ grinder's monkey than human. This gives the animal more vulnerablity. It also gives the human race more responsiblity to take proper care of him and any animal or pet who brings us pleasure and happiness from their presence in our lives. It's also a film that is hard to resist from the film's first shot. Whereas most films wait too long into a film to show the audience what it came to see (Superman flying, ET talking, Aliens killing, etc...), The Great Rupert is introduced dancing in the very first scene! Good decision, because once you see him, you gotta love him!

Although released to DVD by Image a couple of years ago, Fox has reissued the film to DVD just in time for the 2003 holiday season...under a new title, A CHRISTMAS WISH. While a nice marketing move for the Christmas season, it is a little misleading, since the last half of the film is not holiday-oriented. Otherwise, a decent DVD offering the film in both original B&W, as well as a colorized version, all on the same DVD. (The colorized version also offers us a chance to hear co-star Terry Moore talk about the film on an optional soundtrack. While we hear about the tricks used with the live-action squirrels during production, little mention is made of the stop-motion technique in several key sequences with the title character of Rupert the Dancing Squirrel.) While the colorization process is not quite as good as that of, say, Disney's ZORRO or Laurel & Hardy's MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS, it is better than many other attempts to "improve upon" black and white imagery. There are a couple of spots where the colorization process slips, however. Watch, in the soda shop, as one customer tells the clerk to "Cut me in on 40% of the winnings." The red Christmas stocking in the background suddenly reverts back to its original black and white image by the end of the line. Still, this overlooked fantasy--producer George Pal's first feature--may finally find a more mainstream audience, courtesy of Fox Home Video.

The Great Rupert besides being the first feature film of master Puppetooner George Pal is a pleasant, gentle, and innocuous family comedy about the innocent antics of a very smart squirrel and the changes he wreaks in a neighborhood. Ironically enough no one knows he's the responsible party right up to the highest levels of government.

Rupert who is an animated squirrel courtesy of George Pal is a trained rodent by animal trainer Jimmy Conlin, but who can't sell the act to agent Chick Chandler and because of that he's evicted for lack of rent payment by landlord Frank Orth.

As luck would have it another group of vaudevillians, the family Amendola which consists of Jimmy Durante, wife Queenie Smith and their daughter Terry Moore. Mainly because Orth's son develops big eyes for Terry, he rents them the place without a deposit nor hopes of getting one.

But Rupert returns to his nest in the roof of that house and he causes miser Orth's fortune to fall upon the Amendolas, it's where the old skinflint stores his loot because he doesn't trust banks. Remember we were not too far from the Depression when many banks failed.

I can't go any farther, but suffice it to say it all works out financially and romantically in the end. Along the way Jimmy Durante provides us with a couple of numbers in his unique style.

The film is timeless in its humor, but it does show the age of the fashions involved. It probably could be remade today, I can see Steve Martin in Jimmy Durante's part.

But not with the Schnozz.

The Great Rupert is a funny, heart-warming tale of prayer and faith, poverty and philanthropy, in which hard-hearted greed gets its comeuppance and everything turns out for the best. And a cute little dancing squirrel is the agent driving the action behind the scenes!

Like BEYOND TOMORROW (1940; see my comments to that film), this is another little-known Yuletide flick which has been saved from public domain, colorized and retitled on its Fox DVD; in fact, not only was this originally shot in black-and-white but was named THE GREAT RUPERT after the amiable puppet of a kilt-wearing dancing squirrel who helps to realize the impoverished protagonists' recurring Christmas wish. In fact, Rupert proved to be the first creature animated for a feature-length film by famed sci-fi producer George Pal and is also notable as one of big-nosed multi-talented entertainer Jimmy Durante's best film vehicles.

The story starts with down-and-out animal trainer Jimmy Conlin being evicted from his ramshackle apartment by miserly landlord Frank Orth but Conlin's squirrel soon returns to Conlin's old hide which is already occupied by the equally penniless acrobatic trio, the Amendolas played by Durante, Queenie Smith and Terry Moore. Predictably enough, Orth's ne'r-do-well musician son Tom Drake falls for Moore but is soon driven to distraction by the unwarranted attention the latter is receiving from visiting Broadway agent Don Beddoe looking to re-engage Conlin for his act. Meanwhile, Rupert himself is getting annoyed with Mr. Orth's storing his weekly stash of cash in his wooden house...

Although George Pal's puppet effects are nicely enough done, "Schnozzle" Durante is practically the whole show here and, typically, he has a couple of numbers featuring his eccentric singing-and-piano-playing style. Actor/director Irving Pichel – who, apparently, also appears in the film as a "puzzled pedestrian" – hands the light material quite competently which makes this unassuming concoction a gently pleasing alternative to the usual Christmas fare.