The Great Rupert

The Great Rupert (1950)

Christmas miracles do happen

Shortly before Christmas, a family moves into an apartment where Rupert the squirrel lives in the attic rafters. Just as it seems that the holiday will come and go without so much as a Christmas tree, Rupert acts as the family's guardian angel - not only saving Christmas, but changing their lives forever.

Date of release
1950-03-01
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (31)
Runtime
1h 28m
Genres
Family, Comedy
Director
Irving Pichel

Casting

Interesting facts

The Great Rupert is a 1950 comedy family film starring Jimmy Durante, Tom Drake and Terry Moore, produced by George Pal and directed by Irving Pichel. It is based on a story written by Ted Allan that has also been published as a children's book under the title Willie the Squowse.

Production

In 1949, producer George Pal, who had formerly overseen animated shorts, convinced the independent Eagle-Lion Films to cofinance a two-picture deal with him. These films would be The Great Rupert and Destination Moon.

The film was originally known as Money, Money, Money and was based on a story by Ted Allen purchased by Pal in June 1948. It was adapted by Laszlo Vadnay. Filming started at General Service Studio on June 20, 1949. At one stage, the film was called The Great Amandola; at another, it was Rupert II.

Pal's stop-motion animation used in creating the illusion of the dancing squirrel was so realistic that he received many inquiries about where he had located a trained squirrel.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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