Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Brilliant and touching

Absolutely brilliant

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Joe has a trained squirrel named Rupert but he can't find any work. Joe is kicked out of his apartment and he releases Rupert back into the park. Joe runs into Louie Amendola (Jimmy Durante) and his family. They take over his apartment. Rupert can't survive in the wild and he goes back to the apartment to live in the rafters. The landlord's son Pete Dingle (Tom Drake) falls immediately for Rosalinda Amendola (Terry Moore). Mr. Dingle starts getting payments from his investment and he stuffs the money in the wall. Rupert throws the money down to the apartment and the needy Amendolas think it's a gift from heaven.The squirrel is fun. The stop motion is rudimentary but very charming. There are a couple of songs from the energetic Durante. I wonder if the movie needs to bring Joe into this. It would be funnier to have the squirrel do all this stuff. The little puppy love romance is cute. The story gets a bit rambling. I'm not sure bringing the cops, IRS and the FBI into the movie is the best comedy. The story about the money probably needs to be simplified a little.

If you're as old as I am, you remember Jimmy Durante as the lovable and classic vaudevillian, who maintained his popularity well into the 1970s (I particularly remember his appearance on Sonny & Cher's variety series in 1972).Of course, this movie doesn't give the Schnozzola the freedom to be as zany as he could be on television, but it is a nice way to remember Durante. It's a very pleasant family comedy about a trained squirrel who just happens to inadvertently help a family of down-on-their-luck vaudevillians get back on their feet. There's a little romance along the way, and their landlord -- a bit of a Scrooge -- is redeemed when he learns the true value of friendship.Yes, it's a bit hokey, but I actually mean that in a good way! It begins around Christmas, so it is often classed as a holiday movie, although the second half of the film takes place well after Christmas.Durante is vibrant. Terry Moore, a Durante's daughter and the love interest in the film is fine. Tom Drake, as the skinflint neighbor's son and Moore's beau is fine also...such a pleasant actor. The other supporting actors are fine, the only one of which you might really recognize is Sara Haden, who portrayed Mickey Rooney's aunt in most of the Andy Hardy films.This is probably not one for your DVD shelf, but it is worth watching at least once, simply for the joy of Durante!

It's Christmastime in New York City. Unemployed vaudevillian Jimmy Durante (as Louie Amendola) rents a ground-floor dwelling for his family on credit, with help from pretty daughter Terry Moore (as Rosalinda). Ms. Moore has charmed landlord's son Tom Drake (as Peter "Pete" Dingle) into forgoing a deposit, and beginning a romance. Meanwhile, a dancing squirrel named "Rupert" has also taken up residence in the building. The little critter (one of producer George "Puppetoon" Pal's creations) takes money stashed by tightwad building owner Frank Orth upstairs and throws it down on Mr. Durante's praying wife (Queenie Smith) downstairs. Naturally, she thinks the money is sent from heaven. Cute.***** The Great Rupert (1/8/50) Irving Pichel ~ Jimmy Durante, Terry Moore, Tom Drake, Frank Orth

When a slightly miserly landlord takes to hiding his savings he inadvertently intrudes into a squirrel's nest--which wastes no time in shoving the money out of his nest and into the hands of the down-on-their-luck Amendola family, who rent an apartment below. Originally released under the title of THE GREAT RUPERT, in 1950 the film was primarily admired for its then-artful blend of live action and puppet animation to create Rupert, the squirrel; today, however, it is best regarded as a very mild mannered and entirely inoffensive little movie that just happens to offer the legendary Jimmy Durante one of his final film roles.The script and story are as memorable as school cafeteria banana pudding, but the performances are reasonably engaging. As head of Amendola family, Durante is brash is only Durante could be, doing doubletakes and pounding out an occasional tune on the piano in his unique style. He is well supported by the likes of Terry Moore, Tom Drake, and such veteran character actors as Queenie Smith, Frank Orth, Sara Haden, and Jimmy Conlin. It's all in good fun.The 20th Century Fox DVD release consists of two versions of the film: the original black and white and a colorized version. There is nothing visually impressive about the film, so it is not hurt by colorization per se; as for the colorization, it is reasonably well done, at least so far as such effects go. Most astonishingly, the release includes a commentary track by Terry Moore and various people associated with the colorization and the DVD release.The commentary track is not tremendously informative; Moore freely admits that she had seen the film only once before, and that some fifteen years earlier. Even so, Moore proves good company, offers the occasional insight into the cast, and now and then proves unwittingly amusing--with her comments on actor Tom Drake, who was both gay and deeply closeted, a case in point. On the whole, I'd say the commentary is actually more engaging than the film itself, but whatever the case Durante fans, Moore fans, and those in search of truly innocent family fare should find it pleasing.GFT, Amazon Reviewer