Even though the film involves a stop-motion animated squirrel [courtesy of George Pal of War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide fame], it gets off to a slow start and the squirrel is one of the movie's least entertaining plot devices.
The film begins with washed-up vaudville performer Joe Mahoney playing the accordian and singing a song about "Rupert", while Rupert the squirrel (dressed in a plaid kilt) dances on a table.
The Great Rupert.
Joe Mahoney - Washed Up.
Joe gets a visit from bigshot Broadway agent Bill Davis, who is not at all impressed with the dancing squirrel. He wants something like a lion instead, "Not a little pipsqueak squirrel that anybody can see at any time".
Even though Joe protests that "Rupert is almost human!", Bill bails and Joe is kicked out of his apartment.
Joe undresses Rupert and sets him free in a park, reassuring the squirrel, "You'll be the life of the party doing the somersaults and all the cute little tricks that I taught you..now beat it!"
The scene shifts to Louis Amandola (played by Jimmy Durante) and family (Mrs. Amandalo and their daughter Rosalinda - a former vaudille act, "The Amandola Trio").
Stamps were only 3 cents each when this movie was shot because Mr. Amandola is reading his final bank notice which states, "We feel it is hardly worth 3 cents to tell you you have 2 cents".
And to make things worse, it is almost Christmas and Rosalinda can hardly walk because she has outgrown her shoes and they are pinching her feet!
They run into Joe and make small talk. Jimmy Durante says a lot of crap I think he just ad-libbed. Like, "We gave a performance the audience will never forget! Because they were elephants! HaHaHa!" (everybody laughs at this, not just Jimmy Durante, because it is a pretty funny joke and I bet the actor just made it up off the top of his head. That's nothing anybody would write into a movie script).
Anyway, since Joe is kicked out of his apartment they decide to move in since it only costs $32 per month (even though they are also broke). Joe totally walks out of the movie at this point.
Meanwhile, Rupert is having a hard time getting back to nature. Similar to Santa Claus, Rupert is chased up a tree by a mean dog. He crawls into a hole in the tree, but is chased out by a fake owl. Then he runs through traffic, finally deciding to just go back to Joe's old apartment.
It's not as peaceful as when he left, because the landlord's son, Peter Dingle, is sitting in there playing the tuba.
Peter Dingle practicing the tuba in Joe's vacent apartment.
Then the Amandolas arrive. When Peter Dingle sees Rosalinda, he can't keep his eyes off of her, so he lets them move in. He keeps pressuring them for advance payment of the rent and none of Mr. Amandola's jokes seem to distract him. Then Rosalinda tells him she has to change her clothes which totally embarrasses him. He leaves immediately (he also leaves his tuba behind in their apartment).
The landlord, Mr. Dingle, is furious with his son for not getting the rent in advance. He chews him out - "Honor, Charity, Love-Thy-Neighbor....Everything but money! What did money ever do to you??"
This scene establishes the fact that Mr. Dingle is a skinflint.
The chemistry between Peter Dingle and Rosalinda is not to be denied. He asks her to go on a walk with him, but she has to refuse because her shoes pinch her feet too much for serious walking -
"My shoes pinch my feet so, Peter".
So Peter gives her a pair of his mother's shoes (!) and even though they are too big, at least they don't pinch her. When they see Mr. Dingle coming out of a bank, Rosalinda confides, "I've never been in a bank!"
Mr. Dingle was in the bank cashing a weekly $1,500 check he gets from a goldmine he owns. Then he stashes the money in the floorboards of his house because he doesn't trust the banks. He won't even tell his wife where he hides his money specifically because he doesn't want her to give it to his son.
Now the action starts rolling!
Snow is coming in through the Amandolas' apartment's broken skylight and Mama Amandola is praying to God out of total despair. She's is facing the rafters (where Rupert is) while she prays and Rupert apparently thinks she is talking to him because he goes into the wall and retrieves Mr. Dingle's money stash and drops it down on her, bill by bill - sort of immitating the snow. She thinks it's a Christmas miracle from God. Mrs. Amandola removes her apron and runs out the door.
Soon after, the Amandolas have acquired a giant Christmas tree and Rosalinda has baked a turkey while wearing brand new shoes. When Mr. Amandola sees this scenario, he is afraid Mrs. Amandola sold her wedding ring. Then he thinks the money came from a guy who used to hit on her.
Mrs Amandola: "That was 22 years ago!"
Mr. Amandola: "I don't care how long ago it was! I never trust a man in a tuxedo! Especially a rented one!"
The next time Peter and Rosalinda are out walking, Peter learns that Rosalinda plays the harp and decides to compose a musical piece for the harp and tuba (titled Melody of Two Orphan Instruments)
The next scene takes place on Christms morning. The Amandolas pay a visit to the Dingles and pay 3 months of rent in adance.
Peter and Mr. Amandola find they are wearing the same tie and have the following bonding moment:
Peter: "We have the same ties on!"
Mr. Amandola: "It could be a lot worse! If we was girls wearing the same dresses!!"
Once the rent is paid, everybody is happy and Mr. Amandola has his way with the Dingles' piano without even asking permission -
Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells!
He starts with "Jingle Bells" then starts adding some old vaudville shtick, which really gets everything hopping.
Then Peter and Rosalinda perform Melody of Two Orphan Instruments -
Melody of Two Orphan Instruments.
Rosalinda: "It's lovely."
Peter: "So are you."
Then Bill Davis (the bigshot Broadway agent) shows up. Everybody wants to get into Rosalinda's panties and Mr. Davis is no exception. He stares an her constantly while he's talking to her -
Bill Davis: "You live here?"
Rosalinda: "Yes."
Bill Davis: "Alone?"
Rosalinda: "With my parents."
Bill Davis: "Oh. Well. That's nice."
Mr. Amandola impresses Bill Davis with his juggling. He states, "I can juggle 25 plates with one hand. And with the other hand, I pick up the broken ones".
Then he starts juggling nuts and tossing them way up in the rafters, where Rupert snags one. Bill Davis is impressed, thinking Mr. Amandola was doing a magic trick.
Bill Davis is crazy for Rosalinda and takes her out to "a chinese dinner" and they don't get home until after midnight.
Ms. Amandola is worried about her daughter while Mr. Amandola comments, "Nothing will happen to her. She's with a man".
Peter is going apeshit and decides he needs to get a job immediately so he can compete with the wealthy Bill Davis. He walks out to a drug store (after midnight) and wakes up the owner who surprisingly agrees to give him a job serving customers at the soda fountain.
Rosalinda is now dating Bill Davis regularly. She tries to pull some strings, she claims to have written Medley of Two Orphan Instruments under the pen name "Peter Dingle" and Bill agrees to get it recorded for her.
When she tries to tell Peter at the soda fountain, Bill Davis barges in, calls the soda fountain a "dump", and makes her leave.
Poor Peter Dingle.
In the next scene, we see a well-dressed Mr. Amandalo squandering what remains of their $1,500. He has purchased a polar bear rug for the apartment and when you turn one of its teeth, its eyes light up and a recording of a brass band playing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" blares out of its head!
Mrs. Amandalo doesn't approve, but Mr. Amandalo feels it "lends an air of quality to the place".
Comments such as this are apparently a sore spot for Mrs. Amandalo, because she starts bringing up old shit about how, whenever they get ahead, Mr. Amandalo squanders everything.
Next is the following family financial dialogue:
Mr. Amandalo: "Do what you did a week ago! Pray!!"
Mrs. Amandalo: "Well, I am praying! Every hour of the day! But if it's money you want me to pray for..."
Rosalinda: "Why not mother? It's worth a try!"
Mrs. Amandalo: "Well...Well...I just wouldn't have the nerve to ask again."
Mr. Amandalo: "Just ask and let Heaven make up its mind!"
Rosalinda: "Say the same thing you said before!"
Mrs. Amandalo: "I said Rosalinda needed a new pair of shoes. But now she doesn't. She has four pair already!"
Mr. Amandalo: "When you say she needs shoes, that doesn't mean she really needs them! It's like when you play dice! A guy says, 'Baby needs a new pair of shoes'. It doesn't mean she needs them. It's just a disfigurement of speech."
So Mrs. Amandalo tries it again, with Mr. Amandalo and Rosalinda by her side.
She prays, "Please help us, Rosalinda needs shoes. She needs them real bad".
It just so happens that at that very moment, Mr. Dingle is placing a new stash of cash into the floorboards.
Thinking their prayer has been denied, Mr. Amandalo and Rosalinda leave to return the polar bear rug and as the door closes behind them, Mrs. Amandalo looks to the Heavens and prays, "Please forgive me for telling a lie. Rosalinda doesn't really need shoes."
Then Rupert drops another $1,500 on her!
She calls in her husband & Rosalinda and everybody is thrilled.
Mrs. Amandalo: "It happened last week at this time!"
Mr. Amandalo: "All you gotta do is sit in that old rocker every Thursday at 3:30 and say 'Rosalinda needs new shoes'! $1,500!! It's funny how simple life can be!"
It goes on like this for weeks and the Amandalos start contributing to charities - They donate $1,000 to buy new shoes for children in Europe!!
Down at the soda fountain, the townspeople are getting suspicious:
The townspeople.
The townspeople notice that, while the Amandalos never go to work, they are swimming in cash.
One man suggests they are gangsters.
A woman suggests they are printing counterfit money at home.
They discuss calling the FBI.
An observant fat gentleman comments, "A man comes to see their daughter every day in a big car", suggesting the Amandalos are getting rich by whoring out their daughter and "contaminating the whole community".
Unfortunately for that man, Peter is working and smashes a "Banana Delight" ice cream sunday into the man's face.
He then storms out of the soda fountain and goes straight to a bar.
Bill Davis' Bigass Car.
Peter's Irish friend, Mulligan, is at the bar and notices Peter is distraught. He is the sensitive type and observes, "You're hurt, Peter. Who hurt you boy?"
Then he offers to let Peter in on an oil well deal that will make him rich.
Next is Peter and Rosalinda's big love scene -
Peter and Rosalinda's love scene.
Regarding Peter's financial worries, Rosalinda states, "Mama and Papa didn't have any money when they first met and it was the happiest time of their life".
Peter replies, "But I don't even juggle".
Mr. Amandalo is eavesdropping and totally approves of his daughter's relationship with Peter Dingle. He also offers to front Peter the $2,000 required to get in on Mulligan's oil well deal.
The next day, the feds come knocking -
Here comes the Man.
The local police, the IRS, and the FBI all arrive at the same time and Mr. Amandalo tries to bullshit them all, but they are unmoved.
Finally, Mrs. Amandalo tells them their money comes from God and she will prove it next Thursday at 3:00. So they all agree to return then.
Something major happens before that appointment though.
The Amandalos are flourishing in the community - they own a furniture store, florist shop, and a cleaning business and Mr. Dingle keeps raising their rent on them. They don't want to move elsewhere though, because they're afraid their prayers won't work at another location (and they would be correct).
So tensions are pretty heated between the two men when Mr. Dingle tells Mr. Amandalo, "No son of mine will ever marry a girl of your daughter's reputaton!"
When he hears this, Mr. Amandalo hurls Mrs. Amandalo's prayer chair at Mr. Dingle, shattering it against the wall!
Conflict!
Even worse, Mr. Dingle's gold mine goes dry. So he won't be stashing anymore weekly $1,500 profits into the floorboards anymore.
Then comes the 3:00 "proof" meeting with the police, FBI, and IRS agents -
Proof.
The prayer meeting is a failure as Mrs. Amandalo looks to the Heavens saying, "Rosalinda needs new shoes".
Nothing happens and the cops and feds don't think it's funny to be jerked around like this.
While they are arguing about who gets to take Mr. Amandalo into physical custody, Mr. Amandalo juggles his last cigarette which is snagged from the rafters by Rupert who scurries off into the wall with it.
Soon the house is on fire and Mr. Dingle walks into a little bit of smoke and cries out, "Help! I'm choking!"
As the house burns down, Mr. Dingle mentions he isn't insured, then he mentions the $1,500 per week he was stashing in the floorboards and then the Amandalos all look at each other like, "Aha! It wasn't God afterall!"
All loose ends are resolved immediately and the situation ends positively for everyone -
Mr. Amandalo does the right thing and offers to replace Mr. Dingle's uninsured house.
A fireman walks out of the burning house carrying a dead squirrel (!) but the fire chief notices it isn't really dead, it is just tired from smoke inhalation. The fireman places Rupert in a tree in the (apparently) nearby park where he can recover in peace.
The Feds and police decide everything is too confusing to prosecute and they all just leave.
Bill Davis pulls up in his bigass car and Melody of Two Orphan Instruments is playing on the radio! At the same time, Mulligan tells Peter the oil investment paid off and they are both rich!
Mr. Dingle and Mr. Amandalo are now great friends and they hug.
Joe Mahoney (gone since the begining of the film) gets off a bus in the park and starts playing the accordian and singing the Rupert song.
This revives Rupert and they are back in action! Mahoney got a circus gig playing accordian while Rupert dances -
The show is an instant hit and Rupert the Squirrel is soon headlining - his name is larger than even the clowns and trapeeze artists!
The Great Rupert - Star of the Circus.
I like that nobody even knows about Rupert throughout the entire movie
(except the absent Joe Mahoney).
Great Great Great Great Film!!
Thanks again, Boz!