The Great Rupert
or the Parable of the Talents
I’ve been thinking about this movie lately, not having seen it in years.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B003E48U2E/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r
I haven’t figured out why sometimes putting in a link gives you a preview, and sometimes it’s just a link. But anyway.
The Great Rupert is a 1950 comedy starring Jimmy Durante and a stop-motion squirrel.
And the squirrel is extremely well done. When I first saw it, I thought that the squirrel was CGI, before realizing that that didn’t make sense. Apparently the first audiences were convinced that the squirrel was a real trained squirrel. It didn't strike me as being that good. And of course, the distant shots did have a real squirrel running past.
The movie is just plain fun. More of a Christmas movie than anything else.
Jimmy Durante plays a down-on-his-luck performer, whose family is down to their last 40 cents. But things get better. And of course there is a love triangle between his daughter, the boy next door, and an impressive talent agent.
But the reason I call it a version of the Parable of the Talents is that two sets of people start getting money (one set almost miraculously), and one set hides the money in the wall, and the other starts spreading it around, until the money starts coming back again.
It’s almost a fantasy. It also has a cameo by Sam Drucker from Hooterville (well before it existed). He has hair.
And if the version I linked above starts breaking up on you, search around a bit. Prime has several versions.
One of George Pal's many fantasy productions.
One thing (of many) that my husband and I discussed after watching the movie last night was when the family had spent all of the first windfall, the daughter says, "Now we're back to where we were last week."
No, you're not. You have three months rent paid up, some old bills back in Chicago paid off, new clothing (especially new shoes) for everyone, some new furniture, etc. Even if you never got another windfall, you are considerably better off that you were last week.