A Christmas Wish

aka The Great Rupert

(1950)

Animal / Comedy / Family / Holiday

87 minutes 

Directed by Irving Pichel 

Cast: 

Jimmy Durante as Mr. Louie Amendola

Terry Moore as Rosalinda Amendola

Tom Drake as Peter 'Pete' Dingle

Frank Orth as Mr. Frank Dingle

Sara Haden as Mrs.Katie Dingle

Queenie Smith as Mrs. Amendola

Chick Chandler as Phil Davis

Jimmy Conlin as Joe Mahoney

Rupert as Himself the Squirrel

George Pal Productions released A Christmas Wish in 1950, originally titled The Great Rupert .  The funny and heart-warming family holiday film was directed by Irving Pichel.

Rupert, billed as the the World’s Greatest Entertainer by his manager Joe Mahoney, is a dancing squirrel.

The movie is about the Amendolas, a vaudeville family, that is struggling to make ends meet and they move into an apartment just before Christmas.  The apartment is owned by Frank Dingle, a tightwad of a man.  Joe Mahoney was a tenant in the building but is evicted by Mr. Dingle when he can’t pay his rent because he can’t sell Rupert’s act and Rupert takes up residency in the attic of the building.

Each week Mr. Dingle receives a check from his gold mine stock and, not trusting banks, deposits the cash into the wall of his bedroom – right into Rupert’s paws.

Overhearing the plight of the Amendolas, Rupert takes each week’s deposit and drops it into the Amendola’s apartment for them.  And in the meantime, a romance is blossoming between the Amendola’s daughter, Rosalinda, and Mr. Dingle’s son, Pete.