THE MOVIEGOER

The current offering at the Pilgrim goes a long way towards disproving the movie industry's latest promotion poster (to wit: Movies Are Better Than Ever). Rupert is, of all things, a squirrel; the picture is the latest vehicle for Jimmy Durante.

Rupert is undoubtedly the cleverest squirrel in captivity; unfortunately the movie is not good Durante humor. The Great Proboscis, forced to share top billing with the damn squirrel, has been given only a few really funny lines and he never goes into one of the long stories which are his specialty. Durante does, however, perform at the piano a couple of times.

Avid Durante followers won't appreciate "The Great Rupert." The plot, a rather juvenile and absurd one, certainly confines Durante's talents, and the man himself appears less exuberant than in some of his earlier pictures.

The co-feature, something called "The Golden Gloves Story," is a press agent-like build-up for the annual amateur boxing tournament. Since the tale involves two fighters after the same girl, the picture must rely on its prize-fighting scenes, which are, for the most part, mediocre. One of the hangers-on is former middleweight champ Tony Zale, who handles his one line with considerable finesse. The movie introduces Dewey Martin as one of the fighters, and should he ever contemplate acting in another film somebody ought to punch him in the nose for fair.