Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

evanston_dad In a premise that sounds like it could have been used for the sitcom within a sitcom that Jerry and George develop for NBC in "Seinfeld," Charles Laughton plays a butler who journeys back to America with a touring couple when his master, played with a hilarious mumble by Roland Young, loses him in a game of poker. In America, Laughton gets a taste of what it's like when all men are created equal and nobody recognizes the difference between a servant and those whom he serves. It all breezes by in a quick and funny 90 minutes.Of course a modern-day audience realizes that the America as depicted in this film is a myth. People in America aren't treated equally and never have been, and we have our own version of a class system even if we don't call it that. But the film does nail the gregariousness and friendliness of Americans as compared to the reserve of Europe, and it feels right that most of the the Americans in the film couldn't care less that Laughton is a butler as long as he's willing to join them for a good time.Laughton gets to showcase his range as an actor, even his abilities at screwball comedy. But he's outshone by the supporting cast around him, notably Charlie Ruggles and Maude Eburne in addition to the already mentioned Young. The funniest scene in the movie, in fact, belongs not to Laughton, but to Young when he's trying to learn how to play the drums."Ruggles of Red Gap" was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1935 when the Academy allowed a whopping 12 films to compete for the top prize.Grade: A

kidboots Harry Leon Wilson's 1915 novel about a British "gentleman's gentleman" adjusting to life in America's Wild West proved a popular subject for films. Edward Everett Horton played him in 1923 but, once again, Charles Laughton made the role his own in the definitive 1935 version. Laughton was ideally cast as Marmaduke Ruggles, the valet of scatterbrained Britisher George Vane Bassingwell (Roland Young), who is won in a poker game by George's nouveau-riche American cousin Egbert Fround (Charles Ruggles). This is just the most hilarious movie, Laughton's calm and very human characterization is in sharp contrast to his usual sinister and exotic roles.Fround and his wife, Effie (Mary Boland) are doing the "Grand Tour" and Effie hopes that Ruggles will use his influence to give Fround a touch of class (Fround wears check suits, plaid suits, refuses to have his "handle bar" moustache trimmed and prefers to frequent cafes and beer halls rather than museums and art galleries). But Fround starts to introduce Marmaduke as the Colonel and by the time they reach Red Gap - he is a celebrity!!! Before they leave Paris there is a brilliant scene where Fround and his friend proceed to get Ruggles drunk - Laughton is a scream, he instantly loses his stiff upper lip, screams "Yahoo", gets falling down drunk and even flirts with Effie!!! Once in Red Gap he meets the villain of the piece (Lucien Littlefield - you instantly know he's the villain as he quickly orders Ruggles to deal with the luggage)!!! But he also meets friends who don't care whether he's plain Ruggles or the Colonel but like him for who he is, especially Zasu Pitts as the widow Mrs. Judson, who helps him achieve his dream of opening an Anglo American restaurant. Ruggles has the distinction of introducing "scones" to the Wild West. There is such a fine roster of character actors - apart from all those mentioned there is the wonderful Maude Eburne as Egbert's mother, a cross between Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane ("don't call me Madam around here")!! But it is Laughton's very low key yet very laugh out loud portrayal of Ruggle's gradual emancipation from formal servant to master of his own destiny that dominates this absolutely brilliant film. It is also nice to see Leila Hyams in the small but telling role of the beautiful Nell Kenner, whose parties are where all the gentlemen of the town want to be!!!

MARIO GAUCI British-born but American-naturalized comedian Bob Hope had first followed his classic Western comedy THE PALEFACE (1948) with FANCY PANTS (1950) where he played a stuffy English butler out West; it was pure coincidence, therefore, that I happened to come across the remake of the former – the Don Knotts vehicle THE SHAKIEST GUN IN THE WEST (1968) – and the original of the latter (which is the film under review) for this year's Christmas season.RUGGLES OF RED GAP was an oft-filmed novel and this version (perhaps the best-known and undoubtedly the best) was already the third screen treatment. Charles Laughton was clearly on a roll in the early 1930s, with three superlative performances in 1935 alone – the others being his celebrated (and Oscar-nominated) Captain Bligh in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and Javert in LES MISERABLES – but I'd venture to say that his Marmaduke Ruggles is the one that ought to have been singled out for the highest praise. His social standing as a butler doesn't allow him to appear flustered by all the lunacy going on around him and, as a result, his subtle reactions are a sheer joy to behold and a clear testament to the actor's capabilities and emotional range. In fact, the film's first 20 minutes or so (set in Paris, France) are a hilarious succession of events that seriously test the age-old values of the unflappable Ruggles (culminating in a memorable drinking sequence that brought tears to my eyes from laughter).It is ironic that a film which headlines a character named Ruggles should have an actor named Ruggles in a main role but Charlie Ruggles manages to defeat that challenge and emerge almost as shiny as Laughton himself; he plays a hen-pecked American tourist (as usual, he's married to bossy Mary Boland who wins Ruggles in a bet with his reckless master Roland Young) and proceeds to take him to his hometown of Red Gap, Washington, U.S.A. Charlie's persistence in treating Ruggles as his equal and call him "Colonel" gives his compatriots the mistaken notion that Laughton was a high-ranking British officer and, consequently, they start regarding him as a local celebrity. However, his ruse slowly starts to unravel when he meets up with klutzy cook Zasu Pitts and starts giving her pointers on spicing up her meat sauce… Although the film eventually loses some of that initial frenzied momentum, it is never less than enjoyable and, occasionally, even moving: at one point, Laughton lets his real cultured self show through in front of his feather-brained American bar-room cronies when murmuring Abraham Lincoln's famous address at Gettysburg – according to Edward Dmytryk (who worked as an editor on the picture), ultra-sensitive Laughton got so emotional in speaking those lines (and which subsequently became favorites of his) that it took director Leo McCarey one-and-a-half days to shoot the scene! Also, according to Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester, the subject was clearly close to his heart as it was he who brought to Paramount's attention and picked McCarey to direct the film, whose sole Oscar nod would be for the Best Picture of the Year (although Laughton did eventually win the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Actor).P.S. This was yet another case of DivX foul-up for me as the copy I initially got kept pixelating and freezing before the DVD conversion conveniently resolved the issues satisfactorily.

theowinthrop RUGGLES AT RED GAP is an example of a film that was far better when it came out than it is today. I realize, as I say this, that most of the comments on this thread are positive ones - that they emphasize the better points of the cast and scenes of the film, and of Leo McCarey's directing abilities, but the film is a bit too mild for today's taste.McCarey was capable of doing very funny film comedies like THE AWFUL TRUTH, and homey quasi-religious films like GOING MY WAY and THE BELLS OF ST. MARY, and romantic classics like LOVE AFFAIR and AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, and he did one of the best films ever made about the tragedy of growing old, MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW. But he could make movies, or films that were not as lasting in public appeal. For example, his extreme Catholicism made him as big a foe of Communism as Cecil B. DeMille. He did that abysmal film MY SON JOHN (Robert Walker Sr.'s last film) about a young man who becomes a Communist Russian agent.RUGGLES OF RED GAP is not as bad a misfire as MY SON JOHN. First of all it does have a funny set of problems in it's story. Set in the year 1900 or so, the movie is about Egbert and Effie Floud of Red Gap, Washington State (Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland). Floud is a wealthy rancher, and his wife is trying to polish him up by taking him on a modern grand tour of Europe. But Egbert is very down-to-earth, and keeps up a continuous quiet rear guard action against his wife's pretensions. She keeps burning his loud, checkered suits. He keeps finding ways of replacing the "monkey" suits (tales) that she gets him. He never really picks up on the cultural advantages that she pushes (he really dislikes them). One thing that Floud does pick up is Marmaduke Ruggles (Charles Laughton), a butler and valet to George, Earl of Burnwell (Roland Young). Floud wins Ruggles in a high stake poker game with the Earl. Floud is a good democratic type, and refuses to call the timid but competent butler Ruggles. Instead he keeps calling him Bill. He also introduces Ruggles to the pleasures of getting drunk, much to the disappointment of Effie.Effie's snobbery (which is undercut by her ineptitude in pronouncing French) is encouraged by her brother in law Charles Belknap - Jackson (Lucien Littlefield). A total snob, he looks down at the decent Egbert (who is footing the bills for his own family and Belknap - Jackson's) and he considers that Ruggles is a step in the right direction, as long as Ruggles knows his place.The Flouds and their party return to Red Gap, and Ruggles slowly finds that he really fits into the community. Particularly when he meets Prunella Judson (Zazu Pitts), whom he finds himself falling in love with. Back on their home turf Effie (still manipulated by Belknap - Jackson) keeps trying to raise the community's social standards. But even Effie, back at home, eases a bit. Her neighbors like her, but they can tune out her pretensions, If any scene is recalled from RUGGLES it is when Egbert, his neighbor Ma Pettingill (Maude Eburne) and his friend Jeff Tuttle (James Burke) are drinking beer in the local saloon with Ruggles, and discuss President Lincoln and his appearance at the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery in November 1863. It turns out none of them recall Lincoln's Gettysburg Address - except Ruggles. Speaking softly but with increased emphasis, Laughton recites the complete four minute speech, and gave one of most memorable moments in movies (and in his own career) to the public. His recitation of the speech is the culmination of his adherence to the democratic ideals that he has hitherto feared, but now welcomes.The conclusion of the film is a party attended by the entire community that both Marmaduke and Prunella throw at their new restaurant. And it culminates in Marmaduke reacting violently (if politely) to Belknap - Jackson who has been sneering at the democratic riffraff. Firmly grasping the snob by his jacket he pushes him out of the restaurant.The film is appealing in it's adherence of the leveling and freeing aspects of American democracy, and so it deserves an "8" out of "10". But it is not as great a film as that ranking would seem to suggest. There are long stretches of the film that drag. Some of the humor is a trifle more slapdash (particularly Ruggles' reaction to alcohol) than one would appreciate. McCarey had been trained in silent comedy, particularly with Laurel & Hardy, but he could fall flat occasionally.There is also a problem about his villain. Littlefield does well as Belknap - Jackson, but we never understand the reason for his outrageous snobbery. It might have helped to understand this character's reasons.Still hearing Laughton recite Lincoln is a great treat, as is his interactions with Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland and Roland Young. It is certainly a film to watch once or twice, but beyond that I can't really feel that you would gain much more pleasure from viewing it.