Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

Director:

Leo McCarey

Writers:

Harry Leon Wilson (novel)
Humphrey Pearson (adaptation)

Release Date:

8 March 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

SH-H-H-H! TONIGHT'S YOUR NIGHT TO HOWL! And howl you will at this funniest of all comedies...

Plot:

An English valet brought to the American west assimilates into the American way of life.

Plot Keywords:

Restaurant | English | Widow | Gettysburg Address | Saloon

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

Charles Laughton	...	Marmaduke Ruggles
Mary Boland	...	Effie Floud
Charles Ruggles	...	Egbert Floud (as Charlie Ruggles)
Zasu Pitts	...	Prunella Judson (as ZaSu Pitts)
Roland Young	...	George Vane Bassingwell, the Earl of Burnstead
Leila Hyams	...	Nell Kenner
Maude Eburne	...	'Ma' Pettingill
Lucien Littlefield	...	Charles Belknap-Jackson
Leota Lorraine	...	Mrs. Charles Belknap-Jackson
James Burke	...	Jeff Tuttle
Dell Henderson	...	Sam, bartender (as Del Henderson)
Clarence Wilson	...	Jake Henshaw, reporter

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 (re-release) | USA:Approved (PCA #537)

Filming Locations:

Paramount Ranch - 2813 Cornell Road, Agoura, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Charles Laughton referred to his reading of the "Gettysburg Address" in the film as "one of the most moving things that ever happened to me" Laughton recited the address to the cast and crew of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) on the last day of shooting on Catalina Island and again on the set of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).

Quotes:

[Egbert is wearing a loud, checked suit]
Effie Floud: Take off those clothes.
Egbert Floud: No, sir, I won't do it! Effie, we might just as well have a showdown right here and now. What did Lincoln say at Gettysburg? Yeah, you don't know - well, I'll tell you. He said that all men are created equal. He didn't just mean a few men - he meant ALL men. And that includes me: I'm created equal.
Effie Floud: Equal to what?
Egbert Floud: Equal... equal to WHAT? Well, equal to... uh...
Egbert Floud: [to Ma Pettingill] ... She changed the subject on me.
Egbert Floud: [to Effie, recovering his train of thought] Men are created equal to women! That's why you have no right to order me around the way you do. Abe Lincoln said so.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of Comedy (1997) (V)

Soundtrack:

Pretty Baby

A McCarey classic

"Ruggles of Red Gap" is one of Leo McCarey's greatest masterpieces, a witty and trenchant commedia dell'arte, based on a 1915 play by Harry Leon Wilson. It stars the charismatic Charles Laughton as the well-mannered, eccentric English manservant Marmaduke Ruggles who is hilariously Americanized in an American Wild West town of Red Gap, Washington. Ruggles is the devoted servant of the Earl of Burnstead, George Van Bassingwell (Roland Young), who unfortunately loses his efficient servant in a poker game to a wealthy American cattle baron Egbert Floud (Charles Ruggles). Marmaduke leaves his master and moves to Red Gap, where he opens a restaurant and learns to admire the wild west and American mannerisms.

Charles Laughton is nothing short of perfection in one of his wittiest and warmest roles. His extraordinary recital of Lincoln's Gettysburg address to a barroom of speechless cowboys, along with Roland Young and Leila Hyams hysterical rendering of "Pretty Baby," is unforgettable. A must-see!