Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

Director:

Leo McCarey

Writers:

Harry Leon Wilson (novel)
Humphrey Pearson (adaptation)
(more)

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 | Gettysburg Address | Widow | Valet

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins

Cast

Charles Laughton	...	Ruggles
Mary Boland	...	Effie Floud
Charles Ruggles	...	Egbert Floud (as Charlie Ruggles)
Zasu Pitts	...	Mrs. Judson (as ZaSu Pitts)
Roland Young	...	Earl of Burnstead
Leila Hyams	...	Nell Kenner
Maude Eburne	...	'Ma' Pettingill
Lucien Littlefield	...	Charles Belknap-Jackson
Leota Lorraine	...	Mrs. Belknap-Jackson
James Burke	...	Jeff Tuttle
Dell Henderson	...	Sam
Clarence Wilson	...	Jake Henshaw
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ernie Adams	...	Dishwasher (uncredited)
Augusta Anderson	...	Mrs. Wallaby (uncredited)
Alyce Ardell	...	Lisette - French Maid (uncredited)
Harry Bernard	...	Harry - Bartender #2 (uncredited)
Harry Bowen	...	Photographer (uncredited)
George Burton	...	Doc Squires (uncredited)
Alex Chivra	...	Chef #1 (uncredited)
Heinie Conklin	...	Waiter at the Grill (uncredited)
Jim Corey	...	Cowboy (uncredited)
Carrie Daumery	...	Effie's Guest in Paris (uncredited)
Sarah Edwards	...	Mrs. Myron Carey (uncredited)
Charles Fallon	...	Max - Paris Cafe Waiter (uncredited)
Brenda Fowler	...	Mrs. Judy Ballard (uncredited)
Willie Fung	...	Willie - Chinese Servant (uncredited)
Armand Kaliz	...	Clothing Salesman (uncredited)
Jane Keckley	...	Cook (uncredited)
Jane Kerr	...	Cook (uncredited)
Lee Kohlmar	...	Jailer at Red Gap (uncredited)
Isabel La Mal	...	Effie's Guest in Paris (uncredited)
Edward LeSaint	...	Diner at the Grill (uncredited)
Sam Lufkin	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Charles McEvoy	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Robert Milasch	...	Driver (uncredited)
Frank Mills	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Jack Norton	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Patsy O'Byrne	...	Cook (uncredited)
Frank O'Connor	...	Station Agent (uncredited)
Albert Petit	...	Waiter at Carousel (uncredited)
Victor Potel	...	Curly - Cowboy (uncredited)
Frank Rice	...	Hank Adams (uncredited)
Henry Roquemore	...	Fred - Diner at the Grill (uncredited)
Rolfe Sedan	...	Barber in Paris (uncredited)
Genaro Spagnoli	...	Frank - Cab Driver (uncredited)
Rafael Storm	...	Clothing Salesman (uncredited)
Libby Taylor	...	Libby - Black Servant (uncredited)
Jim Welch	...	Man in Saloon (uncredited)
William Welsh	...	Eddie (uncredited)

Directed by
Leo McCarey

Writing credits
Harry Leon Wilson		(novel "Ruggles of Red Gap")
Humphrey Pearson		(adaptation)
Walter DeLeon		(screenplay) and
Harlan Thompson		(screenplay)

Produced by
Arthur Hornblow Jr.	....	producer

Cinematography by
Alfred Gilks		(photographed by)

Film Editing by
Edward Dmytryk		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Hans Dreier		(uncredited)
Robert Odell		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Travis Banton		(uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
A.F. Erickson	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Philip Wisdom	....	sound (uncredited)

Music Department
John Leipold	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Heinz Roemheld	....	composer: title music (uncredited)

Other crew
Adolph Zukor	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1935) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount British Pictures (1935) (UK) (theatrical)
• Atalanta Filmes (1936) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (1945) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• MCA/Universal Pictures (1958) (USA) (TV)
• MCA Home Video (1988) (USA) (VHS)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (2005) (USA) (VHS)
• Paramount Pictures (1935) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Paramount (1935) (France) (theatrical)
• Epoca (????) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Eureka Entertainment (2012) (UK) (DVD)
• Universal Studios Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD) (Universal Vault Series)

Also Known As:

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) | Argentina:13 | USA:Not Rated

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:

Earl of Burnstead, aka George:I say, do you believe in love at first sight?
Nell Kenner:No. Do you?
Earl of Burnstead, aka George:No. That's why I'd like to stay for a while, if I may.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Maltin on Movies: Video Guide 2010 (#1.19)" (2010)

Soundtrack:

By the Light of the Silvery Moon

Making Your Way In A New World

Ruggles of Red Gap is the warm and tender story of Charles Laughton, gentlemen's gentlemen to Lord Roland Young who loses his services in a poker game to American western tourist Charlie Ruggles and his wife Mary Boland. Ruggles has some ideas about class distinction and one's proper place in society and he's in for quite a culture shock when he's brought back to the western town of Red Gap in Washington State.

In a way Ruggles of Red Gap is the polar opposite of The Earl of Chicago where an American gangster Robert Montgomery inherits an English title and experiences a reverse culture shock. In that film Montgomery has an English valet in Edmund Gwenn who indoctrinates him in reverse of what Laughton experiences. Of course things turn out a whole lot better for Marmaduke Ruggles than for the Earl of Kinmont.

In a way Ruggles of Red Gap may have been Charles Laughton's most personal film. In his life he became an American citizen because he preferred the American view of no titles of nobility and that one had better opportunities here than in Europe. It caused a certain amount of friction between Laughton and some other British players.

Laughton up to then had played a whole lot of bigger than life parts like Nero, Henry VIII, Captain Bligh, Edward Moulton Barrett, parts that called for a lot of swagger. Marmaduke Ruggles is a different kind of man. Self contained, shy, and unsure of himself in new surroundings. But Laughton pulls it off beautifully. It's almost Quasimodo without the grotesque make up. Also very much like the school teacher in This Land is Mine.

Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland never fail to entertain, they worked beautifully together in a number of films in the early Thirties. They always were a married couple, Boland a very haughty woman with some exaggerated ideas of her own importance and her ever patient and somewhat henpecked husband Charlie. In Ruggles of Red Gap, Charlie Ruggles is a little less henpecked.

My guess is that Zasu Pitts played the role she did because Elsa Lanchester might have been busy elsewhere. I believe she was making the Bride of Frankenstein around this time. Pitts's scenes with Laughton resonate the same way as some of Charles Laughton's best work with his wife.

The highlight of Ruggles of Red Gap has always been Laughton's recital of The Gettysburg Address. In a scene in a saloon where none of the American born people can remember anything of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Laughton the immigrant recited it from memory. It was a harbinger of some of Laughton's later recitals which I remember as a kid on the Ed Sullivan show. The scene is a tribute to all the immigrants who come here because of the ideals this country is supposed to represent. Sometimes our immigrants have taken it more seriously than those who were born here. Immigrants like Charles Laughton.