Ruggles of Red Gap
| Ruggles of Red Gap | |
|---|---|
theatrical release poster
|
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| Directed by | Leo McCarey |
| Produced by | Arthur Hornblow Jr. |
| Screenplay by |
Walter DeLeon Harlan Thompson |
| Story by | Humphrey Pearson |
| Based on |
Ruggles of Red Gap 1915 novel by Harry Leon Wilson |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Alfred Gilks |
| Edited by | Edward Dmytryk |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
|
Release date
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February 19, 1935 |
|
Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Ruggles of Red Gap is a 1935 comedy film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, and ZaSu Pitts, and featuring Roland Young and Leila Hyams. It was based on the best-selling 1915 novel by Harry Leon Wilson, adapted by Humphrey Pearson, with a screenplay by Walter DeLeon and Harlan Thompson. It is the story of a newly rich American couple from the West who win a British gentleman's gentleman in a poker game.
In 1908 the Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young) gambles away his eminently correct English manservant, Marmaduke Ruggles (Charles Laughton). Ruggles' new masters, crude nouveau riche American millionaires Egbert and Effie Floud (Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland), bring Ruggles back to Red Gap, Washington, a remote Western boomtown. When Ruggles is mistaken for a wealthy retired Englishman colonel, he becomes a celebrity in the small town. As Ruggles attempts to adjust to his rough new community, he learns to live life on his own terms, achieving a fulfilling independence as a result.
The climax of the film is Laughton’s recitation of the Gettysburg Address in a saloon filled with rough Western characters who are held spellbound by the speech. Newly imbued with the spirit of democracy and self-determination, Ruggles becomes his own man, giving up his previous employment and opening a restaurant in Red Gap.
Charles Laughton won the New York Film Critics' Circle Awards for Ruggles of Red Gap (along with Mutiny on the Bounty) in 1935. The National Board of Review named the film the ninth best of 1935. [That year, Laughton's other two films, Les Misérables and Mutiny on the Bounty were sixth and eighth on the list, respectively]. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and competed against two other Laughton films that were also nominated: Mutiny on the Bounty (which won the award) and Les Misérables.
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