Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
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Ruggles of Red Gap Movie Review
Ruggles of Red Gap is a 1935 comedy film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Charles Laughton among others. It’s a silly, but pretty solid flick overall.
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“No, I ain’t!
I got about as much use for one of them
as a pig has for side pockets“
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In Paris at the dawn of the 20th century, an earl accidentally loses his faithful valet, Ruggles, to an American rancher in a drunken poker game. Ruggles then becomes mistaken for a British aristocrat and military hero to the embarrassment and confusion of others.
Needless to say, this is a highly silly storyline. I have never bought it seriously and in particular the beginning and how it all unraveled was simply too implausible for me. It’s a comedy, but the one which is too situational in approach and thus not exactly my cup of tea. I also found its entire structure and humor/plot execution very repetitive.
With that being said, the movie still ended up being amusing in a couple of sequences and in particular its playful dialogue and genuinely likable and solidly developed characters helped it in the long run. It’s surprisingly good in those terms.
Mary Boland is very good in her role, Charles Ruggles is also pretty good and everyone did a good acting job. However, an obvious star arose here and that is Charles Laughton. Yes, he had already been a star before this movie and he’s a deserved Oscar winner, but this was his rare thoroughly comedic performance and he really excelled at it to the point that I wonder how great he could have been in more and better comedies. He was so talented.
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Ruggles of Red Gap in terms of technical aspects is rather weak I have to say. Yes, it’s well acted and definitely Leo McCarey did a reliably good job in the directorial chair, but this is still far from his best movies and it comes as a disappointment in the regard of his filmography. But the cinematography, score and the overall look and feel of the movie did not feel cinematic enough and that problem pervaded the whole flick.
Ruggles of Red Gap is technically weaker, silly in its plot, implausible and quite repetitive overall, but it’s still a surprisingly solid comedy which has its genuinely amusing sequences, solid characters, good direction from Leo McCarey, playful dialogue and a particularly strong, rare comedic performance from the great Charles Laughton.
