Notes on…

Ruggles of Red Gap(1935)

Dir. Directed by Leo McCarey


“America…” Ruggles says, his eyes engorging, “the land of slavery.” Uttered unflatteringly by an indentured servant who’s just been lost on a gamble, this clumsy line is less ironic than its apparent intention; it’s as if Ruggles objects to slave labor as an essentially bad-mannered custom. This quasi-poor taste exposes how little the director or highly cultured star knew of Jim Crow.

Joseph Jon Lanthier (Slant Magazine)

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Synopsis: In this comedy of an Englishman stranded in a sea of barbaric Americans, Marmaduke Ruggles, a gentleman's gentleman and butler to an Earl is lost in a poker game to an uncouth American cattle baron. Ruggles' life is turned upside down as he's taken to the USA, is gradually assimilated into American life, accidentally becomes a local celebrity, and falls in love along the way.