A box office hit in 1935, where it helped cement Charles Laughton’s reputation and give him a new string to his bow as a comic actor, Ruggles of Red Gap is a charming, in fairly inconsequential culture-clash comedy that holds up pretty well.

Laughton plays the title character, a stuffy English butler who is won in a poker game (because apparently, butlers back then were only one step up from slaves) from the Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young) by crass, wealthy American Egbert Floud (Charlie Ruggles) and his social-climber wife Effie (Mary Boland). Taking him home to Red Gap in Washington, the pair have very different attitudes towards their new man – while Effie wants to show him off, Egbert is content to treat him as an equal, taking him along to social drinking functions. Slowly, Ruggles starts to become his own man, revealing a mischievous, anarchic and strong-willed side that benefits from being in a country where ‘everyone is equal’ (as the film likes to remind us).

Going for gentle chuckles rather than belly laughs, director Leo McCarey avoids the glorious insanity and slapstick of his work with Laurel and Hardy and The Marx Brothers to deliver a charming, unthreatening comedy of manners (or the lack of them). The film mocks both English stuffiness and American nouveau riche pretensions, but ultimately it’s a dig at the class system with its rigid rules. Ruggles dreads the idea of moving to America, but once there, is able to break out of the social straitjacket that has bound his family for generations.

Good-natured, easy going and unpretentious, Ruggles of Red Gap probably seemed quite quaint even at the time, compared to the smart screwball comedies emerging during the same period. But its fish-out-of-water theme has proved a popular one over the years, and the movie is a surprisingly sweet tale, with a genuinely lovely performance from Laughton at its centre.

This new Blu-ray edition comes complete with three Ruggles radio plays (starring Laughton and Ruggles) to extend your fun. clear.

DAVID FLINT

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