1935 - Ruggles of Red Gap

One of the things I miss about living in L.A. (and New York, for that matter) is the prevalence of revival cinemas. Being the home of Hollywood, there was never a shortage of film events to attend and I particularly loved going to see classic movies at the New Beverly and the Egyptian, among many others. The options in Sydney for this type of thing are limited at best, though with new movies relatively scarce in the last 12 months, many mainstream cinemas here have been adding older classics to their rosters, so there's perhaps a larger selection than usual right now. In my younger days, however, I lived near the spectacular Orpheum, where I managed to see 70mm prints of Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia. I also saw midnight screenings of the original Star Wars trilogy at the Randwick Ritz, which, along with their current prolonged retrospectives of Charlie Chaplin, Pedro Almodovar and Nicole Kidman films, have several Bette Davis vehicles scheduled in the upcoming weeks and months. There's a handful of Best Picture nominees in there, so I may catch one of Davis' films on the big screen to begin the next year of review.

First, though, I'll need to finish 1935's crop of nominees, which includes...

Ruggles of Red Gap
Director:
Leo McCarey
Screenplay:
Walter DeLeon, Harlan Thompson, Humphrey Pearson

(based on the novel by Harry Leon Wilson)
Starring:
Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, ZaSu Pitts, Roland Young, Leila Hyams
Academy Awards:
1 nomination
0 wins

This awards year was a bit of a Laughton-fest. Charles Laughton stars in yet another nominee, this time as an obedient and experienced British manservant named Marmaduke Ruggles. While in France, his employer, the Earl of Burnstead (Young), regrettably loses Ruggles in a poker game to a newly wealthy American couple, Effie (Boland) and Egbert Floud (Ruggles; that's Charlie Ruggles the actor, not Marmaduke Ruggles the character, obviousy). So off Ruggles goes to the Flouds hometown in the American West, where both Ruggles and Egbert have trouble adjusting.

Perhaps it's a little reductionist to label Ruggles of Red Gap as a classic fish-out-of-water story, but it certainly presents that way. That said, the fish doesn't actually get out of the water until about thirty minutes into the film when Ruggles finally arrives in America. And soon after, there is admittedly a deeper theme underlying the shenanigans. It's really about a man finding his own worth and not just succumbing to his lot in life.

There is a modicum of American patriotism exuding from the picture, too. Ruggles recites Lincoln's famed Gettysburg Address almost as if he's hearing the words "all men are created equal" for the first time, which contributes to the film's definite vibe of moral superiority over Britain's class system. But I'm not sure comparing Ruggles' situation to slavery is all that fair. Plus, of course, the irony that the only black person in their circle is a literal servant seems to be lost on everyone involved. But if we were to pick apart the problematic themes in films of this era, we could be here a while.

This is one of three 1935 Best Picture contenders Charles Laughton appears in and it's such a refreshing change of pace for him. As Javert and Captain Bligh, he brilliantly encapsulates the hard-nosed and unlikable authority figure, so it's wonderful to see him have some fun with a character on the other end of the spectrum. He's endearing and funny as Ruggles, particularly when he's smiling drunk (pictured). His support cast are also fantastic, especially Roland Young as a nobleman with a lost soul, and Leila Hyams as the charming and age-inappropriate love interest of said nobleman.

Ruggles of Red Gap belongs to a relatively short list of films whose Best Picture nod was its sole Oscar nomination. This phenomenon occurred a bunch of times in the 1930s, but it's been almost seven decades since the last time it happened, which was for 1943's The Ox-Bow Incident.