Ruggles of Red Gap

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Ruggles of Red Gap
Film poster
Directed by	Leo McCarey
Produced by	Arthur Hornblow Jr.
Written by	Walter DeLeon Humphrey Pearson Harlan Thompson Harry Leon Wilson (novel)
Starring	Charles Laughton Mary Boland Charles Ruggles
Music by	Heinz Roemheld Egbert Van Alstyne
Cinematography	Alfred Gilks
Editing by	Edward Dmytryk
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	February 19, 1935
Running time	90 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

Ruggles of Red Gap is a 1915 novel by Harry Leon Wilson^[1] , adapted for the Broadway stage as a musical the same year^[2] , and made into a movie several times^[3] , most famously in 1935.

In the comedy Western film directed by Leo McCarey, Lord Burnstead (Roland Young) gambles away his eminently correct English butler, Ruggles (Charles Laughton). Ruggles' new 'owners', crude nouveau riche Americans Egbert and Effie Floud (Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland), bring Ruggles back to Red Gap, a remote Western town. When the butler is mistaken for a wealthy Englishman, he becomes a small-town celebrity. As Ruggles attempts to adjust to this rough new community, he learns to live life on his own terms, achieving a fulfilling independence as a result.

The film's supporting cast includes Leila Hyams, Roland Young, and ZaSu Pitts, and the screenplay was written by Walter DeLeon, Humphrey Pearson and Harlan Thompson. The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The novel contains perhaps the earliest specific reference to Levi brand jeans, clearly describing the trademark leather patch, or "placard" on the back waistband, illustrating "two teams of stout horses attempting to wrench it in twain." In the novel, Red Gap is located near Spokane, Washington. Ruggles predates P.G. Wodehouse's more famous butler-hero, Jeeves.