Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Twenty-Eight: The Butler Did It

In 1934, Charles Laughton won a Best Actor Oscar for his role in The Private Life of Henry VIII which cemented his career and made him a big name in Hollywood. Fast forward two years and Laughton stars in two films both nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. One was eventual winner Mutiny on The Bounty which got him a Best Actor Nomination, the other was culture clash comedy Ruggles of Red Gap, a film that gives us very old school humour and presents us with several sterotypes in order to give us the desired comic effect. Laughton plays Ruggles, a man servant to an English lord who is lost in a card game to a ghastly American couple who have come into money and have ideas above their station. While the wife wants their money to improve their lifestyle, the husband would rather stay grounded and be a rich cowboy wearing completely checked suits and sporting a giant moustache. The first half of the film takes place in Paris in which Ruggles is encouraged to relax by the husband and he gets him to start drinking which doesn't sit well. Ruggles is certainly taken back to Red Gap in Washington where he meets the wife's brother-in-law who also has aspirations above his station. While the wife and brother-in-law expect Ruggles to stay true to his manservant roots the rest of the population of Red Gap are quite happy for him to become a new man. The comedy takes an unexpected turn when Ruggles falls for a local girl and also gets mistaken for an English colonel an event which leads to him being sacked by the brother-in-law. Ruggles then finally finds himself becoming more independent and, in probably the film's finest scene, is the only one in a bar full of Americans to be able to remember Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Adress. This inspires him to open his own restaurant and at the end he is congratulated by his old boss for making a success of his life.

Ruggles of Red Gap is a very simple film and one that would never be nominated for an Oscar today although the high standard of the acting puts it ahead of any modern culture clash comedies. The Americans are either a little bit stupid or a little bit stuck-up, the French are all very randy and the British are incredibly reserved. Laughton's performance is brilliant and his transformation from obedient manservant to someone who is able to embrace Red Gap as his new home is just fantastic. Mary Boland and Charles Ruggles are also very good as the tiresome Floods, Boland especially excels as the nouveau-riche monster. Overall very enjoyable and charming comedy but one, it seems, that was used to bump the Best Pictue category up to ten as it was not nominated for any other awards.