---
title: "Ruggles of Red Gap: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/ruggles-of-red-gap/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/ruggles-of-red-gap"
critics_score: 81
critics_reviews: 7
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Ruggles of Red Gap (1935): what the critics said

Critics' score 81 from 7 reviews: 6 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative.

Most critics are warm about Ruggles of Red Gap, and the praise clusters on Charles Laughton. The reviews describe his butler, lost in a card game and carried west, as droll, transformative and plainly funny, a performance that shows a lighter side of him than usual. Leo McCarey’s direction is credited with keeping the pace quick and the handling fresh, and the supporting cast is thought to hold its own. The Gettysburg Address scene in the saloon comes up again and again as the moment critics remember.

The spread is narrow, with one exception. The New Yorker, writing on release, finds the gags and situations too familiar and calls the picture a disappointment, while conceding the performances and admitting the audience laughed. The later reviews are, if anything, fonder than the early ones, reading the film as a gentle picture of American equality and the kind of quiet comedy nobody makes any more.

## Radio Times — Robyn Karney

Rating 5/5. 

A brilliant, hilarious and fondly satirical look at Anglo-American relations and culture gaps, faultlessly directed by Leo McCarey with Laughton in masterly form. The supporting performances are every inch as good as film and star deserve.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-8elryy/ruggles-of-red-gap/)

## The Guardian

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 June 2012. 

The critic describes the film as a sparkling comedy in which Charles Laughton plays a perfect English butler lost in a card game to an American owner and taken west to civilise the frontier. A highlight is the classic scene where he recites the Gettysburg Address to saloon patrons.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/10/island-lost-souls-ruggles-dvd)

## The New York Times

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 7 March 1935. 

The film is rapturously funny and a brilliant showcase for Charles Laughton's droll and irresistible performance as the valet Ruggles, who embodies an American ideal of equality.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1935/03/07/archives/charles-laughton-as-a-famed-gentlemans-gentleman-in-ruggles-of-red.html)

## Variety — Variety Staff

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1934. 

Leo McCarey delivers a fast and furiously funny film with fresh handling of the story; Laughton's performance stands out as plain comedy that widens his appeal.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/1934/film/reviews/ruggles-of-red-gap-2-1117794598/)

## Slant Magazine — Joseph Jon Lanthier

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 29 March 2012. 

The critic praises the film's inclusive vision of American democracy as a forgiving frontier, contrasting it with Capra's work, and highlights Charles Laughton's transformative performance as the butler assimilating into Western life.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/ruggles-of-red-gap/)

## Time Out

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 3 April 2012. 

This is the archetypal film they don't make any more, with its quiet drollery and nuanced comedy. Laughton enjoys himself enormously in the lead role.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/ruggles-of-red-gap)

## The New Yorker — Russell Maloney

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 9 March 1935. 

The critic found the film the year's most disappointing picture due to its familiar gags and situations, despite strong performances, though audiences laughed heartily at moments like the spats scene and Laughton's Gettysburg Address recitation.

[Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1935/03/16/we-are-not-amused-the-admirable-astaire-and-some-melodrama)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/ruggles-of-red-gap.md