Charlie Ruggles Movies
Whimsical, expressive comic actor Charles Ruggles was the son of a Los Angeles wholesale druggist. Intending to become a doctor, Ruggles was sidetracked into theatre, making his debut in a 1905 San Francisco stock company production of Nathan Hale. Because of his medium height and flexible facial and vocal expressions, Ruggles was able to play everything from teenagers to grandpas during his formative years in stock. In 1914, the actor first set foot on a Broadway stage in Help Wanted. One year later, he appeared in his first film, a now-lost adaptation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt. Though there would be a smattering of subsequent silent film appearances, Ruggles' heart remained in his stage work -- he starred in such long-running productions as The Passing Show of 1918 (1918), The Demi-Virgin (1921), Battling Butler (1923), and his biggest stage success, Queen High (1930). While appearing in the Rodgers and Hart musical Spring is Here (1929), Ruggles made his talking picture bow in Gentleman of the Press (1929), portraying the first in what would turn out to be a long line of drunken reporters. In 1932, Ruggles was teamed with Mary Boland in If I Had A Million. The two farceurs worked so well together that they would subsequently costar in such memorable film comedies as Six of a Kind (1934), Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), Early to Bed (1936), and Boy Trouble (1939). By the late 1930s, Ruggles was securely established as one of Hollywood's favorite befuddled comedy-relief players, though in such films as Exclusive (1937) and The Parson of Panamint (1941) he proved equally expert at straight dramatics. In 1949, Ruggles began a 12-year movie moratorium, returning to the stage and distinguishing himself in television. He headlined two early TV series, The Ruggles and The World of Mr. Sweeney, and lent his vocal skills (sans screen credit) to the "Aesop and Son" component of the classic cartoon weeklies "Rocky and His Friends" (1959-61) and "The Bullwinkle Show" (1961-62). He returned to films in 1961, recreating his award-winning Broadway role in The Pleasure of His Company. Ruggles' best-remembered TV work of the 1960s included his recurring role as Mrs. Drysdale's rakish father in the popular sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies." With the Disney film Follow Me, Boys! (1966) and the 1967 TV staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, Ruggles quietly brought his six-decade acting career to a close. A few years before his death in December of 1970, Ruggles was asked by a reporter what his future plans were. With the wry smile, twinkling eyes, and self-effacing humor that characterized his best screen work, Charlie Ruggles answered, "Forest Lawn, I guess. After you've played everything I have, there ain't no more." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1915
This first feature-length version of Henrik Ibsen's 1867 stage epic Peer Gynt was based on the recent Broadway staging by Oliver Morosco. Written in the form of a narrative poem, the story concerns a reckless, irresponsible young man who manages to find success in the world in a variety of colorful professions, only to lose everything due to his many character flaws. Returning home to die, the aged Peer Gynt discovers that his childhood sweetheart Solveig (Myrtle Stedman), whom he had betrayed and abandoned years earlier, is still waiting for him. Though well into middle age, Cyril Maude successfully re-created his stage role as Peer Gynt, fully realizing every nuance of this fascinatingly amoral character. The huge supporting cast included 25-year-old Charles Ruggles, making his first screen appearance in the important role of the Button Moulder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1923
Agnes Ayres stars as Muriel Gray in the lightning-paced comedy Heart Raider. Described in an introductory title as "a speed girl," Muriel proves this assertion true as she chases after her wealthy boyfriend John Dennis (Mahlon Hamilton). Meanwhile, Muriel's father Reginald Gray (Frazer Coulter) is forced to take out an insurance policy, covering any damage wrought by his daughter in her zany pursuit of Dennis. The insurance company really has its hands full whenever the heroine gets behind the wheel of a roadster or speedboat. Such were the vagaries of Hollywood that, within 10 years after the release of Heart Raider, both of its leading players would be scrounging around for bit parts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnes Ayres, Mahlon Hamilton, (more)
- 1929
The great British stage star Gertrude Lawrence was seldom seen to her best advantage in films. In Paramount's Battle of Paris, Lawrence stars as Georgie, a British singer stranded in not-so-gay Paree during WWI. To keep food on the table, Georgie teams up with amiable pickpocket Zizi (Charlie Ruggles). Among the pockets picked are those of handsome artist Tony (Walter Petrie), with whom Georgie falls in love. Hired as Tony's model, our heroine soon becomes the "poster girl" for the French and British armies, which somehow leads to a barrage of musical numbers by Cole Porter (his first direct-to-screen score). Gertrude Lawrence tries hard, but is defeated by a so-so script and surprisingly tepid music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gertrude Lawrence, Charlie Ruggles, (more)
- 1929
When blue-blooded widower Robert Rossiter (Walter Huston) announces his plans to marry salesgirl Joyce Roamer (Claudette Colbert), his family goes out of their way to stop the engagement. Despite their original suspicion that Joyce (Colbert) was only involved with their father for his money, however, the upper crust family eventually welcomes her as one of their own. The Lady Lies was directed by Hobart Henley and also features actors Charlie Ruggles, Patricia Deering, and Tom Brown. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Huston, Claudette Colbert, (more)
- 1929
In this dark drama, based on a play by Ward Morehouse, the life of a tough newspaperman is chronicled. The man is a work-a-holic, and the demands of his job cause him to miss all the pleasures of his life. Because he is working on a story, he misses the birth of his daughter. He is not there for her wedding, and when she dies in labor--he is not there. Later the reporter begins reflecting upon all he missed out on. When he is interviewed by a Yale graduate about his career, the newspaperman strongly advises the young student to get out of it, because it is a poisonous business. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Huston, Charlie Ruggles, (more)
- 1930
In this musical comedy, two partners in the garter business fight for control and decide to play a round of poker to settle their differences. The winner will get to run the company for a year while the loser will serve as his butler. Meanwhile a pretty girl falls in love with one of their sons. Songs include: "Everything Will Happen for the Best" (B.G. DeSylva, Lewis E. Gensler), "Brother, Just Laugh It Off" (Arthur Schwartz, Ralph Rainger), "It Seems to Me", "I'm Afraid of You" (Dick Howard, Rainger), "I Love the Girls in My Own Peculiar Way" (E.Y. Harburg, Henry Souvain). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Smith, Ginger Rogers, (more)
- 1930
Clara Bow's career as one of Hollywood's liveliest leading ladies was drawing to a close when she made this early sound farce, one of her few talkies. Larry Charters (Ralph Forbes) is a highly successful songwriter who is growing weary of life in the public eye. Hoping for a break, Larry convinces his friend Bob (Richard "Skeets" Gallagher) to impersonate him as he takes a well deserved vacation in the French Riviera. While trying to get a room at a hotel, both Larry and an attractive young American tourist, Norma Martin (Bow), are flummoxed by the fact that they speak no French and that the desk clerk speaks no English. Things get much more complicated when they discover that the desk clerk isn't a desk clerk at all -- he is the local magistrate, and instead of renting them a pair of rooms, he has just married them. Three years after making this film, Clara Bow announced her retirement from the screen at the age of 28. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Bow, Ralph Forbes, (more)
- 1930
In this sports drama, Toby McLean, a sportswriter encounters another journalist, Ann Vaughn at the Tunney-Jack Dempsey fight. They end up married and living in a tiny New York apartment. One day he travels to St. Louis to cover the World Series and meets a socialite named Puff. Though she uses her feminine wiles, he ignores her and stays true to his wife until she becomes a famous magazine writer and he gets jealous of her success. To get even, he begins an affair with Puff. Meanwhile, his distraught wife begins drinking bootleg whiskey and goes temporarily blind. Her husband is horrified and leaves poor Puff. He then throws himself into his work so he can prove his desire to reconcile with Ann. The film is the feature film debut of Ginger Rogers (she played Puff). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Norman Foster, (more)
- 1930
This first talkie version of the evergreen Brandon Thomas stage farce Charley's Aunt stars Charlie Ruggles, obviously having the time of his life in the leading role. Though updated to 1930, the film adheres to the familiar plot as set down by Thomas back in 1895. Two Oxford undergraduates, Charley Wickeham (Hugh Williams) and Jack Chesney (Rodney McLennon), anxiously await the visit of their respective girlfriends Amy Spettigue (June Collyer) and Kitty Verdun (Flora Sheffield). Trouble is, the ladies have no chaperone, and this will never do in the hallowed halls of Oxford. Anxiously, Charley and Jack persuade their twittish school chum Fancourt Babberly (Ruggles) to pose as Charley's aunt Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez (Doris Lloyd) -- "from Brazil, where the nuts come from." Poor Babbs is forced to remain in drag as both Jack's father Sir Francis Chesney (Phillips Smalley, repeating his role from the 1925 version of Charley's Aunt) and Amy's uncle Stephen Spettigue (Halliwell Hobbes) unexpectedly show up. The scenes in which Chesney and Spettigue ardently court the "Aunt" are hilarious, as is the inevitable moment when the disguised Babbs comes face to face with the real Donna Lucia (Doris Lloyd), whose ward Ella Delahay (Flora le Breton) had previously been our hero's shipboard sweetheart! A revised ending allows Charlie Ruggles to perform a farcical death scene that's every bit as funny as what has gone before. Charley's Aunt would be remade several times in the future, most memorably by Jack Benny in 1941 and by Ray Bolger in the 1952 musical adaptation Where's Charley? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Ruggles, June Collyer, (more)
- 1930
Jimmy Durante made his movie debut in Roadhouse Nights, a strange amalgam of musical comedy and gangster melodrama. In truth, Durante is a special added attraction, together with his nightclub partners Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson. The film's nominal star is Helen Morgan, a nitery chanteuse whose gangster bosses head a murderous bootleg operation. Charlie Ruggles portrays an ineveterate drinker who frequents Morgan's club; actually, Ruggles is a news reporter whose phony drunkenness is a cover for his investigation of the bootleg ring. Filmed at Paramount's East Coast studios in Astoria, Long Island, Roadhouse Nights is typically brash and brassy Prohibition-era entertainment, with a reasonably "straight" performance from comic actor Ruggles and a few hauntingly rendered songs from Helen Morgan. The most succinct review for this film came from a "non-professional:" When asked what he thought of Jimmy Durante's first talking picture, his father Bartolomeo grumbled "Talk, talk, talk." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Morgan, Charlie Ruggles, (more)
- 1931
Maurice Chevalier plays a 19th century Viennese lieutenant, conducting an affair with sexy violinist Claudette Colbert. While publicly flirting with Colbert, Chevalier is spotted by a dowdy princess (Miriam Hopkins), who thinks that the lieutenant's wink was meant for her. Forced to marry the Princess, Chevalier despairs at her lack of charm. But good-hearted Colbert takes the princess aside, dolls her up, and instructs her how to bewitch--and keep--her man. Chevalier is enchanted by the "new" princess, while Colbert, who will have no trouble finding someone else to keep her warm and comfortable, cheerfully sashays out of his life. Long thought lost, The Smiling Lieutenant was rediscovered in an East European vault in the 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert, (more)
- 1931
The continental-flavored comedy drama Beloved Bachelor was based on a play by Edward H. Peple. Unmarried sculptor Paul Lukas and his two bachelor pals kindheartedly adopt little orphan girl Betty Van Allen. Time passes, and awkward little Van Allen grows up to be lovely and graceful Dorothy Jordan. Lukas and Jordan's feelings towards one another go far beyond familial, but neither dares to cross over the line. When Lukas' fiancee Vivienne Osborne jilts him, he finally comes to grips with the fact that it's Jordan whom he truly loves. Beloved Bachelor is basic Daddy Long Legs stuff, tastefully handled; the film proved a big hit in 1931, much to the relief of financially strapped Paramount Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Lukas, Dorothy Jordan, (more)
- 1931
Though he'd been given top billing at other studios, Charles Ruggles attained star status at his home lot of Paramount for the first time in 1931's The Girl Habit. Hoping to escape the murderous wrath of a gangster, wealthy middle-aged playboy Charlie Floyd (Ruggles) tries to get himself arrested. He finally succeeds, only to be thrown into the same cell as the gangster! Then there's the problem of getting out of jail, which comes about when Charlie uncovers evidence revealing the warden to be a crook. And all of this comes about simply because Charlie's sweetheart Sonya (Tamara Geva) tried to cure our hero of his flirtatiousness. Based on a play by A.E. Thomas and Clayton Hamilton, The Girl Habit was something of a enigma, garnering huge laughs in some theaters and stony silence in others. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Ruggles, Tamara Geva, (more)
- 1931
Trailblazing female director Dorothy Arzner helmed this well-crafted romantic drama. Julia Traynor (Claudette Colbert) is a secretary working for Jerry Stafford (Frederic March), a successful stock broker. Jerry has taken a decidedly non-professional interest in Julia, and when he asks her to join him on an ocean cruise, she firmly declines the offer. Hoping to throw Jerry off her trail, Julia accepts a hasty marriage proposal from Philip Craig (Monroe Owsley), a young and struggling securities broker. When Jerry learns that Julia has tied the knot, he rashly fires her and predicts that the marriage won't last six months. Jerry soon regrets his outburst and not only gives Julia her job back but hires Philip as well. However, Jerry's prediction proves to be not far from the mark; Julia is not happy with Philip, and Jerry learns that Philip has been embezzling company funds to play the market on his own. After a downturn in the market wipes out Philip's investments, Julia discovers that he owes $100,000 as a result of his bad investments. Desperate to raise money, Julia offers herself to Jerry in exchange for a loan; he refuses to take advantage of her, but he agrees to front her the money anyway. Philip, however, cannot believe that Jerry would give Julia the money without demanding her favors in return, and he goes after Jerry in a jealous rage. Ginger Rogers, Charles Ruggles, and Pat O'Brien lend sparkle to the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, (more)
- 1931
The patience of a long-suffering wife is finally rewarded in this drama. The devoted wife has known that her husband has been having an affair for years but she has passively allowed it to continue, believing that eventually her husband will come back to her. Her belief is unshakable and when he asks for a divorce, she refuses to grant it causing him to leave her and move in with the other woman. She does allow him to visit the children, but when he comes, she treats him as a guest. Eventually, the mistress kills herself and the errant husband does indeed return to his patient wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clive Brook, Charlie Ruggles, (more)
- 1932
In this romance, an impoverished Viennese aristocrat becomes a gigolo. While on the job, he encounters a Yankee widow who is terribly impressed by titled men. They get involved and she helps him start afresh. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, Sara Maritza, (more)
- 1932
This adaptation of the Puccini opera jettisons all the music and retains only David Belasco's timeworn libretto. American actress Sylvia Sidney plays Japanese maiden Cio-Cio San, while Cary Grant is the dashing American navy lieutenant Pinkerton. The girl and the officer have a brief affair, resulting in a child. Cio-Cio San blissfully awaits the return of Pinkerton, who arrives back in Japan with his American wife in tow. The heartbroken Japanese girl bids farewell to her callous lover, then commits hara-kiri. The absence of Puccini's brilliant music makes the plot contrivances of Madame Butterfly seem creakier than ever, though Sylvia Sidney--in real life a New York Jewish girl-- is moderately convincing as the Oriental heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Sidney, Cary Grant, (more)
- 1932
A musical remake of The Marriage Circle (1924), One Hour with You stars Maurice Chevalier as a Parisian doctor and Jeanette MacDonald as his loving wife. Chevalier is scrupulously faithful, much to the chagrin of his lovely female patients. But when MacDonald's best friend Genevieve Tobin insists upon being treated by Dr. Chevalier, it looks to many of those concerned that Tobin may succeed where the other willing ladies failed. The misunderstandings and reconciliations of the plotline are playfully staged with deliberate artificiality by director Ernst Lubitsch: Characters speak in rhymed couplets, Parisian gendarmes issue orders to their minions to the beat of a ticking clock, and Chevalier regularly talks directly to the audience. One Hour With You is a tuneful confection which is just as refreshing today as it was sixty years ago. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, (more)
- 1932
Cary Grant made his feature film debut in 1932's This is the Night. Grant plays the Olympic-athlete husband of Thelma Todd, who in turn is the object of desire for Parisian millionaire Roland Young. To keep Grant from catching on, Young hires Lily Damita to pose as his wife. Later, Young arranges to catch Grant in a compromising situation with Damita, thus leaving the field clear for Todd. But when Grant falls for Damita, Young finds that he is genuinely jealous! Several chucklesome complications later, all the parties involved settle down with their proper mates. Directed by Frank Tuttle, This is the Night is a reasonable facsimile of Ernst Lubitsch's frothy Paramount comedies, right down to the comic recitative ("Madame has lost her dress! Madame has lost her dress!") built into the musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lili Damita, Charlie Ruggles, (more)
- 1932
An early comedy about the generation gap, this 1932 movie was written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who went on to write and direct films such as Guys and Dolls and Cleopatra. Director Frank Tuttle co-wrote the script, based on a successful play called The Goose Hangs High by Lewis Beach. Donald Ingals (Richard Bennett) and his wife Eunice (Frances Starr) are conventional and loving parents who are shocked when their son Bradley (Buddy Rogers) comes home from college with ideas that they consider to be outrageous. His parents would like him to get involved with Mary Burke (Peggy Shannon), a prim and proper young lady. More complications ensue because Bradley's sister Lois (Frances Dee) is attracted to the flapper lifestyle, but she isn't sure whether she can handle its emotional demands. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Bennett, (more)
- 1932
A multi-character drama set in a suburban neighborhood, The Night of June 13th takes place in four households. One of these is inhabited by unhappy husband Clive Brook, who is accused of murdering his wife. Actually, she has committed suicide, but those neighbors who could provide Brook with an alibi remain silent for selfish reasons of their own. Leavening the dramatic content is the comedy relief of Mary Boland and Charlie Ruggles as a married couple with in-law problems. Brook is saved at the last minute by an elderly neighbor who blasts the cowardice of the other suburbanites. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clive Brook, Lila Lee, (more)
- 1932
Joan Blondell, borrowed for the occasion from Warner Bros., earned top-billing in this delightful Hollywood parable, but the real star is of course Stuart Erwin as the irrepressible grocery clerk Merton Gill. Paramount screenwriters Saul Mintz, Walter De Leon and Arthur Kober based their witty scenario on Henry Leon Wilson's 1922 novel Merton of the Movies, the 1923 Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, and the 1924 Famous Players silent version starring Glenn Hunter. By 1932, the story was indeed well-known: Aspiring to become a famous screen cowboy, small-town delivery boy Merton Gill arrives in Hollywood, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and complete with a diploma from the National Correspondence Academy of Acting. Crashing the gates of Majestic Pictures (read: Paramount), Merton manages to fumble his one line bit in the latest Buck Benson (Dink Templeton) western and is fired on the spot. Unwilling to leave the studio, the hapless thespian survives on leftover scraps from the extra's lunch boxes until discovered by comedy starlet "Flip" Montague (Blondell), who takes pity on him and arranges a meeting with Jeff Baird (Sam Hardy), head of the slapstick comedy unit. Bestowed a new name, Whoop Ryder, Merton is starred in what he assumes to be a serious western melodrama but what in reality is yet another burlesque featuring cross-eyed low comic Ben Turpin. Although a big hit with preview audiences, a humiliated Merton is ready to return to the grocery business when "Flip" persuades him to stay by telling him that he is "darn near perfect." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Erwin, Joan Blondell, (more)
- 1932
Based on a story by Robert Andrews, If I Had a Million is a multipart comedy-drama employing Paramount's top directorial and acting talents. Refusing to leave his fortune to his grasping relatives, dying millionaire Richard Bennett selects several people at random from the phone book and bestows upon each of them a check for one million dollars. The first recipient is henpecked husband Charlie Ruggles, who cheerily enters his former place of employment, a china shop, and smashes every bit of crockery in the place. Prostitute Wynne Gibson uses her money to escape from her sordid lifestyle and finally sleep in a bed all by herself. Forger George Raft finds that he can't convince anyone that his check is genuine, and ends up handing the check to a flophouse manager--who promptly burns it. Husband and wife W.C. Fields and Alison Skipworth, dismayed that their new car has been destroyed by a "road hog," utilize part of their million dollars to purchase a fleet of cars and then smash up every road hog in sight! Convicted murderer Gene Raymond hopes that his million will help finance a new trial, but the execution is carried out on schedule. Newly rich clerk Charles Laughton calmly makes his way through a series of offices, reaches his boss' desk, and delivers a loud Bronx cheer. Gary Cooper, Roscoe Karns and Jack Oakie play three brawling marines who think the check's a joke and sign it over to an illiterate lunch-counter owner. The last million-dollar recipient is May Robson, an elderly woman confined to a dismal nursing home. She spends her money to turn the home into a joyful resort for old people, forcing the formerly repressive nursing-home staffers to earn their paychecks by sitting all day in rocking chairs. The millionaire who started the plot rolling is given a new lease on life by May Robson's example, and he recovers from his "fatal" illness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, (more)
Ernst Lubitsch used Laszlo Aladar's play The Honest Finder as a springboard for one of his most delightful early-'30s Paramount confections. Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins play Gaston and Lily, a pair of Parisian thieves, both disguised as nobility, who decide to rob lovely perfume company executive Mariette Colet (Kay Francis); Gaston gets a job as Mariette's confidential secretary, while Lily installs herself as the woman's typist. Love rears its head, forcing Gaston to choose between marriage to Mariette and a fast getaway with Lily. Filled with marvelous throwaway gags and sophisticated innuendo, Trouble in Paradise was described by one critic as "as close to perfection as anything I have ever seen in the movies." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, (more)
