“Leo McCarey's brand of comedy is one built on spontaneity and improvisation; the very disdain for superficial polish and strait-jacketed technique in his style is what makes his films so remarkably updated today. The director's favorite method was to sit on the sound stage tinkling a piano and dreaming up ideas while the cast and crew stood by; then he'd shoot at a frantic pace and throw the studio into a panic by turning in rushes that bore little or no resemblance to the original script. If Ruggles of Red Gap is McCarey's most unified comedy, it is because of the fortuitous conjunction between the director's anarchic style and Charles Laughton's brilliantly disciplined, ramrod performance, which justifiably won him the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor of the Year. The story concerns a British manservant who finds himself transported to the Wild West when his master loses him in a card game. There he employs his professional talents in opening a restaurant and, in a quite moving passage, rediscovers the meaning of liberty for his fellow townspeople. Among the best of McCarey's off-the-cuff inspirations are Laughton's rendition of the Gettysburg Address, a drum lesson by Roland Young, and a hilarious drunken spree by Charles Ruggles at a Parisian sidewalk cafe where he puts into practice some peculiar ideas on how to speak instant French.” Treasures from the UCLA Film Archives, PFA publication