A scene from the 1935 movie "Ruggles of Red Gap":
The climax of the film is Laughton’s recitation of the Gettysburg Address (something that does not happen in the original story). This occurs in a saloon filled with typical American Western characters, none of whom can recall any of the lines but are spellbound by the speech. Newly imbued with the spirit of democracy and self-determination, [the English butler, Marmaduke] Ruggles becomes his own man, giving up his previous employment and opening a restaurant in Red Gap.The scene is unbearably, magnificently corny, to the point where... well, what did you feel? Did it get you in the end? There's the part where Ruggles is whispering the words to himself, as if he's praying, and the upshot of the recitation which is: I want to open a restaurant! A beanery!
Here's the original book — sans Lincoln rhetoric — by Harry Leon Wilson, whom I was reading about this morning as a consequence of my curiosity — see the previous post — about the phrase "as all get-out."
There's only one mention of Lincoln in the original. The "I" is Ruggles, the butler, who is reading a printed card headed "Take Courage!"
"Demosthenes was the son of a cutler," it began. "Horace was the son of a shopkeeper. Virgil's father was a porter. Cardinal Wolsey was the son of a butcher. Shakespeare the son of a wool-stapler." Followed the obscure parentage of such well-known persons as Milton, Napoleon, Columbus, Cromwell. Even Mohammed was noted as a shepherd and camel-driver, though it seemed rather questionable taste to include in the list one whose religion, as to family life, was rather scandalous. More to the point was the citation of various Americans who had sprung from humble beginnings: Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Garfield, Edison. It is true that there was not, apparently, a gentleman's servant among them; they were rail-splitters, boatmen, tailors, artisans of sorts, but the combined effect was rather overwhelming.
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I memorized the Address at age 9 and still remember every word. That was during a required Civil War phase in every southern boy's life.
But I believe it was on a challenge, because my father had told us that all kids at his 1920s era school had to memorize and deliver a speech; and The Gettysburg Address was a favorite one because it was just long enough and not too long.
BTW the secret to memorizing any text is to say it out loud over and over for several daysuntil it clicks in. Studying it has no effect at all. You have to say it out loud. You only remember what you hear yourself saying out loud.
That's a great flick. Corny. But great.
Dang it. It got to me again. Great words thoughtfully spoken.
"Take Courage". In England during the 70's (and maybe even now) there were signs all over with that phrase.
Initially, I thought it was a tribute to their stalwart defense in WWII but I quickly learned it was the name of one of their brews "Courage".
Good marketing.
Regarding the movie clip what about the poor Chinaman who got shot because of his ham and eggs?
Charles Laughton was one of the great actors of his generation and gave a superb reading. The set up for the reading was hokey, but the reading itself was terrific and the expression on the faces of the audience was moving. It was corny but in the way that a Rockwell illustration is corny........The ambition of a man in service to open his own restaurant was, in its era, just as much of a quantum jump as a suburban woman's ambition to be a law professor was in that era.......Of course, the ambition of a Chinaman to open a hash house is completely ridiculous. It's no wonder he got shot. People have to know their places.
"It was corny but in the way that a Rockwell illustration is corny…"
When the cowboys start gathering around to listen to the address, it was laughable. In real life, they just could not possibly have cared, not that quickly, not that quietly, and not all in the same way at the same time. It's absurd.
But then, we get the shots of their faces, and they're just such great faces, so well photographed, that the effect is perfect the way Rockwell is perfect. You know it's sentimental and manipulative, but it's so straightforward and meticulous that you accept it for what it means to be.
It's a very weird experience!
Yeah... it got me.
I too memorized it way back when but not as a school assignment, only on my own.
That Lincoln, writing his own stuff...
Will it be recited on President's Day?
Do primary schools today have students read it?
re: faces, depression era movie. The faces reminiscent of faces in Grapes of Wrath. Directors used to do faces.
"The faces reminiscent of faces in Grapes of Wrath."
Predates GoW by the way.
"Get thee to a beanery."
One of Lincoln's best lines, too often ignored.
If I might say so...you're all a bit of OK.
what a great piece of cinema. thanks for posting it.
That last quotation is baloney. Demosthenes' father was a wealthy member of the Athenian military-industrial complex: he had 32 slaves making swords in one factory, and 20 more making beds. When he died, he left an estate equal to 220 times the standard yearly wage, which would be $11 million in the U.S. today.
Horace's father was an ex-slave with a low-class job (auctioneer) but he was wealthy enough to take his son to Rome for the best education available at the time. In fact, many scholars suspect that Horace's father was only an ex-slave because he was on the wrong side of the Social War, and that he had been rich before being enslaved in the war, and became rich again afterwards. (Cervantes was an ex-slave, too, but only because he'd been capture by the Moors and later ransomed: not every ex-slave is a Frederick Douglass.)
I no longer have a copy of "Ruggles of Red Gap," but I used to watch it every July 4th. The "What did Lincoln say at Gettysburg?" scene may be corny, but it's wonderful.
When the cowboys start gathering around to listen to the address, it was laughable. In real life, they just could not possibly have cared, not that quickly, not that quietly, and not all in the same way at the same time. It's absurd.
You'd be surprised at what guys will do. Especially illiterate ones.
It's plausible. There was very little formal education and even less entertainment. I just about any mining camp, in those days, you could gather quite a crowd by just reading a newspaper out loud.
There's a fun radio play of the movie starring Laughton available for free streaming or download:
https://archive.org/details/ScreenGuildTheater
If you do a search for the title it shows up.
Yes, that Ruggles of Red Gap moment is one of those, "This shouldn't work, but it works!" film moments.
I admit it. I cried when CL read those words. Yes, the set-up was phoney (and kind of insulting to ordinary Americans), but the sincere, understated way Laughton read those familiar words, and the gradually growing passion, got to me.
I've never seen the movie, so thanks for that @Althouse.
"In real life, they just could not possibly have cared, not that quickly, not that quietly, and not all in the same way at the same time. It's absurd."
You haven't killed enough time sitting in a neighborhood bar. Try one without a TV and music. And recall that, prior to Edison, anyone with any skill or knowledge was a welcome source of entertainment. The scene probably seemed far less contrived in 1935.
"In real life, they just could not possibly have cared, not that quickly, not that quietly, and not all in the same way at the same time. It's absurd."
You haven't killed enough time sitting in a neighborhood bar. Try one without a TV and music. And recall that, prior to Edison, anyone with any skill or knowledge was a welcome source of entertainment. The scene probably seemed far less contrived in 1935.
AA: "In real life, they just could not possibly have cared, not that quickly, not that quietly, and not all in the same way at the same time. It's absurd."
One thing AA is missing here is part of *why* the patrons are reacting that way. They are realizing that a foreigner, whom they had smugly thought quaint, knew this speech, part of American scripture, while they did not. The scene is not just about the Gettysburg address but the reactions, involving some shame, to Ruggles. It is about aspiration, assimilation, immigration, and the sense of a country defined by ideals not bloodlines.
My goodness, a movie that isn't exactly true to the book!
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