- In full:
- Wesley Heinsch Ruggles
- Born:
- June 11, 1889, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Died:
- January 8, 1972, Santa Monica, California (aged 82)
Wesley Ruggles
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Who was Wesley Ruggles?
Wesley Ruggles (1889–1972) was an American film director known for his comedies, though he directed in other genres as well. Ruggles began his screen career as an actor in 1915, appearing in Charlie Chaplin shorts before directing short films himself.
His early silent films include The Leopard Woman (1920) and The Age of Innocence (1924). With the advent of sound, Ruggles directed Street Girl (1929), one of RKO’s first and most profitable releases, and Cimarron (1931), which won the Academy Award for best picture.
Later, he directed I'm No Angel (1933) with Mae West and Cary Grant, as well as two romantic comedies with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray: The Gilded Lily and The Bride Comes Home (both 1935). Ruggles's final Hollywood film was the military comedy See Here, Private Hargrove (1944). He retired from filmmaking after making London Town (1946) for a British studio.
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What is Wesley Ruggles known for?
Wesley Ruggles (1889–1972) was an American film director known for his comedies, though he directed in other genres as well. His screen acting career began in 1915, and he started directing short films in 1917.
Ruggles directed Cimarron (1931), a classic Western that won the Academy Award for best picture. He was also nominated for an Oscar for best director for the film. Other notable films include I'm No Angel (1933), one of Mae West's best films, and See Here, Private Hargrove (1944), a military comedy and Ruggles's last box-office hit in Hollywood.
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What kinds of movies did Wesley Ruggles direct?
Wesley Ruggles, an American film director, was known for directing various types of movies, though he was especially adept at comedies. His filmography includes:
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Silent Films Ruggles directed silent movies such as The Winchester Woman, a crime drama; The Leopard Woman; The Remittance Woman; and The Age of Innocence, which was the first screen adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel.
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Musicals Street Girl, Honey, College Humor, and Sing You Sinners.
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Westerns Cimarron and Arizona.
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Romantic Comedies No Man of Her Own, The Gilded Lily, The Bride Comes Home, I Met Him in Paris, and Too Many Husbands.
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Other Ruggles also directed socially conscious films like Are These Our Children?, crime films, and military comedies such as See Here, Private Hargrove.
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What is Wesley Ruggles’ most famous film?
Wesley Ruggles was an American film director known for his comedies, though his most famous movie was arguably the classic western Cimarron (1931). He directed two romantic comedies with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, The Gilded Lily and The Bride Comes Home. Ruggles also directed See Here, Private Hargrove, a military comedy based on a true story, which became his last box-office hit in 1944.
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How did Wesley Ruggles influence American cinema?
Wesley Ruggles, an American film director, significantly contributed to American cinema, particularly in comedies, though he directed in other genres as well. His film Cimarron (1931), a Western based on Edna Ferber’s novel about settling Oklahoma, was a box-office hit and won an Academy Award for best picture.
Ruggles directed Mae West's I’m No Angel (1933), which helped make Cary Grant a star, and Bolero (1934), starring George Raft and Carole Lombard. He also directed romantic comedies such as The Gilded Lily and The Bride Comes Home (1935), and the military comedy See Here, Private Hargrove (1944), his last box-office hit.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Wesley Ruggles (born June 11, 1889, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—died January 8, 1972, Santa Monica, California) was an American film director who was especially adept at comedies, though his best-known movie was arguably the classic western Cimarron (1931).
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
Early work
Ruggles, who was the younger brother of actor Charles Ruggles, grew up just as the film industry was moving west. His screen acting career began in 1915, when he played a Keystone Kop in the comedy short Caught in a Park. He later worked on such Charlie Chaplin shorts as The Bank (1915) and Police (1916). In 1917 Ruggles began directing short films, and two years later he helmed his first feature, The Winchester Woman, a crime drama. Other early silent movie credits include The Leopard Woman (1920), The Remittance Woman (1923), and The Age of Innocence (1924), the first screen adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel. He then directed such Laura La Plante films as Finders Keepers (1928) and Scandal (1929), the latter of which featured some spoken dialogue.
The sound era
In 1929 Ruggles directed his first all-talkie, Street Girl, a musical with Jack Oakie and Betty Compson. It was one of RKO’s first releases and a profitable one at that. Honey (1930) was a musical that had been a hit on Broadway; its high point was the “Sing You Sinners” number performed by Lillian Roth. Ruggles then directed Cimarron (1931), which in its day was one of the most expensive films ever made, with an estimated budget of $1.43 million, more than most hit pictures then were grossing. The western was based on Edna Ferber’s best-selling novel about the settling of Oklahoma, with Richard Dix and Irene Dunne in the lead roles. Cimarron was an enormous box-office success, and it won the Academy Award for best picture. (It would prove to be the only western to win a best picture Oscar until 1990’s Dances with Wolves.) In addition, Ruggles received an Oscar nod for best director.
Ruggles then made the socially conscious Are These Our Children? (1931), a cautionary tale of a youth (played by Eric Linden) who turns to a life of crime and ends up sentenced to death. His films from 1932 include No Man of Her Own, a solid romance with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard; it marked the only time those actors—who later became romantically involved and were married from 1939 to 1942, when Lombard died in a plane crash—acted together on-screen. The Monkey’s Paw (1933) was an appropriately eerie staging of the classic supernatural tale by W.W. Jacobs.
In 1933 Ruggles returned to musical comedies with College Humor—which starred Bing Crosby, George Burns, and Gracie Allen—and I’m No Angel. The latter was one of Mae West’s best films, and it helped make Cary Grant a star. West, who wrote the screenplay, portrayed a circus performer who falls in love with a wealthy man (Grant). Also popular was Bolero (1934), an effective teaming of George Raft and Lombard as professional dancers.
Later films
In 1935 Ruggles made two romantic comedies with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray: The Gilded Lily and The Bride Comes Home. Next was Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936), an unusual assignment, considering that Ruggles’s strength lay in comedy. However, he did a creditable job with that unabashed tearjerker, which featured Gladys George in an Oscar-nominated performance as a former prostitute who takes in two orphans and goes to extreme measures to keep her past from them.
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With I Met Him in Paris (1937), Ruggles returned to the sort of romantic froth with which he was more familiar; Colbert was cast as an American fashion designer visiting Europe who is courted by three men (Robert Young, Melvyn Douglas, and Lee Bowman). The screwball comedy True Confession (1937) featured Lombard as a pathological liar and MacMurray as a lawyer whose honesty hampers his career. Ruggles’s success continued with Sing You Sinners (1938), which starred Bing Crosby as a gambler and MacMurray as his disapproving brother; the film was an entertaining blend of sentiment, comedy, and songs. Invitation to Happiness (1939) centred on the marital struggles of a boxer (MacMurray) and his socialite wife (Dunne).
In 1940 Ruggles directed Too Many Husbands, a romantic comedy with Jean Arthur, Douglas, and MacMurray. Arthur returned for the popular western Arizona (1940), portraying a determined woman who heads west to start a cattle ranch; William Holden played her love interest. Less successful was You Belong to Me (1941), a screwball romance that starred Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck. Marginally better was the glossy wartime romance Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942), with Gable and Lana Turner well matched. Turner was less well served by the script of Slightly Dangerous (1943), about a woman who poses as a long-lost heiress.
In 1944 Ruggles had his last box-office hit, See Here, Private Hargrove, a military comedy based on a true story. That film proved to be Ruggles’s final Hollywood work. In 1946 he made London Town for a British studio and then retired from filmmaking.