Harry Leon Wilson's novel was serialized in SEP and was adapted for the stage by Harrison Rhodes (New York, 25 Dec 1915). A production still for the film shows actress Georgia Caine in one scene, but her appearance in the released film has not been confirmed. On 3 Aug 1934, DV announced that Charlie Ruggles had been replaced by Sidney Toler because Ruggles was working on The Pursuit of Happiness. By 24 Aug, however, Ruggles was back in the cast so that Paramount could capitalize on the "team build-up" of Ruggles and Mary Boland. Their first film in which they played husband and wife was The Night of June 13 (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.3137). In an early script, dated 3 Nov 1934--three days before production began--Baby LeRoy is listed for the role of "Baby Judson," but was later replaced by Ricard Cezon. According to HR news items, shooting on this film was delayed because Charles Laughton was returned to Paramount from M-G-M with a shaved head, after playing the part of Micawber in M-G-M's David Copperfield for two days. M-G-M dismissed Laughton and replaced him with W. C. Fields (for more information, see the entry on David Copperfield in AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.0971) Paramount reportedly asked M-G-M to pay the studio for the delay.
       Ruggles of Red Gap was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture of 1935, as were two other Laughton films: Les Miserables and Mutiny on the Bounty, which won the award (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.2900 and F3.3020). The New York Film Critics Circle, in their first annual award, selected Laughton as Best Actor of 1935 for his performance as Ruggles and his portrayal of Captain Bligh, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Ruggles of Red Gap was one of FD's "Ten Best Pictures of 1935" and was listed in the 1935-36 MPA as a Mar 1935 "Box Office Champion." Although Ralph Rainger and Sam Coslow are credited with having written songs for this film, no titles were found. According to the autobiography of Elsa Lanchester, Laughton's wife, Paramount bought the story and appointed McCarey as director at Laughton's request. Before the film began shooting, Lanchester states, Laughton worked with McCarey and the film's writers on the script, and hired an old friend, Arthur Macrae, who later became a playwright in England, to add the "necessary Englishness" of Ruggles.
       Reviews praised Laughton highly for his performance in this film. DV reported that "for the first time in pictures, he has not been cast as a psychopathic subject." Var remarked that "it's not satire; it's not a pathological character study. Just plain comedy, and he's splendid, especially when he uses that dead pan." NYT stated that "Laughton gives us a pudgy, droll and quite irresistible Ruggles who reveals only the briefest taint of the Laughton pathology." Laughton specifically was praised for his serious delivery of Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" to a silenced audience of barflies and cowboys in a saloon. Var called McCarey's insertion of the speech "dangerous" and "audacious." DV reported that the sequence brought "sustained applause from the audience, due to Laughton's delivery." In an article in SEP in 1949, Laughton wrote that Ruggles became his favorite role. He referred to his reading of the "Gettysburg Address" in the film as "one of the most moving things that ever happened to me." According to a modern source, Laughton recited the address to the cast and crew of Mutiny on the Bounty on the last day of shooting on Catalina Island and again on the set of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. According to a modern source, Nazi Germany banned the release of any German-dubbed version of this film because of the Gettysburg Address speech.
       A modern source also reports that Laughton wanted Ruth Gordon to play the role of Mrs. Judson. According to Lanchester's biography, while rehearsing for Ruggles of Red Gap, Laughton was hospitalized for several weeks for a rectal abscess. According to DV, following the box office success of this film, M-G-M optioned all of the Harry Leon Wilson "Ma Pettingill" stories, and Wilson joined the M-G-M writing staff on 15 Apr 1935. Paramount re-issued Ruggles of Red Gap in late Aug 1937. Wilson's story was the source of a 1918 Essanay film directed by Lawrence C. Windom, starring Taylor Holmes; a 1923 Famous Players-Lasky film directed by James Cruze and starring Edward Everett Horton (see above entries); and the 1950 Paramount film, Fancy Pants, starring Bob Hope and Lucille Ball.