Main Cast: Arthur Treacher, Patricia Ellis, Robert Kent, Alan Dinehart, George Givot
Release Year: 1937
Country: US
Run Time: 67 minutes
Plot
Step Lively, Jeeves was the second 20th Century-Fox programmer to star Arthur Treacher as P.G. Wodehouse's resourceful butler Jeeves. In the first film, Thank You, Jeeves (36), the faithful family retainer extricated his boss Bertie Wooster (David Niven) from a jam. In the second film, Jeeves is on his own as he heads to America to claim an inheritance. The legacy turns out to be a phony, engineered by a pair of con men who plan to use Jeeves as the fall guy for a gangster plot. But Jeeves foils the scheme using his inbred wit--and a little larceny of his own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Step Lively, Jeeves is a quite curious picture. It takes the immensely popular butler Jeeves from the P.G. Wodehouse series of stories but neglects to take his foil, the upper class twit whom he serves, Bertie Wooster. It then decides to take the character traits associated with Wooster -- which are the exact opposite of the traits associated with Jeeves -- and graft them onto the unfortunate butler, while at the same time making sure he keeps his own traits. In normal circumstances, this would be a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, the filmmakers have on hand Arthur Treacher to portray this weird amalgam of characters, and the British character actor manages somehow to not only pull it off but to make Jeeves a quite entertaining piece of fluff. It's hard to figure out how Treacher manages this sleight-of-hand; he starts on his drunk scene, and one thinks, "Oh, dear, he's met his match now," for surely Jeeves would never behave in so Bertie-like a manner. But within a few seconds, one is enjoying the actors' turn so much that one shrugs and accepts it. Treacher really is the whole show here: the screenplay is mechanical, the direction is merely adequate. The supporting cast is good, but make no mistake: Treacher is the reason Jeeves works as well as it does. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Herschel - Costume Designer, Eugene J. Forde - Director, Fred Allen - Editor, Samuel Kaylin - Composer (Music Score), Samuel Kaylin - Musical Direction/Supervision, Daniel Clark - Cinematographer, John Stone - Producer, Frances Hyland - Screen Story, Lynn Root - Screenwriter, Frank Fenton - Screenwriter
