The First Screen Jeeves
Plum L in es The quarterly journal of The Wodehouse Society Vol. 22 No. 2 Summer 2001 The First Screen Jeeves By Brian Taves Brian Taves (PhD, University of Southern California) is a film archivist at the Library of Congress and author of three books. t the end o f 1935,20th detective, and Chan was A Century-Fox bought the studio’s most popular the film rights to Thank “star” after Shirley Ton, Jeeves (along with a Temple. one-year option on the Like Chan, Jeeves had other stories) and the right been brought to the no to make other films cen tice of the American read tered around Jeeves. Look ing public in The Saturday ing for potentially pro Evening Post. The Jeeves lific—and profitable — film series seems to have properties, the studio was been launched on what interested in any character was perceived as a sure who seemed to have the bet, casting Arthur potential to lure filmgoers Treacher, known for play to film after film, no less ing butler roles, as the fa than a modern television mous literary butler. series. Earlier in the year, However, while the Chan Fox’s merger with 20th series was cast and pre Century had enhanced the sented in a manner conso A studio photo of the three principals in the first Jeeves film: studio’s status, and a CCB” nant with Biggers’s liter David Niven, Virginia Field, and Arthur Treacher. unit was organized under ary creation, the Jeeves Sol Wurtzel, who had a $6,000,000 annual budget for films revealed no sense of the situations and character pat 24 “Bs” per year.
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