Thank You, Jeeves!

Director: Arthur Greville Collins
Year Released: 1936
Rating: 1.0

Wealthy rake Bernie Wooster (David Niven), with reliable manservant (and formidable boxer?) Jeeves (Arthur Treacher) by his side, has his holiday plans shaken up when a woman (Virginia Field), on the run with 'top secret' documents, hides out in his London apartment after being pursued by two men.  The title credits say it was based on the characters created by P.G. Wodehouse, but I refuse to believe either of the two credited screenwriters (Joseph Hoffman and Stephen Gross) did anything more than read the dust jacket of one of his novels, since the tone couldn't be more disconnected from the source material.  It runs a slim fifty-seven minutes and is full of terrible gags - this includes the casting of Willie Best ("Sleep n' Eat"), a black saxophonist, for cheap racial mockery.  Just as egregious a misstep: Jeeves calling swing music "barbaric."