Thank You, Jeeves!

Although he's third billed in this film, David Niven finally was noticed by critics in the role of eternal playboy Bertie Wooster. But the first billed individual here Arthur Treacher was typecast for the rest of his life playing P.G. Wodehouse's dour butler Jeeves.

This was a B film for 20th Century Fox one of the first under the banner of the new company and it doesn't quite make an hour's running time. Still both Niven and Treacher got their starts.

Niven has been described as the man who carried more films with charm than any other actor. That's what Bertie Wooster's about, a rich young and bored heir who is forever getting in situations because he doesn't have to work for a living. This was Wodehouse satirizing the British upper classes between the World Wars. Yet Wooster is likable and charming if completely useless.

One fine boring evening Virginia Field changes all that by crashing the Wooster living space being pursued by some men. Then she leaves after spending the night and Niven wants to find her and over Treacher's objections they pursue her as well as her original pursuers.

Arriving at an inn they blunder into things without knowing exactly who the players are. In the end thanks to Jeeves it all turns out all right.

I remember Arthur Treacher years ago when he was through acting and was an announcer for the Merv Griffin Show. I got to meet him and let us say he was Jeeves to the nines.

Thank You, Jeeves is one of two films Treacher played Jeeves, but he played a lot of butlers after that. That's because he was so good at them.

He only gets third billing (behind Arthur Treacher & Virginia Field), but this was effectively David Niven's first starring role and he's charmingly silly as P. G. Wodehouse's dunderheaded Bertie Wooster, master (in name only) to Jeeves, that most unflappable of valets. As an adaptation, it's more like a watered-down THE 39 STEPS than a true Wodehousian outing. And that's too bad since the interplay between Treacher & Niven isn't too far off the mark. Alas, the 'B' movie mystery tropes & forced comedy grow wearisome even at a brief 57 minutes. Next year's follow-up (STEP LIVELY, JEEVES) was even more off the mark, with no Bertie in sight and Jeeves (of all people!) forced to play the goof.

Arthur Treacher and David Niven were terrific in the first big-screen adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's classic comedy series. As a lifelong Wodehouse fan, I only wish there were more Jeeves & Bertie movies with those two. (The 80s BBC series comes close.) Both were exceptionally funny, although in "Thank You Jeeves" Niven's talents were pretty much wasted in favor of Treacher's. By the way, check out Arthur Treacher's appearance in two 1964 episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies." He's a riot!

In the opening scene of Thank You, Jeeves, we hear a big swing band and David Niven is seen playing the drums. The camera zooms out, and we see that in his "flair", he continually drops or throws his drumsticks over his shoulder, but miraculously, a stick is replaced in his hand and he keeps playing. We also see that he's alone in his room; there is no big band accompanying him. And he's a terrible player! And his valet, Arthur Treacher, is mildly standing by with an endless supply of drumsticks, waiting for his master to lose one so he can place a replacement in his hand. It's pretty hilarious.

Arthur Treacher, known for his many roles of servitude in Shirley Temple movies, plays Jeeves in this 1930s comedy about the random adventures of a gentleman and his valet. David Niven, in one of his first starring roles, plays the gentleman. The timing that bounces off the two is priceless, and much of the film feels ad-libbed in their casualty and naturalness together. While The Niv is wealthy, idle, and in search of adventure, Arthur Treacher is always there to lend a helping hand, hence the title.

While there are some hilarious moments in Thank You, Jeeves!, the appalling racism that was present in many 1930s films kind of ruins the rest of the film. The two leads pick up a hitchhiker, Willie Best, and he's constantly treated and portrayed as stupid, ignorant, and as a blight on the rest of the story. It's pretty awful, and had the men picked up a white hitchhiker, I'm sure the plot would have included different gags.

However, if you love Arthur Treacher, or if you want to see a young, hilarious David Niven, you can sit through this hour movie for the good parts. Just know what you're getting in for when Willie Best shows up

This must be, by a very large margin, one of the worst adaptations of all time of Wodehouse's immortal Jeeves and Wooster novels.

It features an intelligent sex-mad Bertie, a singing, dancing, and pugilistic Jeeves, an unnecessary black saxophonist, and so on and so on.

One can only hope that Wodehouse (whose name appears in very small type in the credits) simply took the money and ran.

If I could give it zero out of ten (or even better, minus several hundred, I would) but as the system doesn't allow me to I give it a resentful zero. How on earth did it get to rate 6.3?

The mind boggles.