I’m a great lover of the adaptations of PG Woodhouse’s Jeeves and Wooster books. I’ve enjoyed immensely the television version with Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster and Stephen Fry as his valet Jeeves. However I recently discovered a much earlier adaptation, from 1936 that I found both enjoyable and fascinating.

Thank You Jeeves starring Arthur Treacher as Jeeves and David Niven as the bumbling Bertie Wooster is a really interesting curiosity of a film. Although it is shares its title with a Woodhouse book it is not based on any particular one. It’s basically the characters of Jeeves and Wooster put in a very Woodhouse-esque plot. That said there are some notable differences between how the characters are played in this move and how they were portrayed in the famous Fry and Laurie version. Wooster in this version is slightly less bumbling than the version played by Laurie and at one point actually starts to understand what is going on around him. Jeeves in this version is portrayed as having a much more obvious sense of humour than as played by Stephen Fry.

It’s a pretty good comedy romp and features some pretty good supporting characters. The most notable of these is the lost jazz musician ‘Drowsy’ played by Willie Best, who hamfistedly but eventually effectively helps out Jeeves and Wooster as they attempt to assist the main female character, Marjorie Lowman who is played by Virginia Field.

As I said earlier this is a real period curiosity of a film and one that surprisingly I found highly enjoyable. I hope you enjoy this movie too.