Watch Thank You, Jeeves! For Free

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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

Fast moving, lavish B comedy is the first of two leading role for Mr. Fish n' Chips himself, Arthur Treacher. Seemingly born to play a butler, he's dryly droll, excessively loyal and completely in charge. Like Mr. Belvedere after him, Jeeves made everybody think that they were in charge when really the truth was obvious. The subject of his subordination is the young David Niven, seen in the opening complaining about been oh so rich and bored. The next 55 minutes is certainly anything but boring.For starters, they become involved with mystery girl Virginia Field who is being chased a la The 39 Steps by alleged Scotland Yard detectives. Beleaguered saxophonist Willie Best gets the ride of his life when picked up by Niven and Treacher who end up being chased by the men following Field, creating more comical adventure. There's a hysterical sequence with Best playing his sax and Treacher dancing, unaware that there's a trap door underneath them. This is a fun adaption of P.G. Wodehouse's series of stories, later adapted for several plays and an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. This version is delightfully witty, often over the top and filled with plenty of surprises.

In the period when I was a really voracious reader of books, all Wodehouse's works were not only banned and removed from sale in shops and taken off the shelves in libraries, but they were piled into huge bonfires and burnt. Plum was regarded as a traitor and as far as I am aware, he has never been formally re-instated even when the true facts became known. Although I'm the sort of person who haunts bookshops and libraries, I've never ever seen a Wodehouse book, or even a reproduction of the cover art of a Wodehouse book, let alone have I actually held one in my hand. Needless to say, none of Wodehouse's movies have ever been aired on local TV, so I pounced on this Fox DVD and managed to smuggle it through Customs. I might have saved myself the trouble. There is nothing controversial in "Thank You, Jeeves", but it is mildly amusing – thanks more to the strenuous efforts of the players than anything much in the way of rolling-on-the-floor hilarity in the text itself. If this sort of Bowery Boys' slapstick (complete with Willie Best), is the best that Wodehouse has to offer, maybe it explains why all his books and movies are still shunned in my country, even though the ban itself has presumably been lifted.

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!