[2] In 1917, he turned his attention to directing, making more than 50 films—including a silent version of Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence (1924)—before he won acclaim with Cimarron in 1931.

The adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel Cimarron, about homesteaders settling in the prairies of Oklahoma, was the first Western to win an Oscar as Best Picture.

He teamed with the Rank Organisation in 1946 to produce and direct London Town with Sid Field and Petula Clark, based on a story he wrote.

The film—British cinema's first attempt at a Technicolor musical—is notable as being one of the biggest critical and commercial failures in this country's film history.

Ironically, Ruggles had been hired to direct it because as an American, it was thought, he was better equipped to handle a musical—despite the fact that nothing in his past had prepared him to work in the genre.