Lew AyresFilmography

Under Siege

Actors: Hal Holbrook, Peter Strauss

Synopsis: Under Siege was first telecast in February 1986, a time when the notion of foreign terrorists in America was still speculative fiction. A militant group sets off explosives at US Army bases, then branches out to such civilian targets as crowded shopping centers. FBI director Peter Strauss Read More

Lime Street

Synopsis: First telecast on September 21, 1985, the 2-hour pilot for the TV series Lime Street stars Robert Wagner as James Greyson Culver, an investigator for a prestigious London insurance company. His assignment is to get to the bottom of a plot to assassinate the royal family of a British principality. Read More

The A-Team: The Grey Team

Synopsis: Believing that her father plans to sell a briefcase full of government secrets to the KGB, Paula Anderson (Moya Kordick) steals the briefcase herself and hides out at Silver Creek Retirement Home, where she has befriended a sprightly senior citizen named Bernie Greene (Lew Ayres). It is up to the Read More

Highway to Heaven: The Right Thing

Synopsis: This episode of Highway to Heaven reunites star-writer Michael Landon with his former Little House on the Prairie co-star Matthew Laborteaux. Be that as it may, the episode's emphasis is on guest performer Lew Ayres, cast as elderly widower Harry Haynes. Placed in a retirement home by his Read More

Quincy, M.E.: The Law Is a Fool

Synopsis: Quincy (Jack Klugman) is an unwilling key player in an elaborate vengeance scheme concocted by arrogant paralegal Carl Norman (Jeff Pomerantz). After the 7-year-old granddaughter of law professor Henry Hillman (Lew Ayres) is kidnapped in broad daylight, Norman calmly walks into police headquarters Read More

Of Mice and Men

Actors: Randy Quaid, Cassie Yates, Robert Blake

Synopsis: This TV movie adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men was a labor of love for producer-star Robert Blake, who utilized the screenplay from the 1939 Hollywood version as his guide--a screenplay personally presented to Blake by the original film's director, Lewis Milestone. Blake and Randy Quaid Read More

Magnum, P.I.: The Curse of the King Kameameha Club

Synopsis: During a major surf-ski competition, a Kahuna named Makua (Sol Bright) places a curse on Rick's club. At first, neither Rick (Larry Manetti) nor anyone else takes the curse seriously, but soon bad things begin happening--including at least one death. In his efforts to investigate this phenomenon Read More

Reunion

Synopsis: In this drama, a married man attends his high school reunion and finds himself falling for his ex-sweetheart's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Greatest Heroes of the Bible: Noah - The Deluge

Synopsis: This entry in the "Greatest Heroes of the Bible" series looks at the circumstances surrounding God's greatest flood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Deluge

Synopsis: Part of "The Greatest Heroes of the Bible"series this story looks at Noah and the Ark. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Letters from Frank

Synopsis: Frank is Frank Miller (Art Carney), a 65 year old newspaper man. His letters are to his oldest son Richard (Mike Farrell), and they're decidedly on the vitriolic side. Frank, you see, was involuntarily retired from his job and replaced by a computer. But with the help and support of his wife Betty Read More

Battlestar Galactica

Actors: Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch, Jane Seymour, Dirk Benedict

Synopsis: This feature-length movie is a re-edited version of the first few episodes of the TV series. The story line concerns a spaceship full of survivors of a doomed planet who are headed to the Earth. Led by Commander Adama (Lorne Greene), they encounter villainous robots, threatening their journey to Read More

Salem's Lot

Actors: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Reggie Nalder

Synopsis: Novelist David Soul returns to his hometown of Salem, finding that things have changed a bit. More than a bit, in fact: the previously warm and friendly community is downright sinister. Soul suspects that the bizarre behavior of his onetime friends and neighbors is the handiwork of oddball antique Read More

Greatest Heroes of the Bible [TV Series]

Synopsis: Originally titled Stories from the Bible, Greatest Heroes of the Bible was designed as a seven-part TV miniseries; evidently the specter of low ratings forced the network execs to telescope the presentation into four installments. The series began with the story of David (Roger Kern) and Read More

Suddenly, Love

Actors: Joan Bennett

Synopsis: Suddenly, Love is a tried and true "class conscious" TV movie set in the Manhattan of the 1960s. Cindy Williams stars as a Brooklyn girl who cuts the family strings at age 16 to head for the Big Apple. While studying to be an architect, Williams falls in love with a wealthy Yale law school Read More

Battlestar Galactica: Saga of a Star World, Part 1

Actors: Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene, Herbert Jefferson, Jr., John Colicos

Synopsis: In part one of Battlestar Galactica's pilot episode, the 12 colonies of humankind are poised to sign a peace treaty with the Cylons, a race of mechanical men with whom the colonies have waged war for the past millennium. In truth, however, the peace conference is a trap, arranged by traitorous Read More

Damien: Omen II

Actors: William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Robert Foxworth, Lew Ayres, Lucas Donat

Synopsis: Satan's son comes of age in this horror sequel. Shortly after the events of The Omen, a pair of anthropologists uncovers an ancient crypt that depicts the face of the Antichrist -- that of Damien Thorn (Jonathan Scott-Taylor), recently orphaned scion of a wealthy industrialist. Before they can Read More

The End of the World

Synopsis: Dr. Andrew Boran (Kirk Scott) is picking up strange signals from outer space that seem to predict natural disasters. When he and his wife (Sue Lyon) decide to investigate, they find themselves held captive in a convent that's been infiltrated by aliens with plans to destroy the world. As alien Read More

Altars of the World: The Western Religions

Crew: Cinematographer, Director, Editor, Producer

Synopsis: This video explores the sacred sites and practices of the religions of the western world including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Hosted by Lew Ayres, this video grants viewers extraordinary access to the practices of these ancient faiths. Also included are sobering examinations of how these Read More

Altars of the World: The Eastern Religions

Crew: Cinematographer, Director, Editor, Producer

Synopsis: This feature-length documentary views religious people and their ceremonies around the world, devoting most of its time to the then little-known Asian religions. This wide-ranging film is of particular interest to students of comparative religions, but those searching for a comprehensive review of Read More

Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident

Synopsis: Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy is a TV dramatization of the notorious Cold War incident of 1960. The story is told from the point of view of Powers (Lee Majors), an American pilot who was shot down over Russia while taking photographs on behalf of the CIA. The event occurs just Read More

McMillan and Wife: Requiem for a Bride

Actors: Rock Hudson

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Requiem for a Bride opens with San Francisco police commissioner McMillan (Rock Hudson) congratulating an old friend (Henry Darrow) on the friend's recent marriage. McMillan's words ring hollow when the bride (Susan Sullivan) is murdered. Complicating the issue is the growing Read More

Heat Wave

Synopsis: Ben Murphy and Bonnie Bedelia star in the made-for-TV suspenser Heat Wave. Murphy plays a young clerk, and Bedelia portrays his young and pregnant wife. During a record-breaking hot spell, the power in their mountain community goes out, and the water supply is dirty and stagnant. The balance of Read More

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, Lew Ayres, John Huston

Synopsis: The fifth and last of the original series of motion pictures based upon author Pierre Boulle's imaginative novel Monkey Planet, this science fiction film was the least-liked by the series' legion of fans. Roddy McDowall returns as Caesar, the rebellious intelligent chimp of the previous film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: The House on Hyde Street

Synopsis: A forbidding old mansion in a residential San Francisco neighborhood is the centerpiece of this grim story. When a young boy disappears, and is subsequently found dead, the neighbors suspect the mysterious recluse residing within the walls of the mansion. It is up to Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller Read More

The Questor Tapes

Synopsis: This sci-fi film chronicles the exploits of an incredibly strong android that is totally devoid of emotion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Blood Feud

Synopsis: Blood Feud is a 90-minute episode of the TV series Hawkins. Folksy lawyer/detective Hawkins (Jimmy Stewart) is faced with a murder in his own family. The killing was apparently the outgrowth of a century-old feud between the Hawkinses and their unfriendly neighbors. Lew Ayres guest stars as a Read More

The Stranger

Synopsis: Astronaut Neil Stryker (Glenn Corbett) returns from space, only to find himself held incommunicado by government security people he's never seen before, in a hospital facility that he's never heard of. He escapes from the hospital and, to his shock, sees a night sky lit up by three moons. He now Read More

The Man

Actors: Elizabeth Ross, James Earl Jones, Martin Balsam, Burgess Meredith, Lew Ayres, William Windom

Synopsis: Rod Serling, a master of speculative scriptwriting, penned the screenplay of The Man. Set a few days into the future, the story contrives to kill off the President, the vice president, and virtually everyone in line of succession in a bizarre accident. This turn of events elevates Read More

Tomorrow's Champion

The Biscuit Eater

Actors: Earl Holliman, Lew Ayres, Godfrey Cambridge, Pat Crowley, Beah Richards

Synopsis: In this touching adventure, a remake of the popular 1940 film, two Georgia boys ignore their racial differences to team up and befriend a feral bird dog, whom they train to participate in a fence-jumping contest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Last Generation

Earth 2

Synopsis: The all-purpose science fiction title Earth 2 was utilized in 1971 for this TV pilot film. Producer/writers Allan Balter and William Read Woodfield consulted both NASA and the Rockwell Corporation to guarantee a modicum of authenticity for their futuristic teleplay. The story takes place in "Earth Read More

She Waits

Actors: Patty Duke, David McCallum, Lew Ayres, Beulah Bondi, Dorothy McGuire

Synopsis: She Waits, directed by Delbert Mann, an above average, frightening made-for-TV horror film tells the very familiar story of a young couple who move into a old house only to find out that they are being haunted by the ghost of the man's ex-wife, who gradually takes possession of the young wife. Read More

Marcus Welby, M.D. [TV Series]

Synopsis: The launching pad for the long-running ABC medical series Marcus Welby, M.D. was this feature-length pilot film, first aired March 26, 1969. Robert Young of course stars as Dr. Welby, a crusty but golden-hearted general practitioner forced by a mild coronary to take on a partner. At first, Welby Read More

Kill No More

The Carpetbaggers

Actors: George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley, Carroll Baker

Synopsis: Edward Dmytryk brings Harold Robbins' trashy, dirt-dishing Hollywood best-seller to the screen with George Peppard starring as Jonas Cord, a rancidly-sketched portrait of Howard Hughes. In 1925, when his father dies of a stroke, Jonas inherits the Cord Chemical factory, a manufacturer of dynamite Read More

Advise and Consent

Actors: Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Gene Tierney

Synopsis: The first of Allen Drury "all names changed to protect the guilty" political novels, Advise and Consent was brought to the screen by producer/director Otto Preminger. The film hinges upon the appointment of Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda) to Secretary of State. Leffingwell has been hand-picked by Read More

Playhouse 90: The Family Nobody Wanted

Synopsis: Adapted from the autobiography of Helen Doss, this 90-minute TV version of The Family Nobody Wanted stars Nanette Fabray as Helen and Lew Ayres as her clergyman husband, Carl Doss. Unable to have children of their own, Helen and Carl contact virtually every adoption agency in the country, only to Read More

Altars of the East

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

City on a Hunt

Actors: Lew Ayres, Marjorie Steele, Sonny Tufts, Lewis Martin, Charles Cane

Synopsis: Also known as City on a Hunt, No Escape stars Lew Ayres and Marjorie Steele as mixed-up victims of circumstance. John Tracy (Ayres), a drunken songwriter, has reason to believe that he's murdered artist Peter Hayden (James Griffith). So does Pat Peterson (Steele), a blue-collar girl whom Hayden Read More

Donovan's Brain

Actors: Lew Ayres, Gene Evans, Nancy Davis, Steve Brodie, Lisa Howard

Synopsis: Felix E. Feist directed this second adaptation of the novel by Curt Siodmak (filmed previously in 1944 as The Lady and the Monster and later in 1963 as The Brain), which tells the story of a brilliant brain specialist (Lew Ayres) whose attempts to save the life of an accident victim result in the Read More

Four Star Playhouse, Vol. 3

Synopsis: A drama from the early television series: "A Measure of Faith." ~ All Movie Guide Read More

New Mexico

Actors: Lew Ayres, Marilyn Maxwell, Robert Hutton, Andy Devine, Raymond Burr

Synopsis: Filmed in Ansco Color (a fancy name for Eastmancolor), New Mexico stars Lew Ayres as Capt. Hunt, a U.S. Cavalry Captain stationed in Indian territory. Sympathetic to the plight of the long-suffering Native Americans, Hunt sets out to sign a peace treaty with the local chief (Ted de Corsia). En Read More

The Capture

Actors: Lew Ayres, Teresa Wright, Victor Jory, Jacqueline White, Jimmy Hunt

Synopsis: Virtually ignored at the time of its release, Capture has built up a small but enthusiastic following since its lapse into public domain. American oil man Lew Ayres kills a coworker whom he suspects of robbery. Thinking it over, Ayres wonders whether or not the man was innocent. He seeks out his Read More

Johnny Belinda

Actors: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford, Agnes Moorehead, Stephen McNally, Jan Sterling

Synopsis: After years of dumb-blonde and best-friend roles, Jane Wyman proved her skills as a dramatic actress -- and won an Academy Award in the bargain -- in Johnny Belinda. Adapted from a stage play by Elmer Harris, the story takes place in Nova Scotia, where deaf-mute Belinda (Wyman) leads a lonely Read More

The Unfaithful

Actors: Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden

Synopsis: Though not readily apparent at first, The Unfaithful is a remake of the 1940 Bette Davis vehicle The Letter, which in turn was adapted from the play by W. Somerset Maugham. The locale of the Maugham original has been shifted from the jungles of Malaya to the cozy confines of a middle-sized Read More

The Dark Mirror

Actors: Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres, Thomas Mitchell, Richard Long, Charles Evans

Synopsis: Olivia De Havilland, with the assistance of some eye-popping special photographic effects, plays twins in The Dark Mirror. One twin commits a murder: The "good" twin is blamed, but provides no alibi in her own defense, since she can't believe that the "bad" twin is guilty. Psychologist Lew Ayres Read More

Fingers at the Window

Actors: Lew Ayres, Laraine Day, Basil Rathbone, Walter Kingsford, Miles Mander

Synopsis: A fun though abortive bid to pair crime-solving duo Lew Ayres and Laraine Day for a series of thrillers, this murder mystery benefits from good performances by the leads. The plot involves a series of axe murders in Chicago being perpetrated by the patients of an insane asylum, all of whom have Read More

The People vs. Dr. Kildare

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Bonita Granville

Synopsis: Dr. Jim Kildare (Lew Ayres) plays Good Samaritan with potentially disastrous results in The People vs. Dr. Kildare. Happening upon the scene of a motor accident, Kildare performs an emergency operation on crash victim Frances Marlowe (Bonita Granville), an ice-skating star. While recovering in Read More

Maisie Was a Lady

Actors: Ann Sothern, Lew Ayres, Maureen O'Sullivan, C. Aubrey Smith, Joan Perry

Synopsis: Out of work as usual, showgirl Maisie Revier (Ann Sothern) takes a job as the maid for a wealthy family. She wins over the young man of the household (Lew Ayres), but the rest of the family is too wrapped up in its own problems to benefit from Maisie's good-natured personality. The daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan Read More

Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Red Skelton, Alma Kruger

Synopsis: When MGM decided to move up-and-coming star Laraine Day out of the "Dr. Kildare" series, the studio did so in a startlingly dramatic fashion. In Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day, Dr. Jim Kildare (Lew Ayres) and nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day) are finally able to exchange their marital vows. Alas, the Read More

Dr. Kildare's Victory

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Ann Ayars, Robert Sterling, Jean Rogers

Synopsis: In this episode of the popular medical series, Kildare finds himself involved in a dispute between to competing hospitals. The trouble begins when an intern rushes a beautiful girl to Kildare's hospital. She has a shard of glass imbedded in her heart. The girl survives the surgery, and the intern Read More

Dr. Kildare Goes Home

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Gene Lockhart, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Appointed resident assistant at the Byng State Hospital by his mentor Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore), young Doctor James Kildare (Lew Ayres) has every reason to celebrate. His euphoria, however, is short-lived: Kildare is forced to return to his hometown when his general-practitioner Read More

Dr. Kildare's Strange Case

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Shepperd Strudwick, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: This fourth entry in MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series once again stars Lew Ayres as Kildare, Laraine Day as his sweetheart Mary Lamont, and Lionel Barrymore as crusty Dr. Gillespie. In this outing, surgeon Gregory Lane (Sheppard Strudwick) begins pitching woo at Mary himself, much to Kildare's dismay. Read More

The Golden Fleecing

Actors: Lew Ayres, Rita Johnson, Lloyd Nolan, Virginia Grey, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Dumb but honest insurance agent Henry Twinkle (Lew Ayres) is in love with Mary Blake (Rita Johnson), the secretary of Henry's boss. To impress Mary, Henry sells a huge policy to wealthy Gus Fender (Lloyd Nolan), who turns out to be a notorious gangster on the lam from the law. If he wants to save Read More

Dr. Kildare's Crisis

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Robert Young, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Dr. Kildare's Crisis is actually one suffered by his fiancee, nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day). Mary's financier brother Douglas Lamont (Robert Young) is subject to unpredictable seizures, and for a while it seems that he is suffering from hereditary epilepsy. This being 1940, Douglas' affliction Read More

The Secret of Dr. Kildare

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Lionel Atwill, Helen Gilbert, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: In this third installment of MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series, Dr. James Kildare (Lew Ayres) comes to the rescue when his supervisor/mentor Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) nearly collapses from overwork. Gillespie is seeking a permanent cure for pneumonia, and must ask Kildare for assistance when the Read More

Remember?

Actors: Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, Lew Ayres, Billie Burke, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: In this off-beat love story, wealthy socialite Linda Bronson (Greer Garson) is about to marry Sky Ames (Lou Ayres) but then falls in love with handsome Jeff Holland (Robert Taylor). They become engaged. Unfortunately, Jeff is obsessed with work and has no time for an elaborate wedding. Instead Read More

Broadway Serenade

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Lew Ayres, Ian Hunter, Frank Morgan, Wally Vernon

Synopsis: Jeanette MacDonald and Lew Ayres make strange bedfellows in the overproduced MGM musical Broadway Serenade. She plays aspiring singer Mary Hale, and he plays her husband, struggling songwriter James Geoffrey Seymour. The couple's vaudeville act breaks up when Mary is hired for a big-time Broadway Read More

These Glamour Girls

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lana Turner, Richard Carlson, Jane Bryan

Synopsis: In this comedy/drama, a feisty taxi-dancer (Lana Turner in her first starring role) takes on a sorority full of snooty debutantes after an equally snobbish Ivy Leaguer (Lew Ayres) who goes on a bender, meets her and invites her to his school's annual weekend bash. The next day, the fellow forgets Read More

The Ice Follies of 1939

Actors: Joan Crawford, James Stewart, Lew Ayres, Lewis Stone, Bess Ehrhardt

Synopsis: Comedy, romance, and song hit the ice in this musical. Larry Hall (James Stewart) is a professional ice skater whose act with his friend Eddie Burgess (Lew Ayres) breaks up when Larry weds Mary McKay (Joan Crawford). Mary is also a skater, and she teams up with Larry to perform, but their on-stage Read More

Calling Dr. Kildare

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Lew Ayres, Laraine Day, Lana Turner, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: The second of MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series, Calling Dr. Kildare finds the title character (Lew Ayres) transferred to Blair General's downtown outpatient clinic by his crusty superior Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore). It is Gillespie's hope that Kildare will gain valuable experience by working in Read More

Spring Madness

Actors: Maureen O'Sullivan, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey, Burgess Meredith, Ann Morriss

Synopsis: In this collegiate romance, the love affair between two seniors is threatened by their different graduation plans. The fellow and his roommate are planning a two-year trek through Europe after the ceremony. This doesn't set well with the young woman who uses all her feminine wiles to convince him Read More

Young Dr. Kildare

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Lynne Carver, Nat Pendleton, Jo Ann Sayers

Synopsis: Though not the first Dr. Kildare film ever made, this is the first entry in MGM's long-running series set at Blair General Hospital. With the ink still wet on his diploma, Dr. Kildare is faced with a difficult decision: should he return home to work in his father's quiet country practice, or work Read More

King of the Newsboys

Actors: Lew Ayres, Helen Mack, Alison Skipworth, Victor Varconi, Sheila Bromley

Synopsis: In this drama, a young man aspires to a life of wealth and power in the newspaper business. Unfortunately, it takes time and money to be successful. The young man's girl is not patient and decides to dump him in favor of a wealthy gangster. This inspires the jilted youth to achieve his dreams. He Read More

Holiday

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres, Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis: Both film versions of Phillip Barry's stage comedy Holiday have their merits, but the 1938 version has the added advantage of supercharged star power. Katharine Hepburn and Doris Nolan play Linda and Julia Seton, two daughters of a very well-to-do family. Linda feels a bit lost in the shuffle as Read More

Scandal Street

Actors: Dorothy Babbs, Lew Ayres, Louise Campbell, Roscoe Karns, Porter Hall, Virginia Weidler

Synopsis: In this often funny crime melodrama, a librarian moves to a small town and finds herself the butt of local gossip. While the town young men strut their stuff before her, the old biddies make her the topic of many bridge parties. The initially harmless gossip takes a nasty twist when a murder Read More

Rich Man, Poor Girl

Actors: Robert Young, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey, Lana Turner, Rita Johnson

Synopsis: In director Reinh Schunzel's film Rich Man, Poor Girl, the upper crust collides with the more financially unfortunate members of society. When wealthy young executive Bill Harrison (Robert Young) falls in love with Joan Thayer (Ruth Hussey), his secretary, she doesn't believe he would be able to Read More

The Last Train from Madrid

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, Lew Ayres, Gilbert Roland, Karen Morley, Lionel Atwill

Synopsis: Set during the terrible Spanish Civil War, this film avoids political commentary in favor of objectively centering on the plight and personal lives of refugees preparing to board a train that will take them far away from the bloody horrors of war-besieged Loyalist-controlled Madrid. Once safely on Read More

Hold'em Navy!

Actors: Lew Ayres, Mary Carlisle, John Howard, Ben Baker, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: In this sports drama, framed by the annual Army-Navy football game, a freshman footballer at the Naval Academy falls in love with a pretty girl who is already going with one of his upper-class team cohorts. Their rivalry creates problems until the day of the Big Game when they unite on the last Read More

The Crime Nobody Saw

Actors: Lew Ayres, Ruth Coleman, Ben Baker, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: In this comical murder mystery, three playwrights use $500 in advance money to get an apartment in which to write a mystery. A drunken neighbor staggers in and interrupts their brainstorming before passing out on the floor. The three playwrights then pretend that he is really dead and begin trying Read More

Hearts in Bondage

Crew: Director

Actors: James Dunn, Mae Clarke, David Manners, Charlotte Henry, Henry B. Walthall

Synopsis: First-time director Lew Ayres performs miracles on a tiny budget in the Civil War drama Hearts in Bondage. The story offers a romanticized version of the events leading up to the battle between the "ironclads" Monitor and Merrimac. Northern naval officer Kenneth (James Dunn), the nephew of Monitor Read More

Panic on the Air

Actors: Lew Ayres, Florence Rice, Ben Baker, Edwin Maxwell, Charles Wilson

Synopsis: Sometimes referred to as a "baseball picture," Columbia's Panic in the Air is only peripherally involved in the sport. Lew Ayres stars as fast-talking sports radio announcer Jerry, while Florence Rice co-stars as a gorgeous socialite named Mary. Rather full of himself, Jerry delights in one-upping Read More

Shakedown

Actors: Lew Ayres, Joan Perry, Thurston Hall, Victor Kilian, Henry Mollison

Synopsis: Young engineer Bob Sanderson (Lew Ayres) is in love with wealthy socialite Edith Stuart (Joan Perry), and the feeling is mutual. But Bob refuses to marry Edith until he can support her in the manner to which she is accustomed. He takes a job as a messenger boy with her father's telegraph service Read More

Murder with Pictures

Actors: Lew Ayres, Gail Patrick, Joyce Compton, Paul Kelly, Onslow Stevens

Synopsis: Gail Patrick plays a young woman framed for murder. Luckily the newsman on the courtroom beat is ace photographer Lew Ayres. He senses Patrick is innocent (the fact that she's a knockout has something to do with this) and vows to track down the guilty party. The Least Likely Suspect spills the Read More

Lady Be Careful

Actors: Lew Ayres, Mary Carlisle, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Ben Baker, Grant Withers

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1930 as True to the Navy, Kenyon Nicholson's old stage farce Sailor Beware returned to the screen in 1936 as Lady Be Careful. The plot remains substantially the same, as an amorous sailor named Dynamite (Lew Ayres) bets his pals that he can "thaw" icy beauty-contest winner Read More

The Leathernecks Have Landed

Actors: Lew Ayres, Isabel Jewell, James Ellison, James Burke, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: The Leathernecks Have Landed is an adventure yarn revolving around three boisterous marines. Lew Ayres is the headstrong one, James Ellison the sincere one, and Maynard Holmes the roly-poly comic relief. Holmes is killed in a nightclub brawl for which Ayres gets the blame. The real murderers are Read More

Lottery Lover

Actors: Lew Ayres, Pat Paterson, Peggy Fears, Sterling Holloway, Walter Woolf King

Synopsis: In their never-ending efforts to transform contract actress Pat Paterson a major star, Fox Studios cast the lovely lady opposite such established favorites as Lew Ayres in such frothy musicals as Lottery Lover. Ayres plays American naval cadet Frank Harrington, on vacation in Paris with several Read More

Spring Tonic

Actors: Lew Ayres, Claire Trevor, ZaSu Pitts, Jack Haley

Synopsis: It is said that former gagman Clyde Bruckman spent most of his directing days sitting in his canvas chair quietly nursing a hangover. Well, someone must have directed Spring Tonic, and if it was Bruckman (as credited), he certainly sobered up long enough to deliver the goods. Claire Trevor walks Read More

Silk Hat Kid

Actors: Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Paul Kelly, Ralf Harolde, William Harrigan

Synopsis: The Silk Hat Kid is Lew Ayres, a babyfaced gangland "torpedo." Circumstances force the Kid to hole up in a slum settlement house, where priest William Harrigan puts him to work as a boxing instructor. The Kid begins to reform, and falls in love with tenement girl Mae Clarke. When rival Paul Kelly Read More

Let's Be Ritzy

Actors: Lew Ayres, Patricia Ellis, Isabel Jewell, Frank McHugh, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: Lew Ayres and Patricia Ellis are the "official" stars of Let's Be Ritzy, but the film is dominated by Frank McHugh as brash radio performer Bill Damroy. In his efforts to appease his social-climbing girlfriend Betty (Isabel Jewell), Damroy gets young hero Jimmie (Lew Ayres) mixed up in all sorts Read More

Cross Country Cruise

Actors: Lew Ayres, June Knight, Alice White, Alan Dinehart, Minna Gombell

Synopsis: In this off-beat crime drama, a philandering husband murders his wife in the midst of a department store by skewering her with an arrow shot from a sporting goods department bow. He then flees to a Greyhound bus and takes off across the country. A determined cop is hot on his trail and together Read More

Servants' Entrance

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Lew Ayres, Ned Sparks, Walter Connolly, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: Inasmuch as the film was based on a novel by Swedish author Sigrid Boo, Fox's Servant's Entrance is logically set in Sweden. Heiress Hedda Nillson (Janet Gaynor) certain that her family is about to lose all its money, takes a job as a maid. After the usual trials and tribulations, Hedda falls in Read More

She Learned About Sailors

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a chanteuse singing in a trashy Shanghai bar finds hope for escape when a rakish sailor comes to town and falls in love with her. They are happy during his brief layover, but then his ship departs and he must return Stateside. The sailor doesn't make a lot of money and Read More

Don't Bet on Love

Actors: Lew Ayres, Ginger Rogers, Charles Grapewin, Shirley Grey, Merna Kennedy

Synopsis: A man's addiction to betting on the horses severely disrupts his love life in this comedy. He, a plumber, and his fiancee, a manicurist, are getting ready for their nuptials when she learns that he is planning a honeymoon at the racetrack. She immediately calls off the wedding. The man is a Read More

State Fair

Actors: Will Rogers, Janet Gaynor, Lew Ayres, Sally Eilers, Norman Foster

Synopsis: The 1933 State Fair was the first of three film versions of the Phillip Stong bestseller. Some consider it the best of the three because of its stricter adherence to the source material and the presence of star Will Rogers. Rogers plays Abel Frake, patriarch of a family whose individual members Read More

My Weakness

Actors: Lilian Harvey, Lew Ayres, Charles Butterworth, Harry Langdon, Sid Silvers

Synopsis: The charming and effervescent continental film star Lillian Harvey made her Hollywood debut in My Weakness. Borrowing a page or two from Pygmalion, the plot is hinged on a wager made between playboy Ronnie Gregory (Lew Ayres) and his crusty uncle Ellery (Henry Travers). Ronny bets that he can Read More

Okay, America!

Actors: Lew Ayres, Maureen O'Sullivan, Louis Calhern, Walter Catlett, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: As indicated by its "catchphrase" title, Okay America is one of several early-1930s films based on the exploits of gossip columnist Walter Winchell. The big surprise here is that the Winchell counterpart is played not by W.W. look-alike Lee Tracy, as was usually the case, but by baby-faced Lew Ayres Read More

Night World

Actors: Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, Dorothy Revier, Russell Hopton

Synopsis: Night World is an astonishingly compact 57-minute extravaganza, all of which takes place at the upscale (but somewhat less-than-swank) nightclub owned by good-natured racketeer Happy MacDonald (Boris Karloff) (complete with a winning, grinning smile). In a story arc of no more than a couple of Read More

The Impatient Maiden

Actors: Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Una Merkel, John Halliday, Andy Devine

Synopsis: Lew Ayres and Mae Clarke, the reigning king and queen of the Universal lot in 1932, were teamed under the guidance of the studio's star director James Whale in Impatient Maiden. Anticipating his "Dr. Kildare" duties by nearly six years, Ayres is cast as inexperienced young surgeon Myron Brown. In Read More

Many a Slip

Actors: Joan Bennett, Lew Ayres, George "Slim" Summerville, Ben Alexander, Virginia Sale

Synopsis: Young Joan Bennett and Lew Ayres make an attractive couple in the Universal programmer Many a Slip. Because of her imperious attitude, beautiful young debutante Pat Coster (Bennett) can't find a boy friend until Jerry Brooks (Ayres) comes along. Anxious not to lose Jerry, Pat leads him to believe Read More

The Spirit of Notre Dame

Actors: Lew Ayres, William Bakewell, Andy Devine, Harry Barris, Sally Blane

Synopsis: This drama is set at Notre Dame and follows the exploits of a great football coach (patterned after Knute Rockne) who is conflicting with a promising but arrogant freshman running back. The story centers on the coach's struggle to help Bucky O'Brien understand that his glory hog ways will not help Read More

Up for Murder

Actors: Lew Ayres, Genevieve Tobin, Purnell Pratt, Richard Tucker, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a cub reporter falls for the society editor who is already the mistress of the publisher. The two men begin a rivalry that culminates with the publisher's death. Of course, the reporter stands trial. He is sentenced to hang. Fortunately, he is proven innocent before the floor Read More

Heaven on Earth

Actors: Lew Ayres, Anita Louise, Harry Beresford, Elizabeth Patterson, George "Slim" Summerville

Synopsis: While on a riverboat traveling on the Mississippi River, Ayres finds out that his father is an impostor and that man actually killed his real father. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Iron Man

Actors: Lew Ayres, Robert Armstrong, Jean Harlow, John Miljan

Synopsis: In this boxing drama, a prizefighter is left by his money-grubbing showgirl wife who aspires to be a movie star. The fighter's manager is tickled by the turn of events and immediately snaps the boxer out of his love-struck funk and sets him a challenging training program. Sure enough the fighter Read More

All Quiet on the Western Front

Actors: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Raymond Griffith, George "Slim" Summerville

Synopsis: One of the most powerful anti-war statements ever put on film, this gut-wrenching story concerns a group of friends who join the Army during World War I and are assigned to the Western Front, where their fiery patriotism is quickly turned to horror and misery by the harsh realities of combat. Read More

Common Clay

Actors: Constance Bennett, Lew Ayres, Tully Marshall, Matty Kemp, Beryl Mercer

Synopsis: Ellen Neal (Constance Bennett) is a "nice" girl -- just turned 18 -- who's been picked up in a raid on a speakeasy where she just started working. She pleads guilty to vagrancy, but gets a lecture and warning from the judge to steer clear of places like that, and to try and find honest work. She Read More

East Is West

Actors: Lupe Velez, Lew Ayres, Edward G. Robinson, Henry Kolker, Mary Forbes

Synopsis: In this romance, men board "The Love Boat" (no, not the TV boat) and set sail for China with the hope of buying a Chinese bride. The hero disembarks and immediately finds himself in the midst of an auction of women. There he spies a beautiful girl being sold by her father. The hero saves her. She Read More

The Doorway to Hell

Actors: Lew Ayres, Charles Judels, Dorothy Mathews, Leon Janney, Robert Elliott, James Cagney

Synopsis: In this early talkie, a vicious crime lord (played by Lew Ayres in a rare villainous role) decides that he has had enough and much to the shock of his colleagues decides to give the business to his second in command (James Cagney in hi second film role) and retire to Florida after marrying his Read More

The Shakedown

Actors: Barbara Kent, George Kotsonaros, Wheeler Oakman, Jack Hanlon

Synopsis: Director William Wyler made the move up to talking pictures with this blend of action and comedy. Dave Roberts (James Murray is a professional boxer who is better at losing conveniently than in knocking out is opponents. Dave's less-than-happy life on the margins begins to change when he meets and Read More

The Sophomore

Actors: Eddie Quillan, Sally O'Neil, Stanley Smith, Jeanette Loff, Russell Gleason

Synopsis: In this comedy, a college sophomore gets into deep trouble when he gambles away his tuition money on the first day of school. Now to pay for his education, he must work as a soda jerk at a local fountain. There he meets and falls in love with a pretty coed. Because the shop's owner also loves her Read More

Big News

Actors: Robert Armstrong, Carole Lombard, Sam Hardy, Tom Kennedy, Louis Payne

Synopsis: A primitive early talkie from Pathé, this crime drama starred relative newcomers Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard, the latter still spelling her first name Carol. They play husband and wife, she threatening divorce unless he devotes more of his time to their marriage. In reality, Armstrong is Read More

The Kiss

Actors: Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel, Anders Randolf, Holmes Herbert, Lew Ayres

Synopsis: MGM's paranoid fear of audience reaction to Greta Garbo's speaking voice must have been the only reason for this plodding courtroom melodrama to have been made as a silent. Released with a synchronized score and two important sound effects, The Kiss would prove to be Garbo's, and Metro's, final Read More