We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
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Ranking Movies Since 2011
We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
Hi Steve,
You won’t get much from me about your latest video this time, as I know very little about Lew Ayres. I remember him from only a few films and a Columbo episode, so your video was quite educational for me. I have seen All Quiet in the Western Front a long time ago, but never made the connection with the Lew Ayres I saw in his later years…and I thought Dr. Kildare started on TV with Richard Chamberlain. So it was interesting to look through all the posters and see that he was quite a leading man in the 30s!
Added Steve’s Lew Ayres You Tube Video To This Page. Our thoughts on the video and Mr. Ayres.
“Lew has a section in the book Rating The Movie Stars…so one day…I too….will have a Lew movie breakdown. Actually have not seen many of his movies. A grand total of 76. Seen the Top 4… Johnny Belinda gets Advise&Consent while on Holiday On The Western Front. I think he might give his best performance in #2 Holiday….though my Grant bias might be influencing me. #28 Iron Man…..he got the MCU rolling, did he not….ok…I have not seen that movie. My 5th movie seen is #26 Beneath The Planet of the Apes….not the best Ape movie by far and #14 Battlestar Galactica and #13 Omen II…..decent horror movie. Voted up and shared. Glad you did not go on a break.”
Hi Bruce, thanks for the comment, vote and share, much appreciated. So you’ve seen 7? I’ve seen 7 too and Flora’s tally 22.
Hey Steve…..goodness that is a weak tally for us….our combined total is still 8 behind Flora….I guess you can’t win them all. Good video…good feedback.
CORRECTIONS TO PREVIOUS POSTS Johnny Belinda was a 1948 and not 1949 film. I should have said Battle for the Planet of the Apes and not Planet for Planet of the Apes.
POSTERS entries 1-18 (1) The Unfaithful (2) Dr Kildare’s Victory (3) Battlestar Galactica. Critics accused the movie of being a Star Wars “rip-off of the Year” 1978. Lew also appeared in one episode of the TV series that same year (4) Omen 2 – a cracker! (5) Donovan’s Brain (6) 1st for State Fair (7) Last Train from Madrid (8) juicy one for The Carpetbaggers (9) Johnny Belinda (10) Holiday and (11) 2 superb ones for All Quiet.
My pick of the STILLS – ALL entries (1) Lew with Jeanette [I take it] (2) him with The Cowboy of the Century (3) Lew with my unmistakable Jimmy and my Joan [I can only presume because it’s a very ‘young’ photo] (4) lobby card for Iron Man (5) still for Iron Man (6) and is that the young Lana in Calling Dr Kildare? (7) The Unfaithful (8) Lew with Garbo (9) Johnny Belinda (10) Lew with Al Leach and Katie H (11) lobby card for All Quiet on the Western Front and (12) sexy closing one – but of whom?
Your Ayres video is a good solid 98% rated presentation for my money. Unfortunately he has received no Work Horse love to date but I am sure that WH won’t take offence when I boast that on this occasion at least I can ‘out-Bruce Bruce’ –
“Sometimes a performer gets the role of a lifetime early in his career, and everything after it is anti-climatic. This happened to Lew Ayres, a highly capable and sincere actor. The film was All Quiet on the Western Front, with Ayres brilliantly plying a soldier who loses his idealistic notions during combat.” [The Master writing in the 1983 Book of Terror]
One of the first stars of the talkies era of movies, posterity probably remembers Lew Ayres most for the classic 1930 war film All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr Kildare in 9 movies. However he sometimes gets a mention for co-starring with Jean Harlow in one of her earliest credited performances, in Iron Man, a boxing flick remade in 1951 with Jeff Chandler and Evelyn Keys in the lead roles and of course Lew was nominated for an Oscar in a leading role for 1949’s Johnny Belinda.
Lew’s movie career began in 1929 with an uncredited role in The Sophomore and his last significant film role was as support to Ladd and George Peppard in the 1964 The Carpetbaggers.
After that he largely confined himself to television, but that part of his career lasted a further 30 years so that all told his acting career spanned an amazing 65 years. Post 1964 he was in only about half a dozen big screen productions but they included 1973’s Battle for Planet of the Apes and 1978’s Omen 2 as your video faithfully shows.
Personally, I last saw Lew in TV reruns of a 1974 Columbo episode Mind over Mayhem and the following year in an episode of Rock Hudson’s McMIllan and Wife. There was a touch of history in Rock and Lew appearing together in that episode because as said above the young Lew had played the 1931 Iron Man and Rock had a supporting role in the 1951 Chandler remake.
Best POSTERS 36-19 entries (1) 1st one for Remember? (2) No Escape [released over here as a 2nd feature] (3) Up for Murder (4) Rich Man poor Girl (5) Both for Planet for Planet of Apes – you just love to have the opportunity to include those types of films, don’t you!? (6)1st one for The People v Dr Kildare (7) East is West and (8) Fingers in the Window.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info, trivia and quote from ‘he who must not be named’. [wink] Iit is appreciated.
Happy you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
I was just telling Flora over at yonder video parlour that Richard Chamberlain was the only Dr. Kildare I was familiar with… until I started compiling this video. 9 Dr. Kildare movies? Not bad. I had to include them all which is why the video is a bit longer than usual.
Joel McCrea was actually the first actor to play James Kildare on film – Internes Can’t Take Money (1937) – before Lew Ayres took the role. His first was – Young Dr. Kildare (1938).
Lew can also lay claim to being the lead actor in one of the ‘100 Greatest American films of all time’ (AFI) – All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), and one of the all time great anti-war movies.
Two films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Western Front and Holiday. One more scored 9 – Johnny Belinda. And there are 7 scoring 8 out of 10.
“I’ve always tried to make characters real and vulnerable. How I do this I’d be hard-pressed to say, but when you do achieve it, when you are totally credible, the audience can forget itself and live through you on the screen. An audience needs to forget itself, if only for a little while.”
Oh nearly forgot Bob that was Lana Turner with Lew in Calling Dr. Kildare and in the closing still.
I miss the edit function.. 🙁
HI STEVE
Thanks for the feedback, additional information, quote and confirmation about Lana. By the time I got familiar with the screen Turner of the 1950s, beautiful though she still was the girlish Lana of her youth was naturally long gone so I needed your confirmation.
My other additional comments are-
1/I didn’t know that Joel had done Kildare – glad you told me that as I found it very interesting. Of course that other great “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do” stalwart of the screen’s Old West, Randy, clowned about in earlier movies with Al Leach and Fred and Ginger so Joel’s different screen pace in his pre-cowboy days shouldn’t have surprised me.
2/Whilst I highlighted the Kildare posters/stills that MOST pleased me I though your entire run of Kildare material throughout the video was excellent.
Keep safe.
Added Steve’s Stuart Whitman You Tube Video to the page. Our thoughts on his video and Stuart Whitman which are found on Steve’s video channel.
“Growing up I always got Stuart Whitman mixed up with Ralph “The Waltons” Waite. Have not seen many Whitman movies at all. #1 The Longest Day…the cast of 1000s #3 The Magnificent Long Title and Their Amazing Airplanes….fun movie. #4 The Comancheros…an under rated John Wayne movie. #19 The White Buffalo…not a good movie. #27 Guyana Cult of the Damned…bad movie on a horrible tragic story. So a total of 5. One behind Flora. Voted up and shared. Hope your break is not too long.”
Hi Bruce, no break yet, when I finish this run of actors maybe. Your tally 5, Flora 6 and mine 9. You mean you haven’t seen Night of the Lepus? giant killer rabbits on the loose! If you ever do a UMR page on ‘When Giant Furry Animals Attack” that has to be included. Thanks for the comment, vote and share, it is appreciated.
Hey Steve….good….it sounds like you got a second wind. Yep…no Night of the Lepus for me. Hmmmm….When Giant Furry Animals Attack…..sounds like a good idea….lol. Good stuff.