Louis Hayward Movies
Born in South Africa, roguishly handsome leading man Louis Hayward was educated in England and the Continent. Hayward briefly managed a London nightclub before he went on stage as a protégé of playwright Noel Coward. He co-starred in the London stage productions of several Broadway plays, among them Dracula and Another Language, and in 1933 made his screen bow in the British Self Made Lady. Hayward came to Broadway in 1935 to star in Point Verlaine (1935), which won him a Hollywood contract. His first American film role of note was as the hero's father in the prologue of Warner Bros.' Anthony Adverse (1936). Hayward went on to play both heroes and heels, and sometimes a charming combination thereof. He starred as Leslie Charteris' soldier-of-fortune Simon Templar in the first and the last entries in the "Saint" "B"-picture series. He also thrived in costume swashbucklers, appearing twice as the Count of Monte Cristo and once each as D'Artagnan, Captain Blood and Dick Turpin. In 1941, he was cast in a pivotal role in Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, but his part ended up on the cutting room floor. Serving as a Marine during World War II, Hayward supervised the filming of the battle of Tarawa, winning a Bronze Star for his courage under fire. After the war, he developed one of first percentage-of-profits deals, ensuring him a steady income in perpetuity for both the theatrical and TV releases of his post-1949 films. In 1954, Hayward produced and starred in the 39-week TV series The Lone Wolf (aka Streets of Danger), after buying exclusive rights to several of Louis Joseph Vance's original "Lone Wolf" stories. His later TV projects included the British series The Pursuers (1966) and the American The Survivors (1970). The first of Louis Hayward's three wives was actress Ida Lupino; the others were Peggy Morrow and June Blanchard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1935
Legendary stage actress Pauline Lord made but a few films, but was always worth watching whenever she took command of the screen. In Feather in Her Hat, Lord plays cockney storekeeper Clarissa Phipps, who worries that her son Richard will grow up being ashamed of her humble vocation. Thus, she loftily pretends that she's not Richard's mother, and that the boy is actually the offspring of a prominent theatrical family. Upon reaching adulthood, Richard (Louis Hayward) becomes a prominent playwright, confident that the stage is in his blood, while Clarissa secretly sells her store at a loss to finance Richard's first production. Only on her deathbed does Clarissa reveal the truth -- and happily, Richard isn't ashamed of her in the least, and indeed is prouder of her than ever. Basil Rathbone contributes a fascinating characterization as a gin-swilling, unshaven remittance man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pauline Lord, Basil Rathbone, (more)
- 1936
Despite its title, things get pretty noisy in MGM's Absolute Quiet. Lionel Atwill heads the cast as reclusive financier G. A. Axton, who squirrels himself away at a remote ranch to recuperate from an illness. The only other person at the ranch is Axton's secretary Laura Tait (Irene Hervey), but there's no hanky-panky; Laura is happily (or at least contentedly) married to Barney Tait (Harvey Stephens). Axton's solitude comes to an end when a plane makes a forced landing near his property. The passengers are herded into the ranch house by Jack (Wallace Ford) and Judy (Bernardine Hayes), a pair of inept bandits who'd been holding up the plane when it developed engine trouble. Seeking an opportunity to overpower the crooks are unemployed actor Gregory Bengard (Louis Hayward), crooked governor Pruden (Raymond Walburn) and newspaper reporter Chubby Rudd (Stuart Erwin). It soon develops that the passengers -- and Laura -- have more to fear from the mysterious G. A. Axton than they do from the gun-wielding Jack and Judy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lionel Atwill, Irene Hervey, (more)
Based on the classic novel by mystery author Agatha Christie that was later adapted as the Broadway hit Ten Little Indians , And Then There Were None begins with ten characters, each with a skeleton in his or her closet, on a remote island off the English coast. They soon realize that they have been brought there by an insane judge, who has tried each of them for criminal behavior in the past, and who now feels it is his duty to render proper justice for each. The struggle to stay alive begins as each "guest" is eliminated in a fashion that corresponds to the titular nursery rhyme. Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, and C. Aubrey Smith are among those marked for death. The film's ending differs from that of the novel, and later remakes in 1966, 1975, and 1989 (all using the title Ten Little Indians), alternated between Christie's original finale and this film's climax. Depending on one's taste, the film's pacing is either excruciatingly slow or suspenseful, but the storyline has become a cinematic staple in everything from horror (Theatre Of Blood) to satire (Murder By Death). ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, (more)
- 1936
When David O. Selznick produced the film version of the 1000-plus page novel Gone with the Wind, he declared he could not make a film running any less than 222 minutes. When Warner Bros. adapted the even longer Hervey Allen best-seller Anthony Adverse, the studio managed to pack everything--except the most censorable passages, which had made Allen's novel a best-seller in the first place--into 139 minutes. Surprisingly, the film version of Anthony Adverse moves rather smoothly, though it is nowhere near as involving (or as much fun) as Gone with the Wind. Fredric March stars as Anthony Adverse, the illegitimate offspring of Anita Louise, the wife of Spanish nobleman Claude Rains. When Adverse comes of age, he inherits the prosperous business run by his kindly foster father Edmund Gwenn, which he abandons for an aimless trip around the world after his heart is broken by childhood sweetheart Olivia De Havilland. Sinking deeper into the morass of alcohol and degeneracy in the West Indies, Adverse is regenerated when he is reunited with De Havilland, now the mistress of Napoleon Bonaparte. Suddenly enervated, Adverse battles the efforts of Claude Rains and Gwenn's duplicitous former assistant Gale Sondergaard to take over Gwenn's business. Along the way, he learns that Gwenn was actually his grandfather and that De Havilland has born him a son (Scotty Beckett). Instead of dying, as he does in the novel, Anthony Adverse takes his son to America to start life anew. Whew! Though no award winner itself, Anthony Adverse enabled Gale Sondergaard to win the first-ever "best supporting actress" Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Olivia de Havilland, (more)
- 1952
This above-average Louis Hayward swashbuckler was sumptuously produced by Columbia's resident western specialist Harry Joe Brown. Adapted from Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood Returns, the film stars Hayward as physician-turned-buccaneer Peter Blood. Now respectably retired in the West Indies, Blood is shaken out of his complacency when he is accused of returning to piracy. Given a chance to clear his name, Blood reassembles his old crew to track down the villain who's pilfered his good name. The excellent cast includes John Sutton, George Givot, Ted de Corsia, and, in larger roles than usual, Charles Irwin and Rex Evans. And what would a Columbia pirate picture be without leading lady Patricia Medina? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina, (more)
The title character (Rod Taylor) is a drifting gunslinger, who enters a Southwestern fort and immediately becomes embroiled with its commander (John Mills). In the end, the wanderer helps the fort guard against attacks from Indians. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1977
"Promise to Murder" is a 60-minute TV play adapted from the Oscar Wilde short story "Lord Arthur Saville's Crime." Louis Hayward stars as a moderately successful London barrister who, at the insistence of his aristocratic aunt, agrees to have his palm read by a fortune teller (Peter Lorre). Rather disturbingly, within the next few weeks several of the palmist's prophecies come true. What really bothers the nervous barrister is that one, final prediction--that he would end up committing murder. Previously dramatized as a segment of the 1943 omnibus feature film Flesh and Fantasy, "Promise to Murder" was originally broadcast live as part of the CBS anthology Climax! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1938
In this drama, a falsely convicted woman falls in love with the prison psychologist who tries to liberate her. She ended up in prison to protect her boyfriend who was just about to finish law school. The doctor and patient tryst in the prison furnace room. When he is not around, the woman must deal with the usual travails of a convict including a strict, domineering matron. A prison break occurs and violence erupts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Anne Shirley, (more)
Based on a story by Vicki Baum (of Grand Hotel) fame, Dance, Girl Dance finds innocent young Judy (Maureen O'Hara) journeying to the Big Apple in hopes of gaining fame as a classical dancer. Instead she ends up as the "stooge" for raucous strip-tease artist Bubbles (Lucille Ball), who attempts to perform ballet before leering, catcalling, unappreciative burlesque audiences. Eventually, Judy and Bubbles both fall for playboy Jimmy Harris (Louis Hayward), a rivalry that culminates in a hair-pulling, eye-scratching cat fight. Eventually, Harris's ex-wife (Virginia Field) reels him back in, and Judy is hired by ballet producer and entrepreneur Steve Adams (Ralph Bellamy). In recent years, Dance, Girl, Dance has been canonized as a feminist manifesto, due to the fact that Dorothy Arzner was the director and because of Maureen O'Hara's climactic burlesque-house speech, in which she lambastes the male spectators for their puerile chauvinism. It should be noted, however, that Arzner became director only after Roy Del Ruth pulled out of the project. Uncertain how to promote the film, RKO Radio elected to sneak it into its first-run houses without fanfare, and the result was a $400,000 loss for the studio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maureen O'Hara, Louis Hayward, (more)
- 1954
Duffy of San Quentin is an Allied Artists low-budgeter based on the life of the warden who first introduced reforms in the infamous California penal institution. Appalled by conditions in San Quentin, the grey-haired Duffy inaugurates a series of improvements. He also sets up an honor system, which brings him under fire from conservative law enforcement agencies. The lumpy, episodic continuity of Duffy of San Quentin is due to the fact that the film is comprised of an hour-long TV pilot film, padded out with hastily assembled new footage. While Duffy was consigned to TV within two years of its release, the film did well enough to engender a sequel, The Steel Cage (likewise a pilot film). Ironically, Paul Kelly, who stars as Duffy in both films, served a prison sentence for manslaughter in the 1920s. The British title of Duffy of San Quentin is Men Behind Bars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Joanne Dru, (more)
- 1950
Though usually associated with westerns, Columbia producer Harry Joe Brown proved to be up to the challenge of producing a satisfactory swashbuckler with Fortunes of Captain Blood. Based loosely on the same Rafael Sabatini novel which served as the inspiration for the 1935 Errol Flynn vehicle Captain Blood, the film stars Louis Hayward as Irish doctor Peter Blood, who is exiled from England after treating the wounds of an enemy to the crown. Blood and several other outcasts turn to piracy, terrorizing merchant vessels of all nationalities. Dogging Captain Blood's trail is the heavy of the piece, the Marquis de Riconete (George Macready). Also appearing are Patricia Medina (Columbia's stock costume-drama heroine) as the marquis' niece, and Alfonso Bedoya (immortalized as the Mexican bandit Gold Hat in Treasure of the Sierra Madre) as a sadistic prison overseer. The battle scenes in Fortunes of Captain Blood would be cannibalized time and again over the next few years by quickie-flick producer Sam Katzman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina, (more)
- 1933
In this romantic comedy, a young heiress almost loses her fortune when she disobeys the preset conditions and falls in love with a poor boy instead of a wealthy young man. Fortunately, the ingenious young man invents a wonderful super-glue. Unfortunately, his lying boss cheats him out of his rightful profits. The lad and his girlfriend conspire to get it all back. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1941
In this taut, creepy melodrama, a housemaid works as the companion of an aging, retired British actress. One day the maid (Ida Lupino) is visited by her two looney half sisters. The actress finds the slightly mad sisters intolerable and demands that they leave. Unfortunately, the maid realizes that if the sisters are sent away they will end up involuntarily committed to an insane asylum and so the maid kills the actress and lets the sisters stay. Things go well until a suspicious relative shows up and starts to investigate. Nominated for Oscars for Best Interior Decoration and Best Score, Ladies in Retirement is based upon a stage play that was in turn based upon the true story from 1886. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ida Lupino, Louis Hayward, (more)
- 1952
As indicated by the title, Lady in the Iron Mask is a distaff version of the famous Alexandre Dumas yarn. D'Artagnan (Louis Hayward) and his fellow musketeers vow to defend France's Princess Anne (Patricia Medina) to the death. It seems that Anne has been thrown into a dungeon with her face enveloped in an iron mask, while her long-lost sister Louise (also Patricia Medina) is placed on the throne by scheming Duke De Valdac (John Sutton). D'Artagnan and his pals must rescue the princess before the impostor goes through with an arranged marriage to King Phillip of Spain (Hal Gerrard). Porthos, Aramis and Athos are played respectively by Alan Hale Jr., Judd Holdren (TV's Commando Cody) and Steve Brodie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina, (more)
- 1954
This tape consists of two episodes of the television series starring Louis Hayward as private eye Mike Lanyard. The first episode, "The Savage," has Lanyard visiting a tropical island to see an old friend. He soon gets mixed up with voodoo witch doctors, head hunters and a guerrilla army starting a revolution. The second episode, "Aztec Treasure," has Lanyard meeting up with the girlfriend of a one-armed man who found millions in gold but died before he could tell where it was. Lanyard suspects that the girlfriend knows where it is but isn't telling. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1938
In this comedy, two racetrack gamblers lose all their dough by betting on a long shot. Now they must hitchhike to the next racetrack. En route they take cover in an apparently abandoned mansion. There they find some clothing, which they put on. Unfortunately, in that garb, they are mistaken by the servants for the owner's son and his friend. Complications ensue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Eric Linden, (more)
- 1940
Adapted from the novel by Howard Spring, My Son My Son stars Brian Aherne as a self-made success determined to give his son the lavish upbringing he himself was denied. Not surprisingly, the son (Louis Hayward) grows up spoiled rotten, causing grief and pain to everyone who loves him. The limit comes when the boy tries to steal his father's lady friend (Madeline Carroll). When World War I breaks out, the son displays the noble streak that he has hidden so long by dying a hero's death. Its uplifting ending at odds with the darker denouement of the original novel, My Son My Son is high-class soap opera made workable by the multilevelled performances of Brian Aherne and Louis Hayward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Carroll, Brian Aherne, (more)
- 1956
This crime drama comes from an episode of the Climax TV series. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1947
On New Year's Eve, Joan Leslie runs desperately out of a penthouse apartment and into the Times Square crowd. She has reason to flee--she has just shot and killed her husband. Through a freakish wrinkle in time, Leslie is transported back to the last New Year's and is allowed to relive the past year all over again. This time she is forearmed with the knowledge of the murder and does everything she can to avoid the deed--a task made difficult by such antagonists as her nasty husband and her emotionally disturbed brother (Richard Basehart, in his film debut). Events lead inexorably to the murder...but will she do it this time? Cleverly assembled, and with a more expensive cast and budget than was usual for pinchpenny Eagle-Lion studios, Repeat Performance is a brisk and absorbing semi-fantasy. It was remade for television as Turn Back the Clock (89), with the original film's star Joan Leslie in a brief cameo role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Joan Leslie, (more)
Sharkishly handsome Zachary Scott is right in his element in the Eagle-Lion melodrama Ruthless. Told in flashback, this is the story of the rise and fall of unscrupulous financier Horace Vendig (Scott). Hiding behind a veneer of respectability, Vendig steps on and rolls over anyone who stands in his way, including his lifelong friend Vic Lambdin (Louis Hayward), utilities executive Buck Mansfield (Sydney Greenstreet) and various and sundry women, among them Susan Duane (Martha Vickers) and Christine Mansfield (Lucille Bremer). Poor Diana Lynn is subjected to Vendig's cruelties twice, in the dual role of Martha Burnside and Mallory Flagg. It is a tribute to the acting skills of Zachary Scott that he makes his despicable character somehow likeable and, in the end, rather pathetic. Based on a novel by Dayton Stoddart, Ruthless, like many Eagle-Lion films of its period, was topheavy with loaned-out Warner Bros. contract players. It was also one of the few big-budgeted projects helmed by "cult" director Edgar G. Ulmer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zachary Scott, Joyce Arling, (more)
- 1932
In this melodrama, a delicately beautiful ghetto girl works her fingers to the bone in hopes of escaping the oppressive poverty of her home. Her hard work pays off and she becomes a prosperous fashion designer. Her success is threatened when a former acquaintance reappears and demands that she hand over a lot of money lest her dark, impoverished past be revealed to the wealthy men who woo her. Fortunately, a brave boxer, who has secretly loved her all along, takes care of the extortionist and the woman is free to marry her true love--a doctor's son. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1934
The venerable Warwick Deeping story Sorrell and Son was dusted off again for this 1934 screen incarnation. Repeating his role from the 1927 film version, H.B. Warner plays Captain Stephen Sorrell, a WW I hero reduced to scrubbing floors in a hotel. This he does for the sake of his beloved son Kit (Hugh Williams), who thanks to his father's sacrifices becomes a successful surgeon. The film's emotional undercurrents boil over in the climax, when Kit must decide whether or not to put his father out of his misery when the old man is stricken with a fatal disease. The most memorable characterization is delivered by Wally Patch as a sadistic bellboy, whose bullying of Sorrell senior literally makes the flesh creep. Featured in a minor role is Louis Hayward, just before embarking upon his Hollywood career. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- H.B. Warner, Peter Penrose, (more)
- 1973
- PG
Murder abounds at a wax museum after the owner decides to sell it, and seemingly waxen figures come alive. By the way, are wax images normally supposed to breathe when being filmed? ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1962
When the faithless wife of architect Paul Sampson (Barry Sullivan) demands a divorce, he goes berserk and kills her. The police rule that the death was an accident, but it isn't long before Paul is tortured by the pangs of conscience. He decides to confess to the murder and take the consequences -- only to find that no one believes him. Well, almost no one: Paul does manage to convince Judge David Wilcox (Louis Hayward), who, as it turns out, has a vested interest in the case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
