Lew Landers
1901 - 1962Lew Landers (January 2, 1901 - December 16, 1962) was a prolific American film and television director.
Born Louis Friedlander in New York City, Lew Landers began his movie career as an actor. In 1914 he appeared in two features, D. W. Griffith's drama The Escape and the comedy short Admission – Two Pins, opposite Glen White, under his birth name. He began making films in the 1930s, one of his first being the Boris Karloff / Bela Lugosi thriller The Raven (1935). After directing a few more features, he changed his name to Lew Landers and went on to direct more than 100 films in a variety of genres, including westerns, comedy and horror films. He worked for every major film studio—and many minor ones—during his career. In the 1950s he began to alternate his film work with directing television series, including two episodes of Adventures of Superman that were shot in black and white in under a week.
On December 16, 1962, Landers died of a heart attack. His grave is located at Chapel of the Pines Crematory.
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Sing, Dance, Plenty Hot
Lew Landers
Ruth Terry, Johnny Downs
In this musical, a con man makes a good living by promoting bogus charity shows. He gets the communities all revved up and then skips town with all their money. But then he meets three earnest people wanting to garner financial support for an orphanage. This time the con man's loyal assistant finally catches on to the wicked scam and turns him in to the police. Meanwhile, the newly reformed assistant and one of the charity workers fall in loves.
Sing, Dance, Plenty Hot
The Windjammer
Lew Landers
Bob Burns, Gale Robbins
Scott Elliott, a discharged WWII Navy officer and a film executive in civilian life, passes through a small Arkansas town, and meets Bob Burns, a farmer, and his daughter. As a film executive prior to the war, Elliott always had the thought that he could make animals talk on the screen, and when he tells this to Bob, he heartily agrees. They form a partnership whereby Elliott will handle the technical aspects, and Bob will write the dialogue for the talking animals. They go to Hollywood, where they start work on the film with the financial help of a producer. However, when half of the scenes are completed, they run the scenes for the producer, who walks out and refuses to put any more money in the project.
The Windjammer
The Red Rider
Lew Landers
Buck Jones, Grant Withers
"Red" Davison(Buck Jones), the sheriff of Sun Dog, sacrifices his job and his good name to save his best friend, "Silent" Slade from the hangman's noose, following a framed-up court decision which sentences Slade to hang for the murder of "Scotty McKee (J.P. McGowan). Davidson allows Slade to escape from jail and follows him to aid him in proving his innocence.
The Red Rider
The Raven
Lew Landers
Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi
A brilliant but deranged neurosurgeon becomes obsessively fixated on a judge's daughter. With the help of an escaped criminal whose face he has surgically deformed, the mad man lures her, her father, and her fiancé to his isolated castle-like home, where he has created a torture chamber with the intent of torturing them for having 'tortured' him.
The Raven
Wagons Westward
Lew Landers
Chester Morris, Anita Louise
David Cook and twin brother Tom are poles apart in disposition and traits. When their father dies, Tom goes to New Mexico to live with his Uncle Hardtack while David remains behind to care for their mother. The grown Tom becomes an outlaw while brother David becomes a government lawman. David is charged with apprehending Tom...
Wagons Westward
La Conga Nights
Lew Landers
Hugh Herbert, Dennis O'Keefe
In this comedy, actor Hugh Herbert plays six different roles. Only one of the roles is a man. The story centers around a dizzy music lover, who has grown rich through real estate deals. Also figuring in the story are a cab driver/performer, and a down-on-her-luck, aspiring singer. They meet when she hails his cab as she skips out on her former boarding house because she cannot pay rent.
La Conga Nights
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
Lew Landers, Clifford Smith
Donald Briggs, Jean Rogers
A 12-episode serial in which scholastic sports star Frank Merriwell leaves school to search for his missing father. His adventures involve a mysterious inscription on a ring, buried treasure, kidnaping and Indian raids. He saves his father and returns to school just in time to win a decisive baseball game with his remarkable pitching and hitting.
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
Arson Squad
Lew Landers
Frank Albertson, Robert Armstrong
Tom Mitchell is an insurance investigator and Fire Capt. Joe Dugan is chief of the police department's arson troubleshooters. Tom and Joe team up to solve a particularly vicious series of deliberate fires. A man has been killed in one conflagration, so the villains have a murder rap hanging over them.
Arson Squad
Stars on Parade
Lew Landers
Larry Parks, Lynn Merrick
In this musical showcase, two aspiring stars attempt to wow a pair of talent scouts with their stellar abilities. Songs include "My Heart Isn't in It" (Jack Lawrence), "It's Love, Love, Love" (Mack David, Joan Whitney, Alex Kramer), "When They Ask about You" (Sammy Stept), "Jumpin' at the Jubilee" (Ben Carter, Mayes Marshall), "Taking Care of You" (Lou Brown, Harry Akst), "Where Am I Without You?" (Don Raye, Gene De Paul), "Two Hearts in the Dark" (Dave Franklin), "Somewhere This Side of Heaven," "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel."
Stars on Parade