Acting

Lew Davis

Born — Died

1884-07-16 — 1948-01-13

Place of birth

Buffalo, New York, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

45 titles

Known for

The Great Dictator poster
8.3

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

The Great Dictator

1940

It's a Wonderful Life poster
8.3

George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.

It's a Wonderful Life

1946

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington poster
7.8

After the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. The naive and earnest new senator soon finds himself battling political corruption.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

1939

You Can't Take It with You poster
7.5

Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish mother strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things don't turn out the way Alice had hoped.

You Can't Take It with You

1938

Only Angels Have Wings poster
7.3

A traveling performer arrives at a remote South American port town where the head of an air freight service must risk his pilots' lives to earn a major contract.

Only Angels Have Wings

1939

The More the Merrier poster
6.9

It's World War II and there is a severe housing shortage everywhere - especially in Washington, D.C. where Connie Milligan rents an apartment. Believing it to be her patriotic duty, Connie offers to sublet half of her apartment, fully expecting a suitable female tenent. What she gets instead is mischievous, middle-aged Benjamin Dingle. Dingle talks her into subletting to him and then promptly sublets half of his half to young, irreverent Joe Carter - creating a situation tailor-made for comedy and romance.

The More the Merrier

1943

Film credits

1940s · 20 titles

The Great Dictator poster
8.3

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

The Great Dictator

1940

It's a Wonderful Life poster
8.3

George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.

It's a Wonderful Life

1946

The More the Merrier poster
6.9

It's World War II and there is a severe housing shortage everywhere - especially in Washington, D.C. where Connie Milligan rents an apartment. Believing it to be her patriotic duty, Connie offers to sublet half of her apartment, fully expecting a suitable female tenent. What she gets instead is mischievous, middle-aged Benjamin Dingle. Dingle talks her into subletting to him and then promptly sublets half of his half to young, irreverent Joe Carter - creating a situation tailor-made for comedy and romance.

The More the Merrier

1943

Along Came Jones poster
5.8

An easy-going cowboy is mistaken by the townsfolk for a notorious gunman. The cowboy decides it would be best to leave town, until he meets the gunman's girlfriend.

Along Came Jones

1945

Kitty poster
5.7

Pickpocket Kitty's life changes when painter Thomas Gainsborough makes her portrait. The artwork gains the attention of Sir Hugh Marcy, who later decides to use her for his benefit.

Kitty

1945

Society Mugs poster
7.0

Muriel Allen needs an escort to Alice Preston's dinner party, and her maid Petunia mistakenly places a telephone call to Acme Exterminators instead of Acme Escorts. It's Shemp and Tom to the rescue, and they're assumed to be cultured college seniors. Guest of honor Lord Wafflebottom follows the pest exterminators' lead in proper American party manners, turning the dinner party into an uncouth display. When mice are conveniently spotted, the boys go to work, disrupting the party and the entire mansion.

Society Mugs

1946

The Good Bad Egg poster
7.0

In this Columbia All-Star Comedy short (production number 8438), Joe DeRita is a bachelor inventor who reads a marriage proposal written on an egg by a lonely widow with one child. He accepts, and soon finds out the boy is the "bad" part of the egg in the title, as he soon destroys whatever it was that Joe had invented.

The Good Bad Egg

1947

Murder in Times Square poster
4.7

An actor becomes a suspect in the murders of four New Yorkers injected with rattlesnake venom.

Murder in Times Square

1943

One Mysterious Night poster
6.2

After a rare gem is stolen from an exhibition at a posh hotel, Inspector Farraday recruits former thief Boston Blackie to retrieve the stone. Along with his assistant, 'The Runt', Blackie focuses his investigation on the hotel manager, George Daley, and his sister, Eileen. Through disguises and ruses, Blackie and the Runt trick their way to discovering the perpetrators.

One Mysterious Night

1944

Belle of the Yukon poster
5.8

Left by a con man, Belle De Valle, a dancer, finds him again in gold-rush Alaska running an honest casino/dance hall.

Belle of the Yukon

1944

Bride and Gloom poster
7.0

In this Columbia All-Star Comedy (production number 8439), Shemp Howard finds himself in a love nest with the wrong woman, while his bride-to-be is waiting, none too happy, at the church.

Bride and Gloom

1947

Dr. Broadway poster
6.0

A New York doctor saves a chorus girl from a window ledge, twice, and rounds up racketeers.

Dr. Broadway

1942

Mexican Spitfire at Sea poster
4.7

An advertising executive and his temperamental wife sail to Hawaii in search of business. The fifth entry (of eight) in the "Mexican Spitfire" comedy series.

Mexican Spitfire at Sea

1942

Gildersleeve's Bad Day poster
6.6

Gildersleeve has jury duty.

Gildersleeve's Bad Day

1943

So Long Mr. Chumps poster
6.5

The stooges are street cleaners who find some valuable bonds and return them to their owner. The man is so grateful that he offers them a big reward if they can find an honest man with executive ability. Their search leads them to a woman who's fiancée is honest, but he's in jail. The boys decide to commit a crime so they can go behind bars to find him. In prison the boys locate the man and help him escape, only to find out that their benefactor is a con man and on the way himself to the slammer.

So Long Mr. Chumps

1941

A Hit with a Miss poster
6.7

Shemp Howard is a prizefighter in this Columbia All-Star Comedy who has a complex that leaves him a coward and unable to fight unless he hears "Pop Goes the Weasel." He hears it enough here, from various and outlandish sources, to eventually win his championship match.

A Hit with a Miss

1945

Off Again, On Again poster
7.3

Good samaritan Shemp rescues a girl from an accident, and a newspaper photographer snaps a picture of her thanking Shemp. The paper mixes up the caption, implying that Shemp and the girl are lovers. This doesn't sit well with Shemp's fiancee, who breaks off their engagement, leaving him so heartbroken he asks the rescued girl's gangster boyfriend (Dick Curtis) to kill him. When Shemp's intended returns and apologizes, he realizes that his days are numbered unless he can find the gangster and call off the hit.

Off Again, On Again

1945

Even as IOU poster
6.0

A destitute mother and child move into the stooge's vacant lot home and the boys decide to help them. They steal the kids piggy bank and sneak into the race track. They bet on a long shot that wins and then are gypped out of their winnings by two con men who sell them a washed up race horse. Everything turns out happily when Curly swallows horse vitamins and gives birth to a colt!

Even as IOU

1942

The Remarkable Andrew poster
7.4

When Andrew Long, hyper-efficient small town accountant, finds a $1240 discrepancy in the city budget, his superiors try to explain it away. When he insists on pursuing the matter, he's in danger of being blamed himself. In his trouble, the spirit of Andrew Jackson, whom he idolizes, visits him, and in turn, summons much high-powered talent from American history...which only Andrew can see.

The Remarkable Andrew

1942

Mr. Noisy poster
7.3

This All-Star Comedy (production number 7437, and a remake of 1940's "The Heckler" with Charley Chase) has Shemp Howard, noise-maker and heckler deluxe, hired by two gamblers to rattle a ball team while the gamblers bet on the opponents. The gamblers are more than a little bit vexed when Shemp loses his voice.

Mr. Noisy

1946

1930s · 24 titles

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington poster
7.8

After the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. The naive and earnest new senator soon finds himself battling political corruption.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

1939

You Can't Take It with You poster
7.5

Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish mother strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things don't turn out the way Alice had hoped.

You Can't Take It with You

1938

Only Angels Have Wings poster
7.3

A traveling performer arrives at a remote South American port town where the head of an air freight service must risk his pilots' lives to earn a major contract.

Only Angels Have Wings

1939

Start Cheering poster
6.9

After retiring from movies to get an education, a man discovers his ex-staff is trying to have him expelled.

Start Cheering

1938

Tarnished Angel poster
5.3

A showgirl with a dubious reputation flees the cops and transforms herself into a phony evangelist offering "cures" to the sick and disabled.

Tarnished Angel

1938

If You Could Only Cook poster
7.4

An auto engineer and a professor's daughter pose as married servants in a mobster's mansion.

If You Could Only Cook

1935

Adventure in Sahara poster
5.8

Agadez is a lonely French outpost baking under the desert sun and commanded by the cruel and oppressive Captain Savatt. To it comes, at his own request, Legionnaire Jim Wilson soon followed by his fiancée, Carla Preston, who has been tracing him from post to post. Legionnaires seize the fort and turn Savitt loose in the Arab-haunted desert with only a fraction of the water and food needed to get back to civilization. But Savitt gets through and returns to the fort at the head of an avenging troop of men. But Arabs surround Savitt and his men, and the mutineers, knowing that to leave the fort and aid them means their own death

Adventure in Sahara

1938

Movie Maniacs poster
6.0

The boys are stowaways on a train box-car filled with furniture bound for Hollywood where they hope to break into movies and become stars. Arriving at the Carnation Pictures Studios. Fuller Rath, the studio general manager, receives a telegram from the home office telling him that a certain "Mr. Smith and his two assistants" will arrive to take over the supervision of the studios. He mistakes the Stooges as the executives and gives them free reign over the studios, where they proceed to disrupt and destroy the production of a romantic drama.

Movie Maniacs

1936

Slippery Silks poster
7.1

The Stooges are carpenters who inherit a fancy dress boutique. They put on a fashion show with dresses they've designed based on furniture. During the show the owner of a antique box the stooges wrecked shows up and a wild cream puff fight ensues.

Slippery Silks

1936

Cash and Carry poster
6.3

The Stooges find a crippled boy and his sister living in their dumpyard shack. To raise money to pay for the little boys operation they buy a phony treasure map from a con man. Thinking the treasure is buried beneath an old house, the boys start digging and wind up in a US treasury vault where they are promptly arrested. The president (FDR) gives them amnesty and arranges for the boy's operation.

Cash and Carry

1937

Three Little Sew and Sews poster
7.0

The stooges are sailors working in a ships' tailor shop. When they can't get passes to go ashore, they steal officers uniforms and go to a party with Curly passing himself off as Admiral Taylor and Moe and Larry as his aides. Two spies, one of them a beautiful woman, trick the stooges into stealing a new submarine. The boys turn the table on the spies and capture them. When the real Admiral shows up, Curly's reenacts the capture and accidentally detonates a bomb, blowing them all to kingdom come.

Three Little Sew and Sews

1939

The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt poster
6.6

Spies force former jewel thief Michael Lanyard to steal defense secrets in Washington.

The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt

1939

3 Dumb Clucks poster
6.6

The stooges escape from jail when they learn their father, who has just become rich, is planning to leave their mother and marry a young girl. Curly is mistaken for the stooges father (he plays both parts) and marries the girl instead. When they learn that she is working with gangsters who plan to kill their father for his money, they escape and take their father with them.

3 Dumb Clucks

1937

No artwork available
10.0

Aa Columbia 2-reel comedy starring Tom Kennedy and Monty Collins in NEW NEWS (1937). Fans of the 3 Stooges will recognize the exact same plot and situations from their short CRASH GOES THE HASH (1944). Yes, this version came out BEFORE the Stooges version...so anyone that says these guys are ripping the Stooges off, they are wrong! Columbia made 526 slapstick two-reelers between 1933-1958...190 starred the Stooges...336 others starred a variety of comedians.

New News

1937

The Girl Who Came Back poster
6.0

A counterfeiter gives up her life of crime and goes straight. She gets a job in a bank, but the members of her former gang hear about it and try to blackmail her into helping them rob the bank.

The Girl Who Came Back

1935

Counsel on De Fence poster
3.0

New lawyer Harry defends a woman charged with poisoning her husband.

Counsel on De Fence

1934

Pop Goes the Easel poster
7.3

The stooges are down and out. With a cop chasing them, they flee into an artists studio where they are mistaken for students. The cop continues to hunt for them and they use a variety of disguises and tactics to elude him. A wild clay throwing fight ends the film.

Pop Goes the Easel

1935

I'll Take Romance poster
6.3

Theater manager James Guthrie's (Melvyn Douglas) career depends on famed soprano Elsa Terry (Grace Moore) singing in his Buenos Aires opera house, however, Elsa breaks the contract in favor of a more lucrative deal in Paris. Desperate, James begins showering her with flowers and candy in an attempt to woo her to the Argentinian opera house. When Elsa overhears James confess to his friend Pancho that he'd be willing to resort to kidnapping to get Elsa to Argentina, she mistakenly believes his motives to be solely romantic.

I'll Take Romance

1937

The Little Red Schoolhouse poster
6.7

Upset by discipline at school, a 17-year-old runs away to New York City and learns there are worse problems than going to his little red school house.

The Little Red Schoolhouse

1936

A Doggone Mixup poster
7.0

Harry, who can't resist a bargain, buys a St. Bernard dog.

A Doggone Mixup

1938

The Crime Patrol poster
7.0

Prizefighter Bob Neal (Ray Walker) is in debt to gangster Vic Santell (Hooper Atchley) for training expenses. Santell orders Bob to take a dive in the fourth round so Santell can recoup prior gambling losses. Taunted by his ring opponent, Bob wins the fight. Realizing that his profession and underworld characters connected to it are causing him problems, Bob decides to join the police force. After taking nurse Mary Prentiss (Geneva Mitchell) to a drive-in restaurant where the total bill is a depression-era cheap eighty-two cents, Bob and his fellow officers round-up a gang of fur thieves in a warehouse shoot-out.

The Crime Patrol

1936

Uncivil Warriors poster
6.5

Set in the civil war, the stooges are spies for the north. They impersonate southern officers and infiltrate the enemy ranks to get valuable information. On the run when they are discovered, they hide in a cannon and are blown back to their northern headquarters.

Uncivil Warriors

1935

Mooching Through Georgia poster
6.1

Man relates how he outwitted the Yankee army during the Civil War.

Mooching Through Georgia

1939

No artwork available
7.0

Andy takes his newest invention, a knee-action washing machine, before a group of potential investors, but his idiot stepson proceeds to disrupt the demonstration.

Knee Action

1937