EVELYN ANKERS

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Five of us were driving back from CAPITOLFEST this past Monday ( August 13th, 2018 ) where there was loads of movie talk / opinions / trivia in the car. Aurora, host of the esteemed “ONCE UPON A SCREEN” blog was our driver for this road trip, and she asked us this question:

Name an actor/actress who gave a good performance…in a bad film.

The question head~scratchingly stumped all of us. Ha!! Perhaps we all tend to think our favorite performers made mostly good movies, I dunno. I didn’t think of this name on our rainy car ride home. BUT she certainly comes to mind now. One could argue that she made many more poor “B” films, than distinguished “A” flicks, but I always thought she gave a good performance in whatever I saw her in. TODAY is her birthday. And I’m a fan!

EVELYN ANKERS celebrates her centenary today. 

August 17th, 1918 ~ August 29th, 1985

She was the Queen of the Horror films b’cuz of her beauty…and talent…and ability to scream. But I think she was able to show her stuff even if the material is not up to par. You can read a write~up on her over at THE HITLESS WONDER MOVIE BLOG. Reading her IMDB entry can tell you what you need to know. I just wanted to spotlight her here today, her 100th birthday.

 

 

 

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8 thoughts on “EVELYN ANKERS”

  1. Thank you Theresa! That was a good read. Being fairly new to signing up for your blog, I’m not sure if this is a mass email or sent to me specifically. But I’ll go ahead and reply anyway. 🙂

    As a child growing up in the 60s, the Wolf Man was one of my favorite movie monsters. I was one of those kids who built a ton of plastic model kits. My friends and I spent a lot of time painting and assembling each and every one. Just like the movie, the Wolf Man’s model was a favorite to work on too. I haven’t seen the movie in probably decades, even though I own the blu-ray as part of a “Classic Monsters” box set. I’ll look at it in a new light the next time I finally get around to seeing it again.

    Thanks again! Hope all is well!

    Bob K.

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    • Hi there Bob. The way this WordPress works is that everyone who has signed up to “follow” my blog will simultaneously get a notification that I have a blog post up and ready to read.

      Ahhh, to be a boy in the 1960’s…you guys got to do a lot of things while we girls were dressing up Barbies. I saw “THE WOLFMAN” at the TCM Film Festival maybe three / four years ago and the impact on the big screen was astounding to me. My sympathy to Larry Talbot was raised considerably. He did not want to be this ‘thing.’ But what “monster” does.

      I’m just particularly an Evelyn Ankers fan, but I hope you get to look at this movie. The entire cast is good. Thanks for taking the time to comment on this little fluff of a piece of mine to acknowledge Ankers’ centenary.

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    • Oh Paddy…I wonder.

      I’ve always wondered that about folks in Hollywood. Those who worked their way up, starting small, having the chops; and perhaps seeing others pass them by. Maybe it was her being at Universal. Wish she had been given more of a chance. I think she had something. I see she had something behind her eyes.

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  4. I, too, was a child monster movie fiend, and Evelyn Ankers seemed like the perfect heroine to me. She was beautiful, but not flighty, foolish, or shrill. She was able to bring a quality of compassion to her role as Gwen in The Wolf Man which helped bring out the essential tragedy of the story (though apparently she found the filming very difficult and did not enjoy it at all).

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    • Thank you for commenting, Linda. I love Evelyn Ankers in the movies. She seems like the quintessential 40’s heroine to me. I love what you say about her “beautiful, but not flighty, foolish or shrill.” I wish she had better scripts. I think she could have been bigger. But glad folks remember her.

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