- Richard ‘Skeets’ Gallagher, Alice In Wonderland, 1932. For who else but… The White Rabbit. ‘Skeets’ had formed a double-act for vaudeville and movies with Jack Oakie.
- Charlie Ruggles, Murder In The Private Car, 1933. When Butterworth begged off with a sinus condition, director Harry Beaumont loaned the funnier Ruggles from Paramount as his amateur detective hero, Scott Murray, in the deft programmer.
- Minor Watson, Pursuit, 1934 Change of Hale in another example of Chester Morris making a B programmer appear to be an A feature.
- Charles McNaughton, Three Live Ghosts, 1935. Shooting began on November 6 – and stopped two days later. The script was respun in ten days and when shooting restarted on November 18, the entire cast was new. London’s Butterworth was no longer among the three guys back from WWI but having to prove they’re alive. McNaughton had also been ghostly in the 1928 version.
- Edward Brophy, China Seas, 1935. Change of Timmons (with a wife who had secrets!) when the Clark Gable-Jean Harlow-Wallace Beery vehicle began on March 16, 1935. New York’s Brophy played 146 character roles to Butterworth’s 47. His career was cut short by his death in a car collison, thought by many to be suicide, following the demise of his good friend, the humourist Robert Benchley – who played McCaleb in the film.
Birth year: 1896Death year: 1946Other name: Casting Calls: 5