- Lynne Overman, Hotel Haywire, 1936. Burns and Allen quit Paramount one movie too early… Preston Sturgess wrote his 14th script for the maried comedy team. Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland were first suggested to inherit the silly couple, each thinking the other had a lover and seeking aid from Leo Carillo’s quack shrink, Dr Zodiac Z Zipe (aimed at Groucho?). Overman and Spring Byington succeeded them – sounding exactly like them. If you’re a screwballer, you’ll love it. If you can find it.
- Kent Taylor, The Grace Allen Murder Case, 1938. SS Van Dine (actually, actually, Willard Huntingdon Wright, who created of the snobbish, cynical, bored, supercilious, dilettante sleuth Philo Vance, was a great fan of the comedy duo, Burns and Allen, and wrote them a Philo mystery. Burns (like Paramount) said thank you very much – but leave me out of it. Leave it all to my scatterbrained wife, Gracie. Everyone agreed and the Burns’ role was re-Taylored. (Warren William was Vance).
- Bing Crosby, The Road To Singapore, l940. Beach of Dreams was the original destination when Paramount planned on Crosby joining the comedy duo, Burns and (his wife) Gracie Allen. They did not get on with Bing as well as with each other – in 14 movies to 1944, followed by radio and TV fame. Gracie died in 1964 and Burns did not film again until replacing his best friend, the dying Jack Benny, in an mesmerising l975 comeback in The Sunshine Boys at age 79. He was still filming at 98!
- Bing Crosby, The Road To Zanibar, 1941. Never planned as a sequel to The Road To Singapore, 1940, the script only came Bing Crosby and Bob Hope’s way when Burns and Fred MacMurray rejected it. That’s when the Paramount suits noticed the similar titles and this became the second of Hope and Crosby’s seven Road mov
Birth year: 1896Death year: 1996Other name: Casting Calls: 4