- Peggy Shannon, Girls on Probation, 1938. Landis lost her bit behind bars as an inmate called Ruth to Shannon, but the juicy girl roles were won by sweet Jane Bryan and nasty Sheila Bromley. As IMDb put it:You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you shouldn’t pick friends who rob banks.”
- Rita Hayworth, Blood and Sand, 1940. Good thinking! The Blonde Bomber and stone age vamp from One Million BC – was in the loop for Fox’s sexiest role of the year – the manipulative socialite vamp, Doña Sol, toying with Tyrone Power’s matador in the re-hash of Rudolph Valentino’s 1921 silent classic. Also considered: Lynn Bari, Betty Grable, Hedy Lamarr, Dorothy Lamour, Mona Maris, Maria Montez, Jane Russell and Gene Tierney. Another re-tread in 1957 for, almost obviously, Sophia Loren, never happened.
- Lynn Bari, Sun Valley Serenade, 1940. After Linda Darnell, Landis and Cobina Wright Jr were up for the singer with Glenn Miller Orchestra, no less – in Sonja Henie’s favourite icecapade.
- Rita Hayworth, My Gal Sal, 1941. Head Fox Darryl F Zanuck wanted the blonde Landis as Sally Elliot. She refused to dye her tresses red and DFZ immediately borrowed Hayworth from Columbia. Landis remained a real blonde as Mae Collins. Hayworthl’s partner in the On The Gay White Way number was the rarely seen Hermes Pan – Fred Astaire’s lookalike choreographer.
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Vivian Blaine, Doll Face, 1944. Unhappy with the script, Landis changed faces qith Blaine danced in her place as the burlesque queen Mary Elizabeth ‘Doll Face’ Carroll, going legit. From the book, The Naked Genius, by Louise Hovick, real name of ex-stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.
- Betsy Drake, Dancing in the Dark, 1948. Cary Grant insisted Fox buy the project for his lover. The furious producer, America’s Toastmaster-General George Jessel, wanted the bisexual Landis or June Haver and made life hell for Betsy by signing a director who Grant disliked: Irving Reis.
- Lynn Bari, The Amazing Mr X, 1948. At 29, Landis was sliding downwards. “I’ve no intention of ending my career in a rooming house, with full scrapbooks and an empty stomach.” So the ex-lover of actress-cum-writer Jacqueline Susann (Valley of the Doills) signed for the film noir and horror sandwich and then ODed on Seconal days before shoting was to start. Her final lover, the married Rex Harrison, found her body. “She was only 29 and had made 49 pictures,” said her IMBd biographer, Denny Jackson, “most of which were, unfortunately, forgettable.” Unlike Carole.
Birth year: 1919Death year: 1948Other name: Casting Calls: 7