- Charles Boyer, The Garden of Allah, 1936. Producer David O Selznick’s 1933 plan: Garbo and the (well hidden) one-legged Marshall, due to WWI
- John Boles,Fight For Your Lady, 1936. When tenor Boles replaced Marshall, the suicidal hero Robert Densmore suddenly became a singer – Blame it on the Danube, etc.Ida Lupino was borrowed from Paramount by RKO to play… a ventriloquist!
- Leonard Penn, Marie-Antoinette, 1937. Marshall, Shepperd Strudwick and Robert Taylor were in and out as Toulan over the years until the once hot project of the suddenly dead MGM production genius Irving Thalberg was knocked off rapidly (ie. cheaply) by “One Take Woody” Van Dyke.
- Tyrone Power, Marie-Antoinette, 1938. MGM production genius Irving Thalberg chose Herbert. Mrs Thalbert (Norma Shearer) preferred Ty. Metro pleased everyone (except Marshall), by exchanging Spencer Tracy and Myrna Loy for the Fox power.
- Robert Young, HM Pulham, Esq, 1940. Last minute MGM change of hero of John P Marquand’s story – the basis of co-star Hedy Lamarr’a favourite movie. Among the extras: Ava Gardner. Oh yes, she was. (Would I lie?)
- Paul Henreid, Casablanca, 1942.
- George Sanders, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1944. Marshall, Laird Cregar and Basil Rathbone (too typed as Sherlock Holmes) were also in the frame for the scene-stealing misogynist Lord Henry Wotton. Well, he had Oscar Wilde’s best lines.
- Dennis O’Keefe, Dishonoured Lady, 1947. For her second film as producer, Hedy Lamarr set her sights on Walter Pidgeon, then Herbert as her doctor lover. She could not make a deal with either and as Ray Milland “loathed” working with her, O’Keefe became a suddenly much younger medic.
Birth year: 1890Death year: 1966Other name: Casting Calls: 8