- Spencer Tracy, Disorderly Conduct, 1931. The idea was a third Quirt and Flagg comedy about the two US Marines WW1 buddies from WWI. Lowe wanted more money. Hello Spence! Then, Victor McLaglen lowered his Flagg. Enter: Ralph Bellamy as Quirt and Flagg became Fay and Manning. And poor Tracy, in his sixth Fox film, became typed as a comic – until saved by Irving Thalberg at MGM.
- Bela Lugosi, The Return of Chandu, 1933. Lowe was not keen on a 12-part serial. Exactly what the suiits wanted to hear as they planned to give the magician to Lugosi after his villiany totally stole the 1931 feature. Lugosi obviously stayed in character – his only English-speaking hero – for what followed, three variations of the first serial (a feature plus eight chapters, or all 12 episodes, or a 65 minute feature) as Chandu on the Magic Island. Chandu was the matrix for DC Comic’s Sandor the Mystic and Marvel’s Dr. Strange.
- Walter Abel, We Went To College, 1935. All change for the little MGM comedy programmer with everyone letting their hair down at a college reunion. For Lowe, read Abel – and for Frank Morgan, read Hugh Herbert. Co-scenarist Richard Maibaum went on to write James Bond films for Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton, George Lazenby and Roger Moore.
Birth year: 1890Death year: 1971Other name: Casting Calls: 3