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Maureen O’Sullivan, The Bishop Misbehaves, 1934. Broadway’s main trio – Jane Wyatt, Alan Marshal and Walter Connolly as the bishop turned detective – were examined by Hollywood. And made over as O’Sullivan, Norman Foster and, in his Hollywood debut, Edmund Gwenn. UK censors ordered a new title, The Bishop’s Misadventures “because bishops do not misbehave.” Of course not!
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Irene Dunne, Magnificent Obsession, 1935. Universal’’s top tearjerker… Wyatt was also seen for the blinded widow heroine (she had it all!) saved from a tearjerking fate worse than whatever by Robert Taylor’s star-making breakthrough. Likewise for Rock Hudson in the 1953 re-make with Jane Wyman – despite often needing up to 40 takes for a scene.
- June Lang, Nancy Steele Is Missing, 1936. Exploiting the Lindbergh baby kidnapping in a convoluted manner, the drama had Nancy meeting her kidnapper 20 years later and believing him to be her father. (I did say convoluted!). Among the potential Nancies were: Wyatt, Frances Dee, Francis Farmer and Jean Parker.
- Ruth Warrick, Iron Major, 1943. Wyatt tested for Florence Ayres Cavanaugh – wife of Pat O’Brien’s Cav Cavanaugh, WWI hero and football coach. In short: like a reprise of his 1940 Knute Rockne – All American, another fast-talker. But then as web critic bkoganbing pointed out: “The only time O’Brien slowed down was when he played priests.”
Birth year: 1910Death year: 2006Other name: Casting Calls: 4