- Marion Lessing, Seas Beneath, 1931. Changing who played Anna Maria Von Stuben did not help save John Ford’s weak WW1 tale. Marguerite was Mrs George O’Brien, 1933-1948, and no kin of Winston… His movie actress daughter was Sarah – in Royal Wedding, 1950, for example, with Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling.
- Genevieve Tobin, Golden Harvest, 1932. Not for the first (or last) time, Broadway interferred with Hollywood plans and Churchill (a Kansas girl) had to pass Chester Morris’ sweetie to Tobin – who had just made finished Infernal Machine, and Pleasure Cruise… on the same sets!
- Elissa Landi, Man of Two Worlds, 1933. The movie had been shooting for nearly two weeks before Landi was finally selected over Churchill as the woman fascinating… no, not Tarzan but Francis Lederer as Aigo… in the astonishingly racist take of an Eskimo (an altenate King Kong) falling for a British beauty. Amazing that this debut – “You like make Aigo much happy?” – did not immedately kill Lederer’s Hollywood career. Worse, as New York Times critic Mordaunt Hall noted: “Miss Landi is not happily cast, and for that reason her acting is not particularly impressive.” Pow!
Birth year: 1910Death year: 2000Other name: Casting Calls: 3