- Warren William, Skyscraper Souls, 1931. Robert Young, Madge Evans, Una Merkel directed by Harry Beaumont. That’s how MGM announced the high-rise Grand Hotel,which wound up with Warren William, Maureen O’Sullivan, Verree Teasdale helmed, well enough, by Edgar Selwyn.
- Gene Raymond, Sadie McKee, 1933. For the glib vaudevillian who brings Joan Crawford to the Big Bad Apple and dumps her for Esther Ralston, director Clarence Brown also saw James Dunn, Leif Erickson, Arthur Jarrett, Donald Woods. Hollywood Reporter enthused: “Swell picture… sure-fire audience… the stuff the fans cry for…”
- Franchot Tone, Love on the Run, 1936. Last minute change of Barnabus Pells meant that Tone told (probably) the first knock-knock joke in movies. Knock-knock. Who’s there? Machiavelli. Macchiavelli who? Machiavelli good soup for $10!” Owch, sounds like a Chico Marx reject.
- John Beal, Double Wedding, 1936. Change of Waldo (what else?) in the screwball comedy marking the half-way mark in the 14 William Powell-Myrna Loy movies.
- Cary Grant, Suzy, 1937. Grant popped in from Paramount to third banana Jean Harlow and Franchot Tone – as the role did not attract any of MGM’s upper echelon: Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, William Powell, Robert Taylor, Spencer Tracy or Young.
- Pat O’Brien, Knute Rockne – All American (UK: A Modern Hero), 1939. “Win one for The Gipper” is one of the lines in US cinema. And, good grief, Ronnie Reagan made it happen! Trying to rev up a fast imploding career as everyone’s best pal, Reagan suggested that Jack Warner should film the story of Knute, the legendary Notre Dame football coach. “And I could play George Gipp.” You’re too small. Reagan promptly produced an old photo of him playing college football – he was actually bigger than The Gipper. Bye bye Young, James Cagney and Spencer Tracy were ruled out by Notre Dame University for the biopic of its football coach. So, their pal got his dream role.
- Dan Dailey, Panama Hattie, 1941. Once in the can, the Cole Porter required numerous re-takes. During which time both Young and the seven years younger William Lundigan were suggested as substitutes for the 17th and final movie billing of… Dan Dailey Jr!
- Robert Taylor, Bataan, 1942. Young was announced as George Murphy’s co-star in what appeared to be a re-make of John Ford’s The Lost Patrol. Well, MGM had paid $6,500 to use any part of RKO’s 1933 war film.
- Gregory Peck, Twelve O’Clock High, 1949.
The greatest Hollywood fiction of USAF WWII pilots, often unfairly compared to the weaker Command Decision – which js why Peck nearly passed. “Duke told me he’d turned it down,” recalledPeck. “And I seized it!” Just not that fast… Clark Gable was extremely keen on General Savage (he made Command Decision, instead). Peck read it again and was also won over by director Henry King’s empathy for the subject. King was a pilot, himself, and he would helm five more Peck films). “A fine film,” said Peck, “much honoured and respected, about the psychological stress of total involvement of these men.” Too honest for such a gung-ho movie-hero as John Wayne. This was Peck’s finest hour; forget To Kill A Mockingbird. Seeing him glued to his chair in a catonic state of battle-fatigue made one helluva impression on me when I saw it in, hell, I was 11 years old! It marked me for life. It also affected Rian Johnson, who called it an influence on his Star Wars: Episode VII – The Last Jedi, 2016. Others in the Savage loop were Dana Andrews, Ralph Bellamy, James Cagney, Van Heflin, Burt Lancaster, Edmond O’Brien – and three-bobs-worth of Roberts: Montgomery, Preston and Young. - Ronald Reagan, Knute Rockne All American, 1949. “Win one for The Gipper” is one of the lines in US cinema. And, good grief, Ronnie Reagan made it happen! Trying to rev up a fast imploding career as everyone’s best pal, Reagan suggested that Jack Warner should film the story of Knute, the legendary Notre Dame football coach. “And I could play George Gipp.” You’re too small. Reagan promptly produced an old photo of him playing college football – he was actually bigger than The Gipper. Bye bye Young, Robert Cummings, William Holden, Dennis Morgan. Oh, and John Wayne.
- Barry Sullivan, Payment on Demand, 1950. Or Story of a Divorce when Young (and Wendell Corey) were in contention for the husband being divorced by a wealthy Bette Davis in her first outing as a freelance actress after her 18 years on the Warner Bros payroll. She was divorcing her real, third husband, William Grant Sherry, at the same time. Their three-year-old daughter Barbara – known as BD – played her mother’s daughter!
- Gary Merrill, All About Eve, 1950.
- Robert Mitchum, My Forbidden Past, 1950. Hard to believe the future telly-doc Marcus Welby in a perfect Mitchum role… sexed up by Howard Hughes. As part of her $150,000 (plus 10%) per film deal, Ann Sheridan had script, director and co-star approval. When Young had to leave, she listed her choices of replacements: Mitchum, Charles Boyer, Richard Conte, John Lund, Franchot Tone. Then, Howard Hughes bought RKO, dumped Sheridan and joined together Mitchum and Ava Gardner. (Sheridan sued RKO and won big money – and another movie, Appointment in Honduras).
- Fred MacMurray, There’s Always Tomorrow, 1955. Young and Melvyn Douglas were also in the frame for the mid-aged business success with an empty existence until Barbara Stanwyck sashshays back into his life – and not, this time, for him to murder her husband. Despite how it sounds, this is not the usual melo from Douglas Sirk. It’s a man’s not a woman’s picture, for example, and there is damn little gloss on the moss.
Birth year: 1907Death year: 1998Other name: Casting Calls: 14