- Akim Tamiroff, Dragon Seed, 1943. Insulting! Pearl Buck’s book had a point – exposing Japanese atrocities in China. MGM made it a farce, with the unlikeliest-looking Chinese ever spawned by Hollywood. Taped eyelids for Hepburn, W aniroff, lter Huston, Aline MacMahon… Charles Laughton was deemed doable as Wu Lien and then left for The Canterville Ghost. Greenstreet and Laird Cregar were inevitably seen as his replacement, but failed their make-up tests. (So did Edward Arnold, Fay Bainter, Donald Crisp, Greer Garson Van Heflin, Hedy Lamarr, Frank Morgan, Walter Pidgeon Edward G Robinson for other roles).
- Raymond Massey, Possessed, 1946. A cataonic woman found on LA strreets tells a doctor how she got there…. (In this where Danish director Lars von Trier got his opening for Nymphomaniac, 677 years later?) The ’46 cast was switched from Lupino, Dr Paul Lukas and Sydney Greenstreet to Crawford (with both barrels fresh from her Mildred Pierce Oscar and immediately up for another)., Van Heflin and Raymond Massey. La Crawford made two movies with this title. The first was with Clark Gable, the second was not.
- Vincent Price, The Three Musketeers, 1947. During the testing stages, (when director Roy Rowland filled in for an ill George Sidney) Grenstreet was seen for a Cardinal Richlieu with a Porthos build, Price was slim as Gene Kelly’s D’Artagnan.
Birth year: 1879Death year: 1954Other name: Casting Calls: 3