- Jean Peters, Anne of the Indies, 1951. Peters was an 11th, almost12th hour choice by Hollywood’s resident realisateur Jacques Tourneur (a director son of a director father) after checking tests of Cortese and Patricia Neal. Producer George Jessel (the celebrated US comic) liked Peters, but she was dropped from Tourneur’s next assignment: Way of the Gaucho, 1952.
- Suzanne Cloutier, The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice, 1949. Betsy Blair was Orson Welles’ third Desdemona, after Cécile Aubry and Cortese – she fled (like Welles’ budget). ”I’d rather sell flowers on the Via Veneto than work with that man.” Welles married his third Desdemona.
- Rhonda Fleming,The Nude Bomb, 1979. Sylvia Kristel and Rhonda Fleming in the same movie – the mind boggles. Unfortunately, the film take on the Mel Brooks-Buck Henry spy send-up TV series did not even wriggle. As for the (meaningless) titile, it was eight years before the tyns funnier e Naked Gun franchise.
- Alida Valli, Tendre Dracula (UK/USA : The Big Scare), France, 1973. Change of Italian stars as Heloise in Peter Cushing’s only French film. And instead of his signataure Van Helsing role, he was Dracula, himself Or then again, was he?.Was he McGregor, an actor renowned for his horror pix – or the real live and actual vampire in person? The US release played safe: Tender Dracula or Confessions of a Blood Drinker!
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 4