Where A Barrymore Fill-In Was Needed

Ricardo Cortez Is The Faux JB In Hat, Coat, and Glove (1934)

Jack Barrymore was supposed to topline this; he even shot a few days where memory loss was a constant, then ankled in favor of sub Ricardo Cortez. Word must have gotten round, because this was Barrymore's last chance at a meaningful lead. There were script revisions he'd done, which director Worthington Miner incorporated, so Hat, Coat, Glove may bear imprint of JB despite his leaving. Cortez goes at half-speed; I don't know when he was so subdued as here. Was the understudy intimidated by the star he was sent in to replace? There's little that's novel to the story, others of the cast perhaps let down that they'd not be performing with Barrymore. Hat, Coat, Glove was filmed prior to Code clampdown, but released after. There's a death midway through that we see, but can't figure for manslaughter, suicide, or accident, a neat ploy to let a sympathetic Cortez off the hook for a finish, but not one the PCA would likely have allowed once strict policies were set.