This is the end

Well, it's not the end for me; it's the end of another season of TCM's Essentials. Next Saturday is the first Saturday in February, which means 31 Days of Oscar. After that we have a new season of the Essentials in March. It's also the end of Alec Baldwin's three-year stint as Robert Osborne's co-host. Come March, Drew Barrymore will be sitting alongside Osborne discussing the movies.

TCM has decided to something interesting with this last week of the Essentials, which is to program a night of movies that were the last film for a prominent Hollywood star. That starts off with The Misfits at 8:00 PM, which of course was the last film made by Clark Gable.

Following that is Saratoga at 10:15 PM; Jean Harlow died of septicemia during the filming of the movie, and her fans clamored so much for the footage to be released that MGM brought in a body double to play Jean Harlow's back during the hitherto unfilmed scenes. (I'd rather see Harlow's back at the end of Dinner at Eight.)

Edward G. Robinson died after filming his scenes in Soylent Green but before the movie was released; you can see the movie at midnight.

James Dean made only three features. I'm not certain if they were released in the same order he filmed them; but TCM is showing Rebel Without a Cause at 2:00 PM. (IMDb says that Giant was the last one released.)

Finally, at 4:00 AM, you can see Spencer Tracy's final film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.