So what was the last thing Jean Harlow filmed before she died?
I'm curious to know what the last scene she filmed was.
shareI'm curious to know what the last scene she filmed was.
shareOn May 29, Harlow was shooting a scene in which the character she was playing had a fever. Harlow was clearly sicker than her character and, when she leaned against her co-star Clark Gable between scenes, said; "I feel terrible. Get me back to my dressing room." Harlow requested that the assistant director telephone William Powell, who left his own set to escort Harlow back home.
On May 30, Powell checked on Harlow, and when he found her condition unimproved, recalled her mother from a holiday trip and summoned her doctor. Harlow felt better on June 3 and co-workers expected her back on the set by Monday, June 7. Press reports were contradictory, with headlines like "Jean Harlow seriously ill" and "Harlow past illness crisis."
When Harlow said on June 6 that she could not see Powell properly, he again called a doctor. As she slipped into a deep slumber and experienced difficulty breathing, the doctor finally realized that she was suffering from something serious. That evening Harlow was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, where she slipped into a coma. The next day at 11:37 a.m. Harlow died in the hospital at the age of 26. In the doctor’s press releases the cause of death was given as cerebral edema, a complication of kidney failure. Hospital records mention uremia.
Wow, so the scene where she was on the train with Clark Gable and she had that big coughing fit?
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"Ram this in your clambake, bitchcakes!"
I don't believe this is correct. I'm assuming "marknyc" was taking this information from Eve Golden's book on Harlow. There's a photo from David Stenn's bio on Harlow that shows her with Walter Pigeon on May 29 right before she fell ill. They were doing the scene at the mansion during the house party.
Other photos from books I've read on Harlow show her on May 28 and 29 in the dress she wore for the house party scene when she met Frank Morgan out on the patio to sign the paper. During the house party sequence there are scenes with Harlow and with her double. In one scene Walter Pigeon begins to dance with Harlow's double (you only see the back of her) and once they twirl onto the patio he's dancing with Harlow. So I'm certain these scenes of her on the patio were her last.
I think you're right Kpactg-1, Walter Pidgeon said that the last scene she filmed was with him and it took place in the library, Harlow felt ill and they decided to break for lunch, she got worse and Left the set for the last time ever - I think they rewrote it as the scene with Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon in the library at the house party. Here is Jean (supposedly) on her last day of filming http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/vp19/11600353/1841938/600.jpg - she's wearing the dress from the party scenes, the scene on the patio with Frank Morgan is probably the last thing she filmed that made it Into the completed movie.
sharei just watched this movie and after the train scene where she's sick the only scenes she was in were the patio scenes at the party with walter pidgeon and frank morgan and the very last scene of the movie back on the train. i'm sure that last scene was shot when they did the earlier train stuff. both racetrack scenes were done by the stand-in. she has binoculars up to her face or has her back turned the whole time. all of the speaking lines in these scenes you can tell aren't harlow. even the inside dancing with pidgeon are the stand-in. in the scene with the maid when the box of tin cups arrives, the character is wearing a big hat that covers her face. the stand-in's hair is a little longer and smoother over her skull and shinier than harlow's is. there was really a lot of the movie left to shoot when harlow died. i can see why they were thinking about re-shooting with someone else, but i'm glad they didn't.
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