| Film Title |
Description |
Example |
 King Kong (1933)
# 3 
|
The thrilling and traumatic death scene of the
giant ape shot down from biplanes while atop the Empire State
Building in NYC; when shot he touched his bloody wounds with his giant paw and examined the blood; then he fell many stories to the street below
- in the film's coda, when Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) was
told that the airplanes finally got the monster, he famously asserted:
"Oh, no. It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the
Beast" |
|
Little Women (1933)
|
The sad scene of dying
Beth March (Jean Parker) reassuring her older sister Jo (Katharine
Hepburn): "I'm not afraid anymore! I'm learning that I don't
lose you, that you'll be more to me than ever, and NOTHING can part
us, though it seems to. Oh, Jo! I think I'll be homesick for you
- even in heaven"; also Jo's written ode to her sister titled
"My Beth": ("Oh my sister, passing from me / Out
of human care and strife / Leave me, as a gift those virtues / Which
have beautified your life / By that deep and solemn river / Where
your willing feet now stand"); and Beth's last words: "I
think I can sleep now. Oh look, Jo. My birds. They got back in time")
- and at the moment of Beth's death - birds flew off from the window
sill |
|
The Black Cat (1934)
|
Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris
Karloff) was vengefully skinned alive (seen in dark silhouette) with a scalpel by Dr. Vitus Werdegast
(Bela Lugosi) as the doctor sadistically asked: "How does it feel
to hang on your own embalming rack, Hjalmar?" |
|
Cleopatra (1934)
|
Queen of Egypt Cleopatra's
(Claudette Colbert) memorable live snake-to-breast death scene as
she took an asp from a basket ("Now give me the basket - it
holds victory") and held it to her naked breast to be bitten,
and then expired while sitting on the throne |
|
Bride of Frankenstein
(1935)
|
The ending in which the Monster (Boris Karloff)
pulled the fateful lever to bring both creatures and creator to
extinction, as the Bride (Elsa Lancaster) expelled one long, snake-like
hiss at him. Explosions rocked the stone-tower - rubble from the
crumbling foundation buried everyone inside alive |
|
Camille (1936)
|
The concluding soft-focus
death scene of consumption-wracked Marguerite 'Camille' Gautier
(Greta Garbo) |
|
The Petrified Forest (1936)
|
The death scene at the finale when idealistic and disillusioned writer/world traveler Alan Squier (Leslie Howard) died in the arms of culturally-starved waitress Gabrielle "Gabby" Maple (Bette Davis) after being shot by ruthless fugitive gangster Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart) in a run-down Arizona desert cafe (as she recited: "...this is the end for which we twain are met") |
|
Captains Courageous (1937)
|
Portuguese fisherman Manuel's
(Spencer Tracy) death in fishing waters as he was cut free from the
tangled mast ropes and drowned |
|
The Good Earth (1937)
|
Chinese farmer Wang Lung
(Paul Muni) told selfless and ailing first wife O-Lan (Luise Rainer)
that he would sell his land if it would help her to recover, and gave
her two pearls - he told her that she was always the one, but it
was too late |
|
Lost Horizon (1937)
|
At film's end, in a fierce
blizzard weather as they plod along after leaving a remote Himalayan
monastery, Maria's (Margo) face aged rapidly as she quickly reverted
in appearance to her actual age, as George Conway (John Howard)
screamed out: "Look at her face! Her face! Look at her face!"
Maria died an old wrinkled and withered woman (aging by half a century,
the time she spent in the valley) - George could not stand to see the
decomposing body of the beloved woman and threw himself over the
snowy cliffs |
|
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
|
The 'death' of Snow White
eating the poisoned apple, and the demise of the Wicked Queen (voice
of Lucille La Verne), toppling from a lightning-struck cliff to
her death, with two vultures following her descent, in the animated
classic fairytale |
|
|
Angels with Dirty Faces
(1938)
|
Rocky Sullivan's (James
Cagney) execution scene in which he became "yellow" on his way
to the electric chair (accompanied by an incredible Max Steiner
score) |
|
|
Dark Victory (1939)
|
The quiet, upstairs death
of young socialite and heiress Miss Judith Traherne (Bette Davis)
with a brain tumor
|
|
|
Destry Rides Again (1939)
|
Bawdy saloon singer "Frenchy"'s
(Marlene Dietrich) death - a heroine's sacrifice for Destry (James
Stewart), in the final scene |
|
Introduction: Deaths in film scenes can be either cool, teary, metaphoric, grisly,
scary, bloody, amusing, violent, transcendental, unforgettable, spectacular,
frightening, funny, or shocking. The victim's death may be well-deserved,
accidental, expected, sudden, or intentional. Some effective death scenes
even occur off-screen. Other
areas of this website have death scenes also, such as 
