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Greatest Movie Death Scenes
(chronological by film title) - Part
3
Intro | Part
1 | Part 2 | Part
3 | Part 4 | Part
5 | Part 6 | Part
7 | Part 8 | Part
9 | Part 10
Part 11 | Part
12 | Part 13 | Part
14 | Part 15 |
| Film Title |
Description |
Example |
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This Gun for Hire (1942)
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The climactic finale in
which expressionless, baby-faced, cat-loving hired killer Philip
Raven (Alan Ladd in his first major role) had acquired a written
confession from the bad guys before their deaths (corrupt, double-crossing,
peppermint candy-loving fat man Willard Gates (Laird Cregar) and
wheelchair-bound Alvin Brewster (Tully Marshall) who were selling
secrets about the chemical composition of poison gas to foreign
agents (the Japanese)) - and then expired from gunshot wounds,
after asking peek-a-boo blonde-haired femme fatale Ellen
Graham (Veronica Lake): "Did I do alright for ya?" |
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Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
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The death-bed scene of
patriarch Jerry Cohan (Walter Huston) |
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The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
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The hanging deaths of
three innocent men (seen in shadows), with an additional bullet
shot into each corpse to ensure their deaths |
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The Song of Bernadette (1943)
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The death of Bernadette
Soubirous (Jennifer Jones) at the film's conclusion |
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Laura (1944)
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The climactic scene in
which 'Laura Hunt' murderer Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) was mortally
wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the police after he attempted
to kill the real Laura (Gene Tierney) with a shotgun in a passionate
rage in an attempted murder/suicide- his last whispered words to
Laura were: "Good-bye, Laura. Good-bye, my love." |
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Murder, My Sweet (1944)
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In the twist ending, Mrs.
Helen Grayle/Velma's (Claire Trevor) death by a gunshot from her
millionaire husband (Miles Mander); love-struck ex-con Moose Malloy
(Mike Mazurki) reacted to her lifeless body on the sofa: ("She
ain't hardly changed... just like always, only more fancy. Cute
as lace pants...always...") before there were two more deaths
(both Mr. Grayle and Moose shot and killed each other); detective
Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) was temporarily blinded by the first
gunblast |
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Detour (1945)
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The accidental strangulation
of despicable hitchhiker Vera (Ann Savage) by Al Roberts (Tom Neal)
with a telephone cord |
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The Big Sleep (1946)
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The unusual death of gang boss/gambler Eddie Mars
(John Ridgely) who was compelled by Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart)
to run outside Geiger's house into gunfire from his own gang members
(who were expecting Marlowe to be fleeing after killing Mars)
- Mars shouted: "Don't shoot! It's me, Mar---" - as
bullets from Mars' henchmen meant for Marlowe hit him; a dotted-line
of bullet holes in the door signaled his murder outside; then,
a mortally-wounded Mars slowly re-entered the room and collapsed
to the floor in the front hallway |
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Duel in the Sun (1946)
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The shoot-out to the death
of doomed lovers Lewt McCanles (Gregory Peck) and half-breed Pearl
Chavez (Jennifer Jones) who crawled to each other and died in each
other's bloody arms |
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The Killers (1946)
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The execution (off-screen),
by a pair of hitman (William Conrad, Charles McGraw), of the Swede/Pete
Lunn (Burt Lancaster) who already has accepted his own sacrificial
death and fate in his dark boarding house room, rationalizing: "I did something wrong - once" |
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Leave Her to Heaven (1946)
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An uncaring, sunglasses-wearing
Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) as she watched from a rowboat her young,
crippled brother-in-law drown in a Maine lake, and Ellen's own suicidal
death to 'frame' Ruth (Jeanne Crain) |
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My Darling Clementine (1946)
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In the climactic gunfight
at the O.K. Corral recreation in this film, four of the Clanton
sons were killed, but Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) was also killed
when he suffered a coughing fit and was shot by one of the Clantons |
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The Postman Always Rings
Twice (1946)
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As the star-crossed lovers drove along the highway
and neared their home, Frank (John Garfield) asked for a long-awaited
kiss. Cora (Lana Turner) was painting her lips with lipstick: (Cora:
"When we get home, Frank, then there'll be kisses, kisses
with dreams in them. Kisses that come from life, not death."
Frank: "I hope I don't wait." Cora: "Darling."
(They kiss) "Look out, Frank!") Distracted during a
'kiss that comes from life' while he was driving, he ran off the
road, killing Cora ('with a kiss that comes from death') in a
fatal auto accident; the car door opened after the crash - Cora's
lifeless arm fell off the seat, and a tube of lipstick slowly
dropped to the floor of the car and onto the ground |
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The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
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The shock ending with
the suicidal death of Martha Ivers O'Neil (Barbara Stanwyck), when
she pulled the trigger herself as her husband Walter (Kirk Douglas)
held a gun to her stomach
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Kiss of Death (1947)
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The notorious scene of psychopathic, wild-eyed,
giggling killer Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark in his memorable screen
debut) asking a crippled, wheelchair-bound woman (Mildred Dunnock)
about her squealer son Rizzo - whom Tommy thought ratted him out:
"I'm askin' you: where's that squealin' son of yours?"
- and then his cruel response - tying her up in her wheelchair
with an electrical cord, and then pushing her down a long flight
of stairs to her death as she screamed - he giggled maniacally
the whole time |
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The Lady From Shanghai
(1948)
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The funhouse hall-of-mirrors
shootout at the film's conclusion between Arthur Bannister (Everett
Sloane) and blonde femme fatale wife Elsa (Rita Hayworth) |
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The Red Shoes (1948)
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The melodramatic tragic
death scene when ballerina dancer Victoria (Vicky) Page (Moira Shearer)
fell to her death just before an encore concert presentation of
The Red Shoes ballet - the controlling red shoes willfilly
took her to a balcony overlook and forcefully pulled her off (into
the path of an oncoming train below), followed by a closeup of her
bloody legs (and tights) and feet wearing the shoes; when she requested
that Julian Craster (Marius Goring) remove her red ballet shoes,
she died |
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All the King's Men (1949)
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In the final memorable scene set at the state capital building, Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford) has just finished beating an impeachment rap, and he emerged to deliver a boisterous victory speech to the crowd: "Your will is my strength, and your need is my justice, and I shall live
in your right and your will. And if any man tries to stop me from fulfilling
that right and that will, I'll break him. I'll break him with my bare hands,
for I have the strength of many"; as he walked away, he was gunned down
with two shots at close-range by an assassin - the embittered and vengeful
young Dr. Adam Stanton (Shepperd Strudwick), the nephew of the judge (Raymond Greenleaf) whose career
Willie had ruined; mortally wounded and dying on the steps, a dismayed Stark delivered
his final words to newspaperman Jack Burden (John Ireland), Sugar Boy (Walter Burke), political aide Sadie Burke (Mercedes McCambridge), and city boss Tiny Duffy (Ralph Dumke) - in close-up: "Could have been whole world - Willie Stark. The whole world - Willie
Stark. Why does he do it to me - Willie Stark? Why?"
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Colorado Territory (1949)
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The exciting last-stand
deaths in rocky mountain outcroppings of wounded, sought-after outlaw
Wes McQueen (Joel McCrea) and mixed-race, El Paso dance-hall partner
Colorado Carson (Virginia Mayo) - she heroically stood next to him
with guns ablazing toward the authorities but they were outnumbered
and shot down; at the moment of their fateful deaths, they poignantly
clasped their hands together |
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The Third Man (1949)
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Harry Lime's (Orson Welles)
quivering fingers (actually the fingers of director Carol Reed)
through a Viennese sewer grating as he died |
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White Heat (1949)
# 10 
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The death of mother-fixated
gangster Arthur 'Cody' Jarrett (James Cagney) before blowing himself
up by pumping bullets into a giant, round, holding gas tank, as
he screamed: "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" |
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The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
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The final scene of a bleeding
and dying Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) stumbling from his car into
Hickory Wood Farm - a sunny, Kentucky horse pasture |
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D.O.A. (1950)
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Fatally poisoned accountant/notary
public Frank Bigelow's (Edmond O'Brien) collapse at the end of the
film after solving the case, and the exchange between the deputy
and the homicide captain in the police station: ("How shall
I make out the report on him, Captain?" "Better make it...
'dead on arrival.'")
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Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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The opening scene's view was of
a body floating face down in a pool - the corpse started to narrate
the story ("Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California.
It's about five o'clock in the morning. That's the Homicide Squad
- complete with detectives and newspapermen") and provided the
reason why he was killed |
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Ace in the Hole (1951) (aka The Big Carnival)
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The final low-angled shot of bleeding, defeated journalist Charles "Chuck" Tatum (Kirk Douglas) collapsing at the feet of his newspaper editor Mr. Boot (Porter Hall): ("How'd you like to make yourself a thousand dollars a day, Mr. Boot? I'm a thousand-dollar-a-day newspaperman. You can have me for nothing") |
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A Place in the Sun (1951)
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The dramatic, mysterious
drowning/murder? of George Eastman's (Montgomery Clift) pregnant
girlfriend Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters) at Loon Lake |
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Strangers on a Train (1951)
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The
view of Miriam's (Laura Elliot) strangulation murder scene reflected
in her thick-lensed glasses that have fallen to the grass while
in the distant background the merry-go-round ironically played "Strawberry
Blonde" |
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The Marrying Kind (1952)
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The tragic family picnic scene in which Joey (Christopher Olsen), the six-year-old son of bickering couple Florrie (Judy Holliday) and Chet (Aldo Ray), accidentally drowned in a park pond while an oblivious Florence was singing "How I Love the Kisses of Dolores" on a ukelele to her husband |
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The Big Heat (1953)
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The car bombing (with
a blinding explosion outside his house) that killed Police Sergeant
Bannion's (Glenn Ford) wife Katie (Jocelyn Brando) instead of himself as he tended to his
young daughter
Debby Marsh's (Gloria Grahame) moving death
scene, after being shot twice in the back by gangster Vince Stone (Lee Marvin); her head was cradled in her mink coat by Det. Sgt. Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) as they talked about his murdered wife Katie (Jocelyn Brando), with Debby's peacefully-spoken final words as she died: "I like her...I like her alot." |
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From Here to Eternity (1953)
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The unnecessary death
of soldier Pvt. Robert E. Lee "Prew" Prewitt (Montgomery
Clift) - shot by a nighttime patrol as he returns to the base following
the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 |
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Shane (1953)
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The scene of Frank Torrey's
(Elisha Cook, Jr.) brutal death in a showdown with black-clothed
evil gunman Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) as he was hurtled backwards
onto a muddy street, and the fatal shoot-out between Shane (Alan
Ladd) and Wilson, leading to Shane's wounding and the final ambiguous
shot of the title character slumped on his saddle as he rode off
on his horse toward the mountains - to die? |
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Dial M For Murder (1954)
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The exciting and tense
scene of wealthy Margot Wendice (Grace Kelly) - while being strangled
- reaching backwards to search for a weapon (a pair of scissors)
to defend herself and kill hired assassin Captain Lesgate (Anthony
Dawson) by stabbing him in the back |
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A Star is Born (1954)
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Norman Maine's (James
Mason) off-screen suicidal death by walking into the ocean |
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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. See