Best Film Deaths Scenes

Best Film Deaths Scenes

Part 3

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 Greatest Last Film Lines, some of which were uttered by a dying character, Greatest Melodramatic Films with many fine death scenes, Greatest Film Scenes with some descriptions of death scenes included, or some of the scenes in Scariest Movie Moments and Scenes.

Key to Iconic Symbol:

- Entries in Total Film Magazine's article (July, 2004 issue), 50 Greatest Movie Deaths (with ranking number #), based upon the results of a non-scientific poll taken from interviews with film critics ranking the most highly-rated death scenes in cinematic history. Although there were some excellent and well-deserved choices in the Total Film list, there are many other great death scenes that were among the missing death scenes in Total Film's honored list of "cinema's best daisy-pushers" and "drop-dead moments" that are included in this list.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star

are the films that "The Greatest Films" site
has selected as the 100 Greatest Films

Film Title	Description	Example
Gone With the Wind (1939)	Scarlett O'Hara's (Vivien Leigh) shooting (in the face) at point blank range and killing an armed Union deserter (Paul Hurst) on the staircase, who threatened rape ("Regular little spitfire, ain't ya"), in order to protect the plantation household of Tara
Gunga Din (1939)	Gunga Din's (Sam Jaffe) death while blowing a bugle to warn British troops of an ambush
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)	The nostalgic, deathbed scene in which elderly schoolmaster Mr. Charles Chipping (or "Mr. Chips") (Robert Donat) refuted the remark that he had been a lonely man without children, with: "I thought I heard you say 'twas a pity, a pity I never had children. But you're wrong...I have...thousands of them...thousands of them...and all boys!", and then closing his eyes while smiling, as the camera rose up when he passed on. He dreamily remembered many schoolboys filing past to repeat their names at call-over, while the music of the school song swelled in volume in the background
The Roaring Twenties (1939)	Rough gangster Eddie Bartlett's (James Cagney) memorable death scene in the snow on the steps of Community Church in the arms of Panama Smith (Gladys George), with her epitaph: "He used to be a big shot"; the image evoked Michelangelo's Pieta
The Wizard of Oz (1939) # 13	The twisted, melting death of the green-faced Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) from a dousing with a bucket of water thrown by Dorothy (to put out the burning Scarecrow), and her screams of: "I'm melting! I'm melting. Who would have thought that some little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?!"
The Wizard of Oz (1939)	Earlier, the death of the Wicked Witch of the East, being crushed by Dorothy's (Judy Garland) farmhouse, with only her feet (and the Ruby Slippers) protruding from under the structure
Wuthering Heights (1939)	Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) carried a dying Cathy (Merle Oberon) in his arms to her bedroom window, where they looked out on the moors and Peniston Crag where they played together as children. Before slumping into his arms after breathing her last breath, they made a pact to be together for eternity. She promised to wait for him there in death until they were reunited again one day: "Heathcliff, can you see the Crag over there where our castle is? I'll wait for you 'til you come"; in the film's last image, their ghosts were seen walking up to the Crag
The Mark of Zorro (1940)	In the thrilling, magnificent dueling scene (one of the best in cinematic history) between Zorro/Diego de Vega (Tyrone Power) and cruel villain Capt. Esteban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone) in director Rouben Mamoulian's adventure-swashbuckler, Pasquale was killed by a lethal parry - when he fell to the floor, he dislodged a framed painting that revealed a scratched 'Z' on the wall
Rebecca (1940)	Devoted housekeeper Mrs. Danvers' (Judith Anderson) death by fire in Manderley mansion as she scurried around inside and the burning roof caved in on top of her, as someone commented: "Mrs. Danvers - she's gone mad!"
Citizen Kane (1941)	Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) death after murmuring: "ROSEBUD" from giant lips (in close-up), and his grasping of a snow globe
High Sierra (1941)	During a suspenseful manhunt high up in the Sierra Mountains, police pursued aging gangster Roy "Mad Dog" Earle (Humphrey Bogart) in a doomed last stand when his 'tarnished angel' friend Marie (Ida Lupino) refused to call out to him as she told the authorities: "He's gonna die anyway, I'd rather it was this way. Go on, all of you, kill him, kill him..."; after Earle had been shot dead when he called out to Marie in the open - she sadly repeated the word "Free" for Roy's "crash out" after the mongrel dog Pard had licked his hand; the film ended with a blurry fadeout on Marie's tear-stained face as it filled the frame before a pan up to the mountains
The Little Foxes (1941)	The death of estranged husband Horace (Herbert Marshall) as he climbed the stairs and suffered a heart attack behind wife Regina (Bette Davis), in a famous deep-focus shot
Bambi (1942) # 6	The traumatic, off-camera death of Bambi's mother, and Bambi's searching and cries of "Mother, where are you?" in a raging snowstorm when she didn't respond; also the words of Bambi's father, the Great Prince of the Forest: "Your mother can't be with you anymore"
Casablanca (1942)	Rick Blaine's (Humphrey Bogart) self-defense shooting of Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt) in the hangar of the foggy airport in order to protect Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) from being detained by Strasser's phone call to the control tower during their departure; Captain Renault (Claude Rains) delivered the immortal line afterwards: "Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects"