|
 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
Greatest Last Film Lines, some
of which were uttered by a dying character, Greatest
Melodramatic Films with many fine death scenes, or Greatest
Film Scenes with some descriptions of death scenes included,
or some of the Scariest Movie Moments
and Scenes.
Total Film
Magazine (in the UK), in their July 2004 issue, provided an article
on the 50 Greatest Movie Deaths throughout cinematic history.
Their results, based on a non-scientific poll taken from interviews
with film critics, listed the 50 most highly-rated death scenes. 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".
The Total Film selections are marked throughout the following
compilation with this symbol 
and their ranking number.
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.
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Greatest Movie Death Scenes
(chronological by film title) - Part
4
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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Les Diaboliques (1955)
# 19
|
Long-suffering, enslaved
and invalid widow Christina Delasalle's (Vera Clouzot) death from
a heart attack when watching her husband Michel Delasalle (Paul
Meurisse) rise zombie-like from the bath |
|
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Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
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The famous explosive, nihilistic/apocalyptic ending
in which femme fatale Lily/Gabriel Carver (Gaby Rodgers)
opens the "great whatsit", a leather-strapped, metal-lined
Pandora's Box that incinerates her in a powerful nuclear explosion
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The Night of the Hunter (1955)
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The frightening murder
scene in which wife Willa (Shelley Winters) is knifed in an A-frame
bedroom by her terrifying newlywed husband - Preacher Harry Powell
(Robert Mitchum), and the haunting discovery of her 'burial' corpse
sitting underwater in the Model T with her long hair tangled and
interwoven in the reeds |
|
|
Love Me Tender (1956)
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The death of farm boy
Clint Reno (Elvis Presley) -- considered shocking by fans at the
time since this was Elvis' first picture -- with a superimposed,
ghostly close-up of Elvis as Clint crooning "Love Me Tender"
as his family slowly walks away from his grave |
|
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Moby Dick (1956)
# 30
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Captain Ahab's (Gregory
Peck) summons ("He beckons") and death by drowning while
lashed by harpoon ropes to the side of his nemesis while threatening
("From hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake, I spit
my last breath at thee. Ye damned whale") |
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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
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Colonel Nicholson's (Alec
Guinness) exclamation "What have I done?" when realizing
his aid to the enemy, as he falls mortally wounded onto a dynamite
plunger |
|
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Old Yeller (1957)
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The death (off-screen)
of Ol' Yeller as young Travis (Tommy Kirk) is forced to euthanize
the rabid dog (trapped in a barn) by shooting it with a rifle |
|
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Paths of Glory (1957)
|
The executions of scapegoated,
blameless French soldiers: Corporal Paris (Ralph Meeker), Arnaud
(Joe Turkel), and Private Ferol (Timothy Carey) - filmed subjectively
from behind the firing squad |
|
|
Throne of Blood (1957, Jp.)
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The memorable graphic,
shocking death of ruthless feudal lord Gen. Taketori Washizu (Toshiro
Mifune), shot by arrows by invading samurai - the final arrow pierced
him through the neck and caused his eyes to fly wide open |
|
|
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
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The shocking moment when
Christine Vole/Helm (Marlene Dietrich) stabs acquitted husband Leonard
Vole (Tyrone Power) in the stomach for his double-crossing philandering
with young blonde Diana (Ruta Lee) |
|
|
I Want to Live! (1958)
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The
final, realistic San Quentin gas-chamber execution scene when Barbara
Graham (Susan Hayward) is advised: "When you hear the pellets drop,
count ten, take a deep breath - it's easier that way" and her response:
"How do you know?", and the clenching of her fist and slumping over
in death |
|
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The Left Handed Gun (1958)
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The shooting death of
legendary outlaw Billy the Kid (aka William Bonney) (Paul Newman)
(portrayed as an anguished, misfit, unstable, simple-minded, and
suicidal juvenile delinquent - a James Dean-like anti-hero character)
by lawman Pat Garrett (John Dehner); as he died, Billy held out
his left hand (although in real-life, he was right-handed) to show
that he was unarmed |
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Touch of Evil (1958)
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As obese Texas cop Hank
Quinlan (Orson Welles) turns his gun on Mexican police detective
Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) and is about to kill him, Pete Menzies
(Joseph Calleia) - Quinlan's police partner - who is still alive
but mortally wounded by Quinlan (using Vargas' own gun to frame
him), fires the fatal shot that hits Quinlan; the blast makes him
lose his balance and sends him stumbling backwards into the dirty
river, in the ending of this film |
|
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Vertigo (1958)
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The scene of Judy Barton's/Madeleine Elster's
(Kim Novak) 'second' (and fatal) fall from the belltower after
recoiling at the sight of a nun (believing she is a ghost come
to haunt her) - by stepping and falling backward through an opening
in the tower and plummeting to her own death (off-screen) in an
emotionally-shattering climax; her death was followed by Scottie
Ferguson's (James Stewart) stunned look down in horror at her
body far below - open-mouthed, shocked and glassy-eyed with his
arms slightly away from his body |
|
|
War of the Colossal Beast (1958)
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The death of giant 70-foot
man Lt. Col. Glenn Manning (Dean Parkin) in this sequel, already
horribly scarred from his plummet off Boulder Dam in the prior film
The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), in which he committed suicide
by electrocuting himself; the death was most memorable for being
a gimmicky color sequence in the B/W film by director Burt Gordon |
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Ben-Hur (1959)
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Defeated Messala's
(Stephen Boyd) ("the smashed body of a wretched animal")
excruciatingly painful death scene after the thrilling chariot race |
|
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Imitation of Life (1959)
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Self-sacrificing black
housekeeper Annie Johnson's (Juanita Moore) heartbreaking deathbed
scene and the moving scene of her funeral (with Mahalia Jackson
"Trouble of the World") with her light-skinned daughter
Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner) mourning at her casket |
|
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North by Northwest (1959)
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In the UN Building, Roger
Thornhill (Cary Grant) meets a certain Lester Townsend (Philip Ober),
but before he can show him a photograph, Townsend falls forward
into Thornhill's arms - with a knife in his back; in a panic, thinking
that everyone believes he's the murderer, Thornhill runs out of
the building
|
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Black Sunday (1960) (aka The Mask of the Demon)
|
In the prologue of this Italian gothic horror film by Mario Bava, 17th century condemned witch Princess Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele) is first branded by her Grand Inquisition executioners with an S (The Mark of Satan) before an iron 'mask of steel' (lined with spikes on the inside) is hammered with a large wooden mallet onto her face - causing blood-splattering and gushing blood through the eyeholes |
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Breathless (1960, Fr.)
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The ending in which a
surprised Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is gunned down by the police
after Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg) betrays him |
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Peeping Tom (1960)
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The many chilling murders
commited by shy studio cameraman Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Boehm), who
filmed call girls and then killed them with the spiked leg of his
hand-held camera tripod (with a mirror attached so that victims
could watch themselves dying)
|
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Psycho (1960)
# 1
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The 45-second steamy shower
slashing scene, beautifully edited from 70 different angles and
90 edits, when lead actress playing Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is
butchered (although the blade of the knife only briefly touches
her flesh) by "Mother" (Anthony Perkins) |
|
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Psycho (1960)
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The scene in which Detective
Arbogast (Martin Balsam) is slashed at and killed at the top of
the stairs by "Mother" (Anthony Perkins), with the camera
remaining fixed on his face as he fell backwards down the full flight
of stairs
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Spartacus (1960)
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Antoninus' and Spartacus'
sword-duel to the death and Antoninus' last words ("I love
you, Spartacus, as I love my own father"); and the last scene
of his crucifixion (and presumed death) along the roadside with
rows and rows of other rebels - with his wife and child at his feet
(she assures him, "He's free, Spartacus...") |
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