Film Deaths
Best Film Deaths Scenes

Part 4


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.


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

Les Diaboliques (1955)
# 19

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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

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

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  

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")

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

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

Paths of Glory (1957)

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black Sunday (1960) (aka The Mask of the Demon)

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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

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

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)

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)



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

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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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.