Characters That Might Have Faced Execution
Forum Home > Public : General > Characters That Might Have Faced ExecutionRecently I've become interested in "near misses" in TV shows or movies where a character in the show or movie might have faced execution some day, but the show or movie never got to show it.
The example that sparked that interest is Chutney Windham from Legally Blonde. In the movie's pivotal scene, Chutney admits to premeditated murder in the courtroom. If they were in a death penalty state (I don't recall), prosecutors would have one of the easier capital cases in history.
What other examples from shows or movies can you think of where a character might have faced execution if the show or movie had gone on longer?
The example that sparked that interest is Chutney Windham from Legally Blonde. In the movie's pivotal scene, Chutney admits to premeditated murder in the courtroom. If they were in a death penalty state (I don't recall), prosecutors would have one of the easier capital cases in history.
What other examples from shows or movies can you think of where a character might have faced execution if the show or movie had gone on longer?
This post is stuck in my mind. I've tried to think of movie scenes that could include an execution if only they'd run longer. Here are two:
- Moll Flanders with Alex Kingston - Moll and her friend Annie are ready to be hanged. When Daniel Craig rides up to saves Moll, there's no one to save Annie. But Annie stands there in her noose, smiling and just happy for her friend.
- Starship Troopers 3 - poor Lt. Darla Lamb is left 'awaiting execution' for helping the heroes. Even though the heroes succeed, her chance of being saved doesn't seem good at all.
Can you think of other scenes?
- Moll Flanders with Alex Kingston - Moll and her friend Annie are ready to be hanged. When Daniel Craig rides up to saves Moll, there's no one to save Annie. But Annie stands there in her noose, smiling and just happy for her friend.
- Starship Troopers 3 - poor Lt. Darla Lamb is left 'awaiting execution' for helping the heroes. Even though the heroes succeed, her chance of being saved doesn't seem good at all.
Can you think of other scenes?
The one the springs to mind for me is "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" film made of the book by Thomas Hardy. Tess killed her employer I think it was and was eventually arrested after she went on the run from the law. We didn't see a trial but she was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. But they never took the trouble to show it on film. One production showed her walking from the condemned cell but all the others never even bothered with that much. No execution scene - just a flag lowered in the 2008 version. The 1998 version nothing - just a final caption of info. . Don't know about Ploanski's 1979 version - never seen it - I suspect that didn't bother either.
Marie Antoinette (2006): the title characters, Mme Du Barry, 'Madame Etiquette'... they could have shown Lamballe's head being displayed.
There was a Scarlet Pimpernel series in the 1950s, plenty of DiD, Arrested, Prison scenes, but no executions or even near-misses.
There was a Scarlet Pimpernel series in the 1950s, plenty of DiD, Arrested, Prison scenes, but no executions or even near-misses.
I can think of several movies where the actual execution scene was missed out. The Slience of Joan where Clemence Poesy is seen walking to the stake in her shift but that is it. In Firebrand we see Katherine Parr walking past the stake and the executioner on her way to throttle Henry VIII but the racking and burning of Anne Askew, a major character in the movie, is missed out.
Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Jane Grey and Mary Stewart were all sentenced to be burned alive or beheaded but none of them went to the flames. There is a piece of Spanish propaganda from the time of the failed Spanish invasion of England which shows Elizabeth I being led to stake to be burned as a heretic so perhaps that would have done that if they had succeeded in defeating her.
In TV a number of French childrens series when I was growing up had time traveling adolescents facing peril and sometimes execution. I can't remember the names now but I vividly remember a young girl being strapped to the bascule and another being tied to a stake. All before last minute rescue of course.
Catherine in the Juliette Benzioni series on TV went to the rack(clothed on TV but naked in the book), went to the gallows but was saved by Joan of Arc, watched Joan of Arc burn (hardly seen on TV) and was then sewn naked in a bag and tossed into the Seine but saved.
There are quite a few murder mysteries where the murderess never goes to the gallows or the guillotine althought she is almost certain to be condemned. The story stops when the detective reveals all.
There will be others but I can't recall them at the moment.
Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Jane Grey and Mary Stewart were all sentenced to be burned alive or beheaded but none of them went to the flames. There is a piece of Spanish propaganda from the time of the failed Spanish invasion of England which shows Elizabeth I being led to stake to be burned as a heretic so perhaps that would have done that if they had succeeded in defeating her.
In TV a number of French childrens series when I was growing up had time traveling adolescents facing peril and sometimes execution. I can't remember the names now but I vividly remember a young girl being strapped to the bascule and another being tied to a stake. All before last minute rescue of course.
Catherine in the Juliette Benzioni series on TV went to the rack(clothed on TV but naked in the book), went to the gallows but was saved by Joan of Arc, watched Joan of Arc burn (hardly seen on TV) and was then sewn naked in a bag and tossed into the Seine but saved.
There are quite a few murder mysteries where the murderess never goes to the gallows or the guillotine althought she is almost certain to be condemned. The story stops when the detective reveals all.
There will be others but I can't recall them at the moment.
Well, here's the obvious one:
Miranda Richardson as Ruth Ellis,
in Dance with a Stranger.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088987/
(All we get is hearing her read her
final letter, from the condemned cell.)
Miranda Richardson as Ruth Ellis,
in Dance with a Stranger.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088987/
(All we get is hearing her read her
final letter, from the condemned cell.)
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Yes, unfortunately POlanski movie stops at arresting her. That is a pitty, because she had a public execution which was widely reported https://capitalpunishmentuk.org/elizabeth-martha-brown-the-inspiration-for-thomas-hardys-tess-of-the-durbervilles/
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