Adrian Shergold

Very unusual film about England's leading hangman for twenty years, Albert Pierrepoint. In many ways a straight biopic, it nonetheless gains from the striking nature of its subject matter and a riveting, lugubrious performance from Timothy Spall. There is good support from Juliet Stevenson as his faithful but suffering wife. Nothing is sensationalised, and the overall impact is all the greater for that. It would have been even better if more time had been added, spent on the years leading up to his resignation.The subtitle is of course inaccurate - he was not the last hangman in England as capital punishment continued for some years past his retirement.… (mehr)

An English girl marries a German lawyer in the 1930s and they try to live as normal a life as they can in Hitler's Germany. When Allied bombs start falling on German cities, Christabel takes her two young sons to a village in the mountains. Then she learns that her husband and some of his friends have been arrested for plotting to assassinate Hitler. She travels to the prison where he is held, wondering if telling the commandant that she knows Winston Churchill will help her husband or seal his fate. This is said to be based on a true story. (fonte: Imdb)… (mehr)

Albert Pierrepoint era il boia più celebre della Gran Bretagna. Seguendo le orme del padre, divenne rapidamente noto per la sua efficienza e compassione, diventando così "il migliore esecutore della terra". Dall'inizio del 1933, fino alla fine della sua carriera nel 1955, ha giustiziato 608 persone, tra cui le "Bestie di Belsen" (criminali di guerra), per le quali ha guadagnato la gratitudine di una nazione. Ma quando impiccò Ruth Ellis, l'ultima donna ad essere giustiziata in Gran Bretagna, i sentimenti pubblici erano cambiati ... e così anche Pierrepoint.… (mehr)