I nominate the otherwise fine movie Rope by Alfred Hitchcock.
At the beginning of the movie, the two killers are murdering a buddy of theirs by strangling him with a rope. As the camera pulls back from the victim, it shows him standing inside a chest, standing up between the two killers. I suppose we’re to assume that the victim didn’t put up a fight since everyone is in evening clothes, and there’s not a hair out of place on anyone. Nice of the victim to climb obligingly into the storage chest for these fellas. Also considerate of him to stand politely until his killer announces he’s dead, and then plop neatly into the chest. No wonder these thrill killers chose this guy. He’s so cooperative.
Okay, the scene took less than a minute, and the rest of the movie was all cool and evil in the best way possible. I guess the two killers are supposed to be holding the body up between them, but it really looks like the way I described it.
Why couldn’t one of the killers have been holding the guy’s arms behind his back on the ground while the other strangled him, and then both of the killers put the body in the storage chest? At least, that would’ve been more convincing.
I just saw the movie Unfaithful which has a murder that’s almost as laughable. But what do you guys think? Any others?
Well, nobody can see the bus coming, because it’s outside the frame of the camera. It’s tragic but what are the characters supposed to do? Look outside the frame? Also, buses are completely silent until they ram into someone, and have to travel at 50 miles an hour through suburban streets and crowded city intersections.
This is how giant creatures like Tyrannosaurs and Godzilla can sneak up on people…hide just outside the camera frame and you’re invisible and inaudible.
There is a death scene in The Dark Knight Rises that is cringeworthy. If you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m referring to. It definitely should have been reshot.
I thought there was a line in The Rope about killing him from behind in the armchair on the right side of the set, the one that Jimmy Stewart sat in at one point.
The worst death scene ever is Gerard Depardieu you at the end of Cyrano de Bergerac. He staggers around for three minutes, and then at the end gasps out: “…at least I had…” (long, long pause)
