Name this random guillotine-related flic

[ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies]

In this cheerful thread spawned by yosemite, I posted the following tangent that will have a better chance of getting a response here in CS:

Hijack warning…

This thread reminded me of a movie I watched as a very young child. Since it is such an early and dusty memory, I’m guessing that the montage of scenes that I remember are due to some sort of low level trauma from the shock of what I was watching. This of course has my adult self extremely curious as to what exactly I was watching.

Here’s what I remember: It was a period film that involved a scheduled guillotine execution. There was a man who’s job it was to store the guillotine blade and bring the blade to the town square at the appropriate time. A loved one of the person set to be executed was attempting to kill or otherwise delay the blade-keeper (thus preventing/delaying the execution), and almost succeeded, but not quite.

The memories of these few scenes are oddly vivid to me. I clearly recall the blade-keeper covering the blade with cloth and tucking it under his arm. I think the attempted assasin might’ve tried to either poison or stab him. Either way, the blade-keeper barely makes it to the town square and falls either dead or unconcious a few feet away from the guillotine, where the other folks involved in the execution are able to finish his job for him, foiling all efforts to interfer with the beheading.

I forgot some important details. From what I remember, the film would had to have been from the late 60’s or early 70’s. I have no idea if it was a made-for-TV or studio gig though.