Pierrepoint
Y
April 7, 2006
Opens Friday, April 7 (U.K.)
LONDON -- Albert Pierrepoint could tell just by looking at a man how much rope he would need to hang him. He could separate a man's second and third vertebrae on the gallows with precision, rendering him dead in less than eight seconds.
Adrian Shergood's dark but absorbing film "Pierrepoint" tells the story of the dedicated servant who was Britain's most prolific hangman from 1934 until he resigned in 1956, just before capital punishment was banned in the U.K. In that time, he executed more than 600 condemned men and women.
It's a somber film likely to be welcomed more by a thoughtful "Masterpiece Theatre" audience than a movie crowd, and the grim subject matter is likely to keep boxoffice returns low.
Set in the dour Britain of the years just before and after World War II, it revolves around grocery store deliveryman Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall) as he decides to follow in the footsteps of his father and uncle and become an executioner. "It's in me and it had to come out," he tells his unhappy mother.
Deliberate but decisive, he becomes expert at the job in order, he says, to cause his doomed clients no pain. In the screenplay by Jeff Pope and Bob Mills, he has no interest in their guilt or innocence. When their life expires, he treats their bodies with the utmost respect.
This even extends to Nazi war criminals condemned to death at the Nuremburg trials. Keen to dispatch the convicted swiftly, the British military sends for Pierrepoint, with Field Marshal Montgomery (Clive Francis) choosing him personally. The master hangman executes 47 in one week. One day, when he finds there are only 12 coffins for 13 corpses, he refuses to work until an extra one is made.
Back in England, Pierrepoint has married Anne (Juliet Stevenson), who works in a sweetshop. She encourages him to use the money he's paid by Her Majesty's Prisons to buy a pub. His efforts at Nuremberg make him a hero behind the bar, and such is his ability to separate work from home life that he is the soul of the party at the piano.
He has a mate named Tish (Eddie Marsan) who calls him Tosh, and together they do comedy and song routines. Tish, however, falls for an independent young woman named Jessie (Claire Keelan), and his jealousy will lead him into trouble.
Spall gives a well-measured performance as Pierrepoint, creating a portrayal of a man who doesn't question what he does for a living until the very end, as his wife's trepidations become clear. It's not a message picture, though few will come away thinking capital punishment is a good idea.
Only a melodramatic plot development mars what is a thoughtful study of a most peculiar man.
PIERREPOINT
Redbus Film Distribution (U.K.)
U.K. Film Council and Capitol Films present
a Granada production in association with Masterpiece Theatre
Credits:
Director: Adrian Shergold
Screenwriters: Jeff Pope and Bob Mills
Producer: Christine Langan
Executive producers: Andy Harries, Jeff Pope, Rebecca Eaton, Paul Trijbits
Director of photography: Danny Cohen
Production designer: Candida Otton
Editor: Tania Reddin: Composer: Martin Phipps
Cast:
Albert Pierrepoint: Timothy Spall
Anne Fletcher: Juliet Stevenson
Tish: Eddie Marsan
George Cooper: Cavan Clerkin
Kirky: James Corden
Jessie: Claire Keelan
Josef Kramer: Michael Norton
Protestor: Peter Ryder
Governor (Holloway): Tim Woodward
Ruth Ellis: Mary Stockley
Anthony Farrow: Paul Ready
Montgomery: Clive Francis
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating
LONDON -- Albert Pierrepoint could tell just by looking at a man how much rope he would need to hang him. He could separate a man's second and third vertebrae on the gallows with precision, rendering him dead in less than eight seconds.
Adrian Shergood's dark but absorbing film "Pierrepoint" tells the story of the dedicated servant who was Britain's most prolific hangman from 1934 until he resigned in 1956, just before capital punishment was banned in the U.K. In that time, he executed more than 600 condemned men and women.
It's a somber film likely to be welcomed more by a thoughtful "Masterpiece Theatre" audience than a movie crowd, and the grim subject matter is likely to keep boxoffice returns low.
Set in the dour Britain of the years just before and after World War II, it revolves around grocery store deliveryman Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall) as he decides to follow in the footsteps of his father and uncle and become an executioner. "It's in me and it had to come out," he tells his unhappy mother.
Deliberate but decisive, he becomes expert at the job in order, he says, to cause his doomed clients no pain. In the screenplay by Jeff Pope and Bob Mills, he has no interest in their guilt or innocence. When their life expires, he treats their bodies with the utmost respect.
This even extends to Nazi war criminals condemned to death at the Nuremburg trials. Keen to dispatch the convicted swiftly, the British military sends for Pierrepoint, with Field Marshal Montgomery (Clive Francis) choosing him personally. The master hangman executes 47 in one week. One day, when he finds there are only 12 coffins for 13 corpses, he refuses to work until an extra one is made.
Back in England, Pierrepoint has married Anne (Juliet Stevenson), who works in a sweetshop. She encourages him to use the money he's paid by Her Majesty's Prisons to buy a pub. His efforts at Nuremberg make him a hero behind the bar, and such is his ability to separate work from home life that he is the soul of the party at the piano.
He has a mate named Tish (Eddie Marsan) who calls him Tosh, and together they do comedy and song routines. Tish, however, falls for an independent young woman named Jessie (Claire Keelan), and his jealousy will lead him into trouble.
Spall gives a well-measured performance as Pierrepoint, creating a portrayal of a man who doesn't question what he does for a living until the very end, as his wife's trepidations become clear. It's not a message picture, though few will come away thinking capital punishment is a good idea.
Only a melodramatic plot development mars what is a thoughtful study of a most peculiar man.
PIERREPOINT
Redbus Film Distribution (U.K.)
U.K. Film Council and Capitol Films present
a Granada production in association with Masterpiece Theatre
Credits:
Director: Adrian Shergold
Screenwriters: Jeff Pope and Bob Mills
Producer: Christine Langan
Executive producers: Andy Harries, Jeff Pope, Rebecca Eaton, Paul Trijbits
Director of photography: Danny Cohen
Production designer: Candida Otton
Editor: Tania Reddin: Composer: Martin Phipps
Cast:
Albert Pierrepoint: Timothy Spall
Anne Fletcher: Juliet Stevenson
Tish: Eddie Marsan
George Cooper: Cavan Clerkin
Kirky: James Corden
Jessie: Claire Keelan
Josef Kramer: Michael Norton
Protestor: Peter Ryder
Governor (Holloway): Tim Woodward
Ruth Ellis: Mary Stockley
Anthony Farrow: Paul Ready
Montgomery: Clive Francis
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating
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