I Know Somebody's Awaiting an Execution...

[GSGregg]

...such as that of Judge/Justice Kavanaugh at the whim of Diane Feinstein who's pushing Christine Ford down a sharp blade under the guise of I-don't know-what, after the Professor was too slow to delete her high-school yearbooks from Facebook. Things should get really interesting when the media decides what they want to do (I can't believe Fox News hasn't done so yet).

Anyway, back to the execution and the blade:

There was a movie in the 60s or maybe late 50s that dealt with warring armies and/or navies (I first thought Vikings, but appear to be wrong, and I also place Tony Curtis in the flick but could be wrong about that, too). The antagonists were led by an (obviously) evil queen, who decided to prove how brave her soldiers were right in front of God and everybody...

A contraption loomed overhead, with the profile of, for instance, a playground slide - but instead of a trough or channel, this featured a (previously mentioned ) sharp blade from top to bottom. The queen picked a soldier and asked, "Will you go?" You can bet the soldier gulped a time or two before acceding to her 'request' by climbing to the top of the apparatus, kneeling at the top, and leaning forward to begin his descent, which rendered him separate left and right hemicorpses.

They'd have to get me real drunk before I'd do that...

My question/s : What was the movie, and did it feature Tony Curtis;
What was the execution device called. I tried Iron Maiden (obviously wrong), Iron Mare (ditto), and ran out of ideas.

Grog

If a moderator wants to put this in the 'How did you like that movie, etc,' thread, I'm okay with that.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

I haven't been following the confirmation stuff much, but it seems like the Dems might want to tread carefully with their accusations. I mean if they bring down this candidate, who knows what the next duck will look like?

OTOH I guess there's a chance the Dems could eventually get back their stolen seat (the one that should have gone to Merrick Garland) if they delay this stuff until the midterms. Hmm.


re: your movie search,
For those types of dingers, I usually pull up the actor's WP or IMDB list of films, figure out the date range, then start clicking through the summaries. Too bad Sleepy's gone for this one.

Btw, that contraption vaguely reminds me of the guillotine. But did you know that France was still using that sucker until 1977, when Star Wars came out?!

 

[GSGregg]

AHA! A search for 'Execution by being forced to slide down a long blade' hooked me up with 1964's The Long Ships, with Richard Widmark. I'm pretty sure Widmark and Curtis didn't resemble one another all that much...

Turns out that the device in question was called the 'Mare of Steel'. There was also a very large bell cast of gold, that was lowered over a group of monks (I think) and struck until they died...

Times were less than pleasant.


EDIT: I just watched the YouTube video, and it's amazing what happens to memory in fifty-four years


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e4i5IxP2JQ

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Haha, good for you, G.

That film sounds like it would be rather notorious, but I never heard of it. Granted, it's a bit before my time, but still.


Btw, my laptop finally gave out, so I'm currently using a pretty badly outdated desktop. The security ramifications of surfing on an unprotected machine are a bit frightening, but I guess it's safe enough to log in here.

 

[yellowhues]

Sounds like an exciting old movie to watch.