Good Movie, but way too long.

Rating: 7/10 (6 March 2001)

It is a great story with good acting throughout but it drags on too long. It is obviously a piece of anti-death penalty crap and the gruesome execution of Eduard Delacroix was not necessary. In fact the excruciating detailing of the execution routines could have been and should have been edited out as surplusage. My feeling is the director was so smitten with his work he left little to the cutting room floor. There was much attention to the period detail except a large roll of cellophane tape, which did not exist during the depression years, was used to tape a mouth closed. It also seemed strange that there were so few men on death row at a time when many more people were sentenced to death than are now, although executions were carried out much more swiftly in those days.