Pierrepoint -- The Last Hangman (2007)

Image credit: Melinda Sue Gordon

NOOSE CYCLE Just another day at the office for longtime British hangman Pierrepoint (Spall, pictured with Mary Stockley) in this not-quite-gripping biopic

An empathetic Timothy Spall beetles his brows as Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's top-of-the-line public executioner from the 1930s into the 1950s, who, when he wasn't dispensing swift justice with a rope, liked to raise a pint and sing in pubs. (Juliet Stevenson keeps her own upper lip rigid as Mrs. P.) This measured bio-production might be viewed as a lesser companion piece to Vera Drake — although in the case of Pierrepoint — The Last Hangman, all the period-piece tastefulness makes for a story more instructive than emotionally tangible. B