Original subtitles

I want to look my best.

David.

Go away!

The defence rests on a single word, provocation.

We all know that, Rysky.

Not a single applicable precedent and an English murder trial.

Blakely beat Ruth black and blue.

He humiliated her, took her for every penny she had.

I believe that if we can show that, then this isn't murder.

It's manslaughter.

You must get the crownswit system to reveal what they know

and I cut them by all right, shouldn't be a witness for the defence.

They may have got to him somehow.

They may have some rabbit in the hat.

You must push him in the cross.

Well, that's all, Mr Beefen.

Ruth, this is Mr Stevenson QC, lead council.

He'll take you through the defence strategy.

I just want those malicious snobs to pay for what they did.

Malicious snobs?

The fin-laters.

If it weren't for them, David would still be alive.

Dr Whitaker's theory, the effects of jealousy on hysterical women,

I think we should lean on.

Ruth isn't hysterical.

She shot Blakely because he was unfaithful.

You know that.

A ranger of the fin-laters because they tried to tempt him with other women.

She was consumed by sexual jealousy which provoked her uncontrollably to murder.

She was provoked by Blakely's violence.

She'd miscarried a child.

She hardly mentioned that.

Oh, she's traumatised.

It's a question of what the jury will understand.

You should never have let her bleed her hair.

Does she look like a beaten woman to you?

It's a very sharp.

Blondstar!

Oh, God, it's grossing.

Oi, stop looking up her to the gut.

What's got you?

Hello.

Hello.

What do you think?

Bit vulgar.

Bloody ridiculous.

I'm reading all about you in the gossip columns.

Oh, yes.

It's not you bastards.

Can't believe a girl from stains could marry a prince.

There's a revolution coming, girls.

Class.

And what school you went to.

I won't give a toss.

Long as you know how to have a good time.

David.

Oh, yes.

Sorry.

What's he doing here?

He's restful compared to David.

One of those who just wants a cuddle.

It's not like that.

We haven't actually hit it before as you upstairs.

Watch you through a crack in the door.

Screepy, I'm faster.

David.

I'm going to be doing it.

Everyone, positions, quickly.

Mrs. Earless is a woman of 28, divorced,

and the story we're going to hear is this.

That in 1954, 1955,

she was having simultaneous love affairs with two men.

David Blakely, the deceased,

and another man called Cousin,

whom I shall call before you.

Blakely was trying to break off the connection

and the accused woman was angry at this,

even though she had another lover at the time.

She therefore took a loaded gun,

found David, and shot him by emptying that revolver at him.

Now, you are not here in the least concerned with adultery,

or sexual misconduct.

You're not trying her for immorality,

but for murder.

Surprise!

Oh, aren't you sweet?

I'm so sorry, darling.

David asked me to let you know he can't make it.

He's tied up with work.

What's about time he bloody did some?

Mm-hmm.

More cake for us.

Darling, look.

I'm sorry.

I'm sure if he'd realized the effort he'd gone to...

You both know he's not working.

Were you with him?

Of course not.

Look, David's engaged to be married to Mary Dawson.

He's been living here with me for months.

You've been a lovely friend to him.

Bless you.

Come on.

The prosecution calls Desmond Cousin.

I'll give you a hang of clearing up.

I really don't like any of thatônne that went away for money.

Be good Pearce.

I don't get it.

You've too late to rethink your привote,

w barrel.

Mrs. Ellis, for around two years.

Did you become a close friend of hers?

Yes.

You will not mind if we use plain words.

Were you her lover?

For a short time, yes.

On Sunday, the 10th of April, the day of the alleged murder,

did she and her son spend most of the day

at your flat with you?

Yes.

That evening, did you drive her back to Edgerton Gardens?

Yes.

About what time?

About half past seven?

About 7.30 on the Sunday night, and that is the last you

saw of her.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

They're trying to convict her of immorality.

That's why they've called cousin.

They want the jury to see it in the flesh.

He instructed them not to consider sexual misconduct.

That's why he raised it to draw attention to it.

Mr. Stevenson.

Mr. Cousin.

Were you very much in love with this young woman?

Yes.

Yes.

At the time you were begging the defendant to marry you

if she could.

Wow.

Do you need to go to her?

George wants to take him.

George, your husband?

Some rich, childless colleague of his or woman dentist.

Once Regina to go live with her.

Once to adopt her.

George, this will give me a divorce if I say yes.

You don't need to give up your child, Ruth.

Let me look after you all.

No.

Marry me.

We'll don't marry me.

I'm care.

What about David?

Forget him.

I can give you everything that you need.

Just let me be with you.

Please, George.

Let me be with you.

I'll be obviously Marx or Bruce's on him.

Yes.

Were they bad, Bruce's?

Yes.

I don't want to press you for details,

but how often did you see that sort of mark on her?

What's beyond half a dozen occasions?

Thank you, my lord.

I think it was the custom you made Stepdive.

I heard two bangs, shots, and then what did you see?

I saw David lying on the ground.

And Mrs. Alice pointing a gun into his back.

Why did you have to kill him?

No questions.

Leslie Davis, Detective Chief Inspector Malog.

You saw the accused woman detained at Amsterdam Police

Station or did Malog.

Did you form any impression of her emotional condition

at the time of the arrest?

I did, my lord.

I was most impressed by the fact you seemed very composed.

No questions.

Why aren't you cross-examination?

I didn't see there was anything useful to be added.

You broke her down piece by piece.

You must get finlated to reveal what he knows.

Well, here in his wife saw her suffer.

Mr. Bigford, my job is to show what made the accused so morbidly

jealous that she was provoked to kill.

Now, if Blakely was merely an nasty thug,

she'd hardly mind if he went off with another woman, would she?

It won't work.

As a defense, it's not enough.

I know who gave her the gun.

She didn't carry out this crime alone.

She instructed me not to mention it, but we must

overall hurt her in her own best interest.

Keep your voice down.

For Christ's sake, drag someone else into it now.

And it becomes premeditated conspiracy to murder,

the hope of manslaughter.

What if she was persuaded coerced even?

We have a defense.

She was provoked by uncontrollable sexual jealousy

and you should never breach your client's confidence again.

Is that understood?

Yes, Mr. Stevens.

The defense calls Anthony Finn later.

I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give

shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

What...

Yeah.

I know you didn't get it.

My Foreign when I asked B根ne,

I don't know.

It's conheed.

How idric?

I'm so sorry about last night.

I was humiliated, David, in front of everyone.

My old friend, Carol.

That's why I think she was a bit upset.

Why?

I told her I was breaking it off with Mary.

I'm not marrying someone just because they approve of her.

I don't care what they think.

I don't care what any of them think.

I want to be with you.

I'll poor Mary.

You might have chosen a better day than you're birthday.

You aren't less pasted.

I wondered if I might get an advance on my wages.

I'm sponging it again, is he?

I don't have to start charging you rent on a flat.

You can't do that.

That flat is a place of business, not a lovnest.

You think you'll make you happy?

I'm not asking him to leave.

Render will be 12 per week then.

What's this?

The children are asleep and dinner will be served in five minutes.

What are we having?

The only thing I know how to cook.

Egg and soldiers.

Now, it's all me.

Of course she did.

And I always serve my boiled eggs with polragette.

Oh, my God.

What will your mother think about you breaking it off with Mary?

I'm not very happy, I shouldn't think.

She likes to pretend we're a model family, which is frankly delusional.

Your parents divorced?

Mm.

I was 11.

What happened?

My father hadn't affair.

With a waitress, half his age.

And she got pregnant, had an abortion, and she died.

Christ.

They accused him of curing the drugs.

You know, he was a GP.

They tried him for murder.

He was acquitted.

The judge said there was no case to answer.

He went back to his medical practice, his golf.

But our family was poison.

And it's so sorry.

I'm sorry.

Are these half-bites?

Who?

Who is she?

Carol.

She's married to my best friend.

Which is the exact way you both do it?

You've called it him for her, haven't you?

Because you're an imitation, and she's the real thing.

When you're crossed, the accident slips, darling.

Are you sitting your sought-had mammoths?

What a fool I was!

There's nothing going on with me, David.

It hasn't been for years.

Expect me to believe that, the way you are with him.

Both of you, actually.

Stay out of this hunt. Take her.

Like nature's, both of you.

Where you follow him around, falling over him.

It's embarrassing.

How dare you come to my house with my child here.

Now, you might have dragged David into your seated little world,

but he's not my family.

Now, to talk about leeches,

you have been a parasite on David since the day you met him.

Thinking you could drag yourself up in the world,

drag your whole school-ed family up.

David is naive, I'm not. His friends are not.

We know what you're up to.

It does not like that.

Now, you know what he's like.

You know what he does.

You never did it to me.

This is of your own making, Ruth.

All of it.

And you will be stopped for your destroyed, David, too.

Sooner or later, I will make him see who and what you are.

You are.

I'm a predator.

And this is all a trap.

Then you will have my blood in your hands.

Don't come here again.

Mr. Anthony Findlater,

in the days before Mr. Blake is death while he was staying with you,

you received several telephone calls from Mrs. Ellis.

Yes.

It was quite plain to you when you spoke to her on the telephone

that she was in a desperate state of emotion.

And now, did you observe no indication that she was a very desperate woman at the time?

David, I know you are.

David!

Now, was it obvious to you that she was in a state of concern?

A state of considerable emotional disturbance.

I didn't get that impression.

She might have been.

On the Saturday night, did you and Blakely come out of the house with a young woman?

I believe it was your nanny.

I do not remember.

You will appreciate what is being suggested.

That there is some reason for Ruth Ellis being jealous of some new woman on the scene.

I did not even know that Mrs. Ellis knew we had a nanny.

Mrs. Ellis.

Mr. Stevenson.

Let her ask questions.

So that's it.

That's all they are going to ask him.

Put Carol up there.

It's too light.

Put Carol in the witness box and ask her about the week seining up to David's death.

Ask her what she did to my baby.

What did she do?

We can't call Carol, but you can tell them.

This jury, they won't be uploaded to their momma.

They are not a person, you're a character and a story.

A cold blooded murder is in a cheap thriller they've read before.

And they know the ending.

Change the story.

Give them a different ending.

Make them want to save your life.

David Blakeley was living with you in a flat which you occupied above the little club.

Yes.

Were you at that time doing your best to build up the business of the club?

My one concern was to build up the business which had been a failure beforehand.

And at that time were you very much in love with him.

Did you tell him that you wanted to break off the relationship with him?

Yes.

I want you to go.

I want you to pay your things.

Go tonight.

God, it's not even a...

He's one of Violets.

It's nothing new.

It's about you. Let them run a little film.

Think it's either one taking advantage of you.

How did he treat you physically?

He did me.

I want you to get out.

He was violent on occasions.

I found this in your bedside table.

It is.

It is intact.

And how did that violence manifest itself?

He only used to hit me with his fists and hands.

But I bruised very easily.

What effect did all this have on you?

I began to feel ill about the whole thing.

Well, this was going on.

What was happening to your own earnings in club?

David?

They were deteriorating.

And so was the business.

Don't you ever come down here looking at that again?

No one in this place is bloody empty!

David!

David! David, step away from the room!

I'll do it. I swear.

If you leave me, I'll do it.

David, step away from the room.

Please! Please!

Now, all this time, you and he were living together at the club.

How do you any money?

I had to give him money all the time.

I bought his clothes and things.

I paid his drinks bills and things.

Most of all, the spray can cut me off.

You'd be open for me.

The racing.

There's nothing else I can do.

It's not like I have to try and...

I'm just useless!

All right.

My father's heritage is gone by.

All right.

My family and my mother have used to be.

How did David then behave toward you?

He was possessive and jealous.

He seemed...

I thought he seemed diverted to me.

Please don't leave me.

Look at you.

What happened to your feelings from then on?

He was a very likable person.

I got very attached to him.

Marry me.

I'm already back.

Then divorce him.

What about your family?

I don't care about them.

I will never have any happiness unless you...

marry me.

This is a photograph that Blakely gave you.

Yes.

Yes.

Did he write on it in your presence?

Yes.

Two Ruth.

All my love.

David.

My Lord, I wonder if she minds her down?

Yes, certainly.

Quite right.

Do my all means.

I don't need to sit down.

And then two weeks before David's death,

did you find that you were pregnant?

Yes.

What happened about it?

Well, we got into a fight.

David got very violent.

He thumped me in the tummy.

I do not know if that's what caused the miscarriage or not though.

You had a...

a miscarriage.

Yes.

And we've heard the evidence about you taking the revolver

and getting a cab to Hampstead and shooting him, is that right?

Quite correct.

Why did you do it?

I don't really know quite seriously.

It's just very upset.

I do not really know why I shot him.

Is that right?

Yes.

Mrs. Ellis, when you fired that revolver at close range

into the body of David Blakely,

what did you intend to do?

It is quite obvious when I shot him. I intended to kill him.

I hope you appreciated the suit.

It's really an astro-cantanum.

What was that?

What was what?

In the witness box.

You looked embarrassed.

You looked bored.

It became perfectly clear none of this is going to do any good.

What were you going to tell them about the finnator state

about the miscarriage?

I think they're securing my hair, women.

I know the prism are rather difficult about it.

I think they're the ones who are going to drink the bleach.

You know, John, it's not least before we got my roots done.

Oh, for God's sake, Ruth!

Wake these people up to stand what you've been through.

Tell them I'm on whatever it was the finnletters did or what?

Tell me at least.

No one wants to hear about my insides.

The jury don't.

Stevenson certainly doesn't need you.

I know you think you do, but you don't.

No one wants to hear about women bleeding and what men do to make them bleed.

It's all a little bit embarrassing for everyone.

It's certainly not going to get me off a murder charge.

They believed, aren't you, Stevenson?

In his lies.

We should have told the police about Cousin's involvement.

You've purged yourself in the witness box.

And I allowed it.

You've condemned yourself.

You've done it.

You've done it.

So what follows, Dr. Whitaker, as the effect of infidelity by the male partner on the female mind?

Women are more prone to hysterical reactions than men.

They are inclined to lose some of their inhibitory capacity and solve their problems on a more primitive level.

Do jealous, please.

In your view, had the accused considered the consequences of what she was doing.

Well, I asked her if she thought about her children.

She said she did not think of them at all.

All right. Now you're wicked for Daddy, okay?

I'll call tonight to see how she's settling in.

Give her a few days, eh?

My solicitor will be in touch about the divorce proceedings.

Thank you, Dr. Whitaker. You may step down.

That is my case, my lord.

Before you address the jury, it would be as well if we had a short discussion as to the law.

You may release the jury until tomorrow morning.

I gather you wish to address the jury as to the question of provocation.

I do, my lord.

There has to be some conduct as they're not on the part of the deceased man, which caused this unfortunate result.

What is the evidence of conduct on Blakely's part, which is considered to amount to provocation?

May I be absolutely afraid about that, my lord?

The answer is that there is no authority, no authority that is ever considered the effects on the female mind of infidelity.

Does your proposition come to this?

If a man associates with a woman and then leaves her suddenly, and she is a jealous woman, emotionally disturbed, and goes out and shoots him,

that is sufficient grounds for the jury to reduce the crime of murder to manslaughter.

Mr. Bigfoot, a single day to hear all the evidence in a murder trial.

Why did nobody ask about the gun?

I'm sorry.

I know she lied about how she got it. There was never any gun left to the club's security.

I told the police, but nobody seemed to care.

And what about the black cab that was never found?

You know, there's been a person who used to drive a black cab for fun.

Edie, did you help her?

I don't know.

It's not true, is it? It's not too late. You can get it back.

The three of you, you can all live with me.

I know you think you can save me.

I just a sweet fantasy to distract from the sorted truth, which is that you are a lonely drunk, and I am a hostess whose company you pay for.

Why are you doing this, Ruth?

Because I love him.

I will save you.

But he want me to or not.

I know you are a lonely drunk, and I am a lonely drunk.

I know you are a lonely drunk, and I am a lonely drunk.

I know you are a lonely drunk.

I know you are a lonely drunk.

It is my duty as a judge, as a matter of law, to direct the jury that the evidence in this case does not support a verdict of manslaughter on the grounds of provocation.

My lord, in view of that ruling, it does not seem that it would be proper for me to address the jury at all.

It does not seem to me that there is any issue left on which you could address the jury.

No, my lord. I am obliged.

In the circumstances, my lord, I have nothing more to say.

Members of the jury, according to our law, it is no defense for a woman who is charged with the murder of her lover, to prove she was a jealous woman, and had been badly treated by her lover, and after he left her without warning, she became furious with him, and formed an intention to kill him.

None of these facts individually or collectively afford any defense.

Shame on you! All of you!

Get off me easily!

Absolutely, thank you.

I need to talk to you about Ruth Elise and Desmond Cousin.

Jury's back.

14 minutes.

Members of the jury, are you agreed upon your verdict? We are.

Do you find Ruth Elise guilty or not guilty of murder?

Guilty.

Prisoner at the bar. You stand convicted of murder. Have you anything to say before judgment of death is passed, according to law?

Ruth Elise, the jury has convicted you of murder. In my view, it was the only verdict possible.

You will be taken hence to the prison in which you were last confined, and from there, to a place of execution, where you will suffer death by hanging.

And thereafter your body buried within the precincts of the prison, and may the Lord have mercy on your soul.

Amen.

Thanks.

Thank you very much.

Is that my only junior treasurer, counsel?

That's correct.

Edward Cousin. Is he related to Desmond Cousin?

They are cousins.

That's why he accolped Desmond as a witness, isn't it?

To protect him from other accusations, such as conspiracy to murder.

Do you know much about Buddhism, Mr. Bickford?

I've practised it for 30 years, and one of its teachings is that we are all responsible for our own liberation.

Ruth Elise knows this. No one else, no judge or jury, no friend, as put her in her present position, it is her own actions that have done so.

That is karma.

I shall be starting the reprieve case immediately.

Well, we did the best we could for her.

No, no, we did not. This whole process has been disgrace, a sham.

I'm going to fight for her to be reprieved, do things differently as they should have been done.

Desmond Cousin is in the same chambers as Christmas Humpfys. He's a bloody silk.

You dare? Not Desmond.

Edward Cousin and I work together during the war.

Jesus Christ. You're all together.

Of course, that's why he didn't cross the examiner. They asked you to protect him.

No. No, they didn't.

No, dragging somebody else into it wouldn't have helped. When it'd have helped at all.

A woman like her, they would never get a letter off.

She deserves clemency for what she suffered, and I will fight for that.

You ought to be moved.

You ought to be moved.

You ought to be moved.

You ought to be moved.