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Classic Hollywood knew how to break our hearts. Join us as we count down the most devastating endings from the golden age of cinema, where love, loss, madness and sacrifice collide in unforgettable final moments. Our picks include shattered romances, bleak goodbyes and legendary closing scenes from some of the most acclaimed films ever made. Major spoilers ahead!
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00:00She's my sister and my daughter!
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:06And today, we're counting down our picks for the saddest, most tragic endings in classic Hollywood films,
00:12including movies from the international canon.
00:14Major spoilers to come, of course.
00:17And from now onwards, you will dance like nobody ever before.
00:26Number 10, Rosebud is the Sled, Citizen Kane.
00:30Why aren't you coming with us, Mom?
00:32We have to stay here, Charles.
00:34You're going to live with Mr. Thatcher from now on, Charlie.
00:37You're going to be rich, your ma figures.
00:39Well, that is, me and her decided this ain't the place for you to grow up in.
00:43You'll probably be the richest man in America someday.
00:46Of course, the most widely acclaimed film ever to come out of Hollywood would have a devastating ending.
00:52The film opens with newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane dying with a snow globe in hand,
00:57and one mysterious word on his lips.
01:00Rosebud.
01:06The mystery of this word and the strongly implied unhappiness of Kane haunts the narrative.
01:11Though the characters never solve it, the audience is finally shown what Rosebud is in one final shot.
01:18A snow sled Kane played with as a child.
01:20Despite his success and failures, Kane still clung to that one golden childhood memory.
01:27Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it.
01:30Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get or something he lost.
01:34Anyway, it wouldn't have explained anything.
01:37I don't think any word can explain a man's life.
01:40Number 9, Heathcliff and Catherine are together only in death.
01:44Wuthering Heights.
01:45This major film adaptation of Emily Bronte's classic novel, Wuthering Heights focuses on star-crossed lovers Catherine and Heathcliff.
01:53I now make you my queen.
01:55Whatever happens out there, here you will always be my queen.
02:00As childhood friends, Catherine and the racially ambiguous Heathcliff fall in love.
02:04But class and race soon cleave them, with Heathcliff going off to seek his fortune and Catherine marrying wealthy and
02:11more socially acceptable Edgar Linton.
02:14That's it, Ellen.
02:17I've no more business marrying Edgar Linton than I have of being in heaven.
02:21But Ellen, Ellen, what can I do?
02:24Thinking of Heathcliff.
02:25Who else?
02:26Once Heathcliff returns to seek revenge on the Lintons, even marrying Edgar's sister, Catherine dies of a broken heart.
02:34Heathcliff never recovers and begs Catherine to haunt him.
02:37I killed you.
02:39Haunt me then.
02:41Haunt your murderer.
02:43I know that ghosts have wandered on the earth.
02:46Be with me always.
02:48Take any form.
02:50Drive me mad.
02:52Only do not leave me in this dark alone where I cannot find you.
02:56In the end, she does.
02:58The local doctor sees him with a woman, only to discover his corpse alone in the snow.
03:03These more crossed lovers are finally at peace.
03:07Is he dead?
03:09No, not dead, Dr. Kenneth.
03:12Not alone.
03:14He's with her.
03:17They've only just begun to live.
03:22Number 8.
03:23Washizu dies by his own troops.
03:25Throne of Blood.
03:27The big screen often loves Shakespearean tragedy, but this highly acclaimed film by Akira Kurosawa ups the ante.
03:34.
03:52Based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, the film follows Samurai Washizu as he's told by a spirit in the woods that he
03:58will one day become Lord of Spider's Web Castle.
04:01With the encouragement of Washizu's wife, Washizu begins his bloody ascent,
04:06killing the current Lord of Spider's Web Castle, Suzuki.
04:19Now the Lord, Washizu begins to grow increasingly paranoid and tyrannical.
04:24Unlike in Macbeth, however, when Washizu tries to muster his troops against a threat,
04:29they turn against him, gravely wounding him.
04:40He dies just as the opposing force arrives.
04:43Live by regicide, die by regicide.
04:49This film follows ex-boxing champion Billy Flynn, now working as a horse trainer.
05:06Billy soon finds himself accepting an offer to box an opponent to please his idolizing son, TJ.
05:12He hopes the match will also reconcile him to his ex-wife, Annie.
05:28In the match proper, Billy's opponent seems almost too strong for him, and Billy takes a lot of damage.
05:35Finally, Billy knocks him out, but at a pyrrhic cost.
05:39His injuries are too severe and he collapses.
05:42While he's dying, Billy asks his son, TJ, if he's happy his father won, and TJ calls him champ one
05:49last time.
05:50Jackie! Wake him up! Wake him!
05:54TJ, please.
05:55I want you out!
05:56TJ.
05:57I want you out!
05:59TJ.
06:00Please, TJ. Listen to me.
06:02He's gone.
06:03He's gone, son.
06:06He's gone.
06:13The original tear-jerker dog film, Old Yeller was based on the 1956 novel by Fred Gibson.
06:20I know one thing.
06:22That old dog better not come around here while he got me a gun in my hands.
06:25In the film, siblings Travis and Arliss find a dog in a cornfield and name him Old Yeller.
06:31Though initially a menace, stealing meat from smokehouses, Old Yeller finally wins the family over by defending them from a
06:38black bear.
06:39Travis and the dog soon develop a strong bond.
06:42Well, that don't be it all.
06:45I never saw such a dog.
06:47You will never see another one like him.
06:50When Old Yeller tries to defend the family from a rabid wolf, he is bitten in the process.
06:55To end his suffering, Travis is forced to put his loyal dog down.
06:59Devastating.
07:00No, Mama.
07:02There's no hope for him now, Travis.
07:05He's suffering.
07:07You know we've got to do it.
07:10I know, Mama.
07:12He was my dog.
07:16I'll do it.
07:18Number 5.
07:19Chief Smothers McMurphy.
07:21One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
07:23In this acclaimed adaptation of the Ken Kesey classic,
07:26Randall McMurphy feigns madness in order to get sentenced to a mental institution instead of a work farm.
07:32Tell me, do you think there's anything wrong with your mind, really?
07:38Not a thing, Doc.
07:40I'm a goddamn marvel of modern science.
07:43But the medical ward is run by the coldly villainous Nurse Ratched,
07:47and soon she and McMurphy enter into a power struggle for control.
07:51McMurphy rallies the other ward patients,
07:53starting fights with the orderlies,
07:55and becoming friends with Chief Bromden.
07:57Just get out of here.
08:01Out.
08:07Canada.
08:09After one patient, Billy takes his life.
08:11Ratched's nonchalance enrages McMurphy,
08:14and he tries to strangle her.
08:16McMurphy is taken and returned for the last time.
08:18When his friend Chief greets him,
08:20he realizes that McMurphy has been lobotomized.
08:23I'm not going without you, man.
08:28I wouldn't leave you this way.
08:31A grieving Chief smothers McMurphy with a pillow,
08:34and finally escapes the ward.
08:36Number 4.
08:37Forget it, Jake.
08:38It's Chinatown.
08:40Chinatown.
08:41Water rights in Los Angeles have never been so tragic.
08:44Private investigator Jake Gittis is hired to track Hollis Mulray,
08:47Chief Engineer at the Department of Water and Power.
08:50What is your husband's first name?
08:53Hollis.
08:55Hollis Mulray.
08:57Water and Power?
08:59He's Chief Engineer.
09:00But when Hollis is discovered dead,
09:02Gittis is warned off investigating his death.
09:05From there, Gittis discovers a plot to steal the water from the city
09:08by none other than the wealthy Noah Cross.
09:11You've got a nasty reputation, Mr. Gibbs.
09:14I like that.
09:16Thanks.
09:16If you're a bank person, that'd be one thing.
09:19But in your business, it's admirable.
09:21And it's good advertising.
09:23Doesn't hurt.
09:24It's why you're attracting a client like my daughter.
09:28He had killed Hollis when the latter was close to discovering the plot,
09:31and also abused his own daughter, Evelyn.
09:34Evelyn manages to shoot Cross, but is killed by police.
09:38As Cross takes Evelyn's child by him away,
09:41Gittis is also led away.
09:42Told this now iconic line.
09:44Forget it, Jake.
09:46It's Chinatown.
09:52Young ballet dancer Vicky Page is singled out by impresorial Boris Lermontov
09:57after watching her impressive Odette in Swan Lake.
09:59Why do you want to dance?
10:05Why do you want to live?
10:08I don't know exactly why, but I must.
10:14That's my answer, too.
10:15Boris commissions a new ballet, the Ballet of the Red Shoes,
10:19about magical red shoes that force a ballerina to dance beautifully until she dies.
10:24When Vicky falls for the ballet's composer, Julian Craster,
10:28Boris tries to break the lovers up to no success.
10:31Oh yes, she's not, however, a great dancer yet.
10:35Nor is she likely to become one if she allows herself to be sidetracked by idiotic flirtations.
10:42Mr. Lermontov, you don't understand.
10:46We really are in love.
10:48Vicky and Julian marry,
10:50but it isn't long before Vicky's career starts to crater while his soars.
10:54Boris persuades Vicky to dance in the Red Shoes while Julian begs her to leave.
10:59I love you, Julian.
11:01Nobody but you.
11:05Did you love that more?
11:08I don't know.
11:10I don't know.
11:11Torn between love and art, Vicky jumps in front of a train.
11:15As a last wish, she tells Julian to remove the red shoes on her feet.
11:19I'm sorry to tell you that Miss Peach is unable to dance tonight.
11:36Number 2.
11:37Blanche is Broken, a streetcar named Desire.
11:40Tennessee Williams' 1947 play received a lauded film adaptation,
11:45somewhat censored but no less tragic.
11:48You must be stealing.
11:49I'm Blanche.
11:51Oh, you're Stella's sister.
11:54He is.
11:56Oh, hiya.
11:58Yeah, where's the little woman?
11:59Troubled Blanche Dubois moves in with her sister Stella
12:02and her boorish husband Stanley after the death of her husband.
12:05Stanley physically abuses Stella,
12:08and it isn't long before he and Blanche's clashes turn into a horrific nightmare.
12:13Hey, Stella!
12:17Hey, Stella!
12:30I wouldn't mix in this.
12:32Stanley sabotages Blanche's budding romance with Mitch,
12:36telling him that Blanche was fired for sleeping with her student.
12:39When Mitch breaks with Blanche,
12:41Blanche and Stanley fight for the last time.
12:43All right, let's have a little of a fuss.
12:51Tiger, tiger, rub that bottle top.
12:55Weeks later, Blanche is carted off to a mental hospital,
12:58broken psychologically by Stanley's assault.
13:01She departs calmly, however,
13:03relying once more on the kindness of strangers.
13:05Whoever you are,
13:08I've always depended on the kindness of strangers.
13:15Before we unveil our top pick,
13:17here are a few honorable mentions.
13:19Norma kills Joe and goes mad.
13:21Sunset Boulevard.
13:23The lengths she went to live in her glory days are chilling.
13:26Life, which can be strangely merciful,
13:30had taken pity on Norma Desmond.
13:33The dream she had clung to so desperately
13:37had enfolded her.
13:40Antonio tries to steal a bicycle.
13:42Bicycle thieves.
13:43A man's attempts to provide for his family
13:45are punished in the cruelest way.
13:57Geneviève and Guy part for good.
13:59The umbrellas of Cherbourg.
14:00These star-crossed lovers
14:02failed to wait for each other.
14:03Tu es un deuil.
14:05Maman est morta l'automne.
14:22Paul dies in combat.
14:23All quiet on the Western Front.
14:25He is killed a few weeks before the war ends.
14:48Number 1.
14:49Rick and Ilsa Part.
14:51Casablanca.
14:51This film about sacrifice
14:53contains an ending both romantic and tragic.
14:56Because you're getting on that plane.
14:57I don't understand.
14:59What about you?
14:59I'm staying here with him
15:00until the plane gets safely away.
15:02No, Richard.
15:02No, what has happened to you?
15:03Last night we said a great many things.
15:06You said I was to do the thinking for both of us.
15:08Well, I've done a lot of it since then.
15:09It all adds up to one thing.
15:11You're getting on that plane with Victor
15:12where you belong.
15:13Cynical Rick Blaine gets a blast from his past
15:15when his former lover Ilsa Lund
15:17walks into his nightclub in Morocco.
15:19We learn that Rick and Ilsa
15:20had fallen in love in Paris,
15:22but were separated when Ilsa left him
15:24without explanation.
15:25How long was it we had, honey?
15:28I didn't count the days.
15:29Well, I did.
15:31Every one of them.
15:33Mostly I remember the last one.
15:35A wild finish.
15:37A guy standing on a station platform
15:39in the rain with a comical look in his face
15:41because his insides had been kicked out.
15:43It turned out she had just discovered
15:45her husband, Laszlo, was still alive
15:47and had escaped the concentration camp
15:50in which she thought he'd died.
15:51A resistance leader, Laszlo is arrested,
15:54but Rick saves him and promises
15:56to get him to America
15:57while Ilsa stays with him in Casablanca.
15:59But in an iconic twist,
16:01Rick tells Ilsa to go with Laszlo,
16:03nobly sacrificing his happiness
16:05for the war effort.
16:06But what about us?
16:09We'll always have Paris.
16:10We didn't have, we lost it
16:12until you came to Casablanca.
16:14We got it back last night.
16:16When I said I would never leave you.
16:19And you never will.
16:20Which other devastating ending
16:22from classic Hollywood
16:23still hits hard to this day?
16:24Let us know in the comments down below.
16:26Let us know in the comments below.