Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999) on Netflix
PG-1319991h 31mBiographyDocumentary
Fred A. Leuchter Jr. claimed he once saw an execution in an electric chair. He judged American prison chairs unsafe and ineffective, and many states adopted the modifications he designed.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.5/106,001 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Fred A. Leuchter Jr. is an execution technician. His father was a corrections officer, and through family associations he claimed he witnessed a death carried out in an electric chair. He came away believing the chairs used by American prisons were unsafe and often ineffective, and the changes he designed were adopted by many states. He had no formal training in the field, yet other prisons asked him to advise on further ways of putting a person to death, among them gas chambers, hanging and lethal injection, and he taught himself those methods.
Cast
- Caroline Leuchteras Herself (voice)
- James Rothas Himself - Analytical Chemist
- Suzanne Tabaskyas Herself
- Ernst Zündelas Himself
- Daniel Polsbyas Re-enactment cast
- Jeff Brownas Re-enactment cast
- Robert Duerras Re-enactment cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Morris was not fond of the film's title and had wanted to name it “Honeymoon in Auschwitz”, which is, in fact, what Leuchter had done.
- When Morris originally screened an early version of the film for a Harvard University film class, he found that the students reacted either by believing Leuchter's side of the story, or by condemning the film as a piece of Holocaust denial.
- Errol Morris re-edited the film to include additional interviews with people who condemn Leuchter with varying intensity. Morris said this last part should have been unnecessary, since to him Leuchter was so obviously misguided in much of what he says in the film.
