Hearses, funeral coaches, casket carriages, dead wagons – whatever you call them, these vehicles are an object of fascination. In this collection of film and television clips, @Gail Rubin presents Hearses Through History. The various body disposition vehicles featured include the humble plague cart, horse-drawn hearses, and automobiles from several eras.
These clips come from the following films and television programs. You can get the DVDs or streaming version through these Amazon affiliate links by clicking on the title:
Six Feet Under from HBO (first episode and later in the five-season series) Get the full series.
Monty Python and The Holy Grail (“Bring out your dead!”)
Amadeus (Spoiler alert – Mozart dies at the end)
The Magnificent Seven (“Never rode shotgun on a hearse before.”)
Wild Strawberries (classic Ingmar Bergman film with creepy runaway horse-drawn hearse scene)
A funeral director vocational training film from the 1940s, featuring a side-loading funeral coach door where the pallbearers line up at the side of the vehicle.
Death at a Funeral (U.K. version with a British hearse)
Harold and Maude (featuring two hearses, a classic 1950s Cadillac and the Jaguar that Harold turns into a mini-hearse)
Diamonds are Forever (1971 funeral coach in Las Vegas, Nevada)
Get Low (features a 1938 automobile hearse)
Grand Theft Parsons (Meet Bernice, a Cadillac Superior Royale funeral coach)
And lastly, a visit with Robert Durant, a funeral coach dealer with a top-of-the-line model with a great sound system! View the full video here:
Watch this video about how Ken Roberts made this recreation of the Jaguar hearse from Harold and Maude.
