Factual error: This movie is set in 1935. Back then, executions were done by hanging. The Louisiana Legislature changed the method from hanging to electrocution in 1940.
Factual error: The cell keys carried by the guards do not date to 1935.
Factual error: When Paul returns home, his wife asks him what the doctor said. He replies "...gobbledygook mostly." The trouble is, the word "gobbledygook" wasn't coined until 1944. This scene takes place in 1935.
Suggested correction: How can you tell his jaw is slack when he had a hood over it the entire time?
lartaker1975
I have the movie and during Del's execution, the hood is partially burned off. After he finally dies, his jaw is completely slack.
I also have the movie and can confirm that not only is Del's jaw slack but, when the hood is burned off it looks like most of his face has been burned off leaving nothing but a skull. Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh3u3Kqdynw.
Suggested correction: Rigor mortis can occur as quickly as 2 hours after death. One of the first muscles of the body to stiffen is the jaw. It also depends on the age of the deceased and calcium amount.
lionhead
Suggested correction: The guards would have done what they could to make his remains less grotesque. Closing his jaw is probably one of their regular duties.
MovieFan612 ★
Once the body dies, muscles can not constrict, and they relax. A guard could never close the jaw or mouth after death anymore than he could close a dead man's eyes shortly after death. That's a movie myth.
Bishop73