I would consider "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots" to be one of the earliest exploitational films. It has very little merit or substance and was made simply to shock audiences--and according to IMDb, it did!
The film is only about 15-20 seconds long! It consists of a lady laying her head on the chopping block and the executioner hacking her head off and showing it to the onlookers. However, it isn't at all historically accurate--as they did not use an axe but a French Sword for such executions and it would have been done on the grounds of the Tower of London and there would have been a scaffold. Additionally, it took a couple swings to mostly sever her head and the remaining sinew needed to be cut with a sharp knife!! In the film, there was just a quick swing of the blade.
So, what we have is a mostly historically inaccurate production. In some ways, being inaccurate was better as the real execution was a bloody mess! But it's interesting simply to see what passed as entertainment in the very early days of cinema.
The film is only about 15-20 seconds long! It consists of a lady laying her head on the chopping block and the executioner hacking her head off and showing it to the onlookers. However, it isn't at all historically accurate--as they did not use an axe but a French Sword for such executions and it would have been done on the grounds of the Tower of London and there would have been a scaffold. Additionally, it took a couple swings to mostly sever her head and the remaining sinew needed to be cut with a sharp knife!! In the film, there was just a quick swing of the blade.
So, what we have is a mostly historically inaccurate production. In some ways, being inaccurate was better as the real execution was a bloody mess! But it's interesting simply to see what passed as entertainment in the very early days of cinema.