Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1963
The Executioner (1963 film)
Buy The Executioner (1963 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'The Executioner' is a 1963 Spanish black comedy film directed by Luis Garca Berlanga. It was filmed in black and white, and is widely considered a classic of Spanish cinema. The film won several awards, both in Spain and internationally.
Plot
Amadeo, an executioner in Madrid, meets Jos Luis, a funeral parlour employee who is going to pick up the prisoner that Amadeo has just executed. Jos Luis cannot find a girlfriend, since all girls leave him when they find out that he works in a funeral parlour. Amadeo's daughter, Carmen, cannot find a boyfriend, because all the candidates leave when they find out that her father is an executioner. Carmen and Jos Luis get to know each other and start a relationship that they declare to Amadeo when Carmen becomes pregnant.
Amadeo hopes that the government will give him a flat (given that he is a civil servant), but they refuse it because by the time they give it to him, he will be retired. He and his daughter trick Jos Luis into accepting the role of executioner to keep the housing, assuring him that he won't have to kill anybody. When an order arrives for an execution in Mallorca, Jos Luis is horrified and wants to resign, but this would mean losing the flat and returning the salary he has earned. Amadeo and Carmen tell him to wait until the final moment, since the prisoner is ill and will surely die before being executed. In the end, Jos Luis is dragged to the execution in despair, as if he were the convict instead of the executioner.
Cast
*Nino Manfredi as Jos Luis Rodrguez, the undertaker
*Emma Penella as Carmen, the daughter of Amadeo
*Jos Isbert as Amadeo, the executioner (as Jose Isbert)
*Jos Luis Lpez Vzquez as Antonio Rodrguez, the older brother of Jos Luis
*ngel lvarez as lvarez, an undertaker, Rodrguez's colleague (as Angel Alvarez)
*Guido Alberti as director of the prison
*Julia Caba Alba as Mujer visitante de la obra n 2
*Mara Luisa Ponte as Estefana (as Maria Luisa Ponte)
*Mara Isbert as Ignacia (as Maria Isbert)
*Erasmo Pascual
*Xan das Bolas as Guarda de la obra
*Jos Orjas (as Jose Orjas)
*Jos Mara Prada (as Jose Maria Prada)
*Flix Fernndez as Monaguillo n 2 (as Felix Fernandez)
*Antonio Ferrandis
Real events
The final scene is inspired by the execution of Pilar Prades Expsito, carried out by the executioner Antonio Lpez Sierra. Curiously, years after, Jos Monero also accepted the role of executioner, convinced that he wouldn't have to act, and wanted to resign when he was required for the execution of Heinz Ches, which he eventually carried out.
Awards
Director Luis Garca Berlanga won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice Film Festival for the film.
At that moment, Francoist Spain was under international pressure because of the death sentence for the Communist leader Julin Grimau.
The Spanish ambassador to Italy, Snchez Vega, criticized the film as "communist."
Box office and reception
The film took an estimated gross of ESP 4,107,300 in Spain and there were some 32,907 in cinemas across the country.
Buy The Executioner (1963 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1963