Der Henker

It is often true that the best comedies are those which hide (or should I say show) terrible pathos and anguish beneath their comic skin. Billy Wilder, for example, has often been praised for his mastery of this art, in films such as The Apartment and The Fortune Cookie.

So has Berlanga, who is undisputedly the gratest comedy writer/director in Spanish film history, and one of the best of Europe. And his masterpiece, El Verdugo, is such an awesome tour de force of his talents that it never ceases to amaze, even after repeated viewings.

El Verdugo is a comedy, yet it is probably the most moving and powerful anti-death penalty story ever written. It achieves this by showing the act of killing a person as what it is, such an unnatural and repulsive thing that for most of us it would be impossible to perform. And, as an executioner, that is exactly the role that Jose Luis (Nino Manfredi) sees himself thrown into. The situation is seen by Berlanga not only as dramatic, but also absurd, and all of Jose's antics and ploys to avoid ever having to do his job are also so absurd that they are comical, and very much so. But the viewer also simpathizes with him because we instantly understand the horror of his situation, the dreadful Damocles' sword that hangs over his head. Both the comedy and the drama go hand in hand right until the devastating ending of the film, one of the most memorable and tragic scenes ever comitted to celluloid.

Giving it a 10 out of 10 still seems short to me. PLEASE see this film if you can, you will never forget it.

Luis García Berlanga's El Verdugo (The Executioner) was recently named the second greatest Spanish film of all time yet it still remains unknown to many non-Spanish people. Perhaps the reason it's so unknown is due to the fact that it was released during the Spanish dictatorship lead by General Franco and this did not permit it to get an international recognition and viewing. Whatever the reason, it's a pity that this little treasure of a film can not get the international recognition it deserves. It's one of the great black comedies I have seen, a fierce yet hilarious critique on the death penalty. Berlanga's inspiration is Franco's regime which practised it, but it has a universal appeal.

Filled with memorable gags, the story starts with Jose Luís (Nino Manfredi), an undertaker who is thinking of moving to Germany to become a good mechanic. In love with Carmen, daughter of Amadeo (José Isbert), an executioner, he is one day discovered by her father during there moment of intimacy and is forced to marry her – the undertaker marries an executioner's daughter. Jose Luís is faced with economic difficulties and the urgent need to create a new home for his new wife. The only way of solving this problem, it seems, would be accepting his father in law's offer (Amadeo): to take the vacant place of executioner Amadeo is leaving due to retirement. Only this way will he get a home. Under pressure from his surrounding, Jose Luís accepts the job convinced that he will never have to put it into practise. Life goes on pleasantly in his new home until one day he receives the feared telegram: he must execute a convicted man.

The story, filmed in a black and white photography that feels so fresh, sounds serious because below the comical surface, lies not only the serious subject matter of death penalty but also the wide spread pessimism caused by Franco's regime. Director Berlange could have chosen to tell the story as sad drama but he doesn't: in a way, he is laughing at the absurd logic and inhumanity he feels the death sentence is. The film's true brilliance lies not in the wonderful all around performances, but in its screenplay that takes on a comic tone that is apparently inoffensive to condemn an action that is just as inhuman as those committed by the executed. And the great irony is that the executioner goes through much worse emotionally than the executed in a great sequence. The movie looks with amusement at the idea of how those who execute can go on there days with a calm conscience. But don't get the wrong idea, El Verdugo does not portray the condemned as victims – it is not interested in there guilt or innocence. The only victims, it suggests, are those that accept to practise inhumanity under the name of justice. There are so many brilliant comical sequences that have nothing to admire from the exhausted and cheap comedies we get from many of the films nowadays.

This is a film that will certainly be less appealing to those in favour of the death penalty. For those who do not which to dwell on such a subject can look at it on its simplest level, which is that of a first rate comical masterpiece.

This is a real treat, a keenly observed, merry black comedy of life for a mild-mannered undertaker turned unwilling hangman. Every scene is filled with small observations and asides that add something memorable, and every bit character in every scene tosses in some little bit of "business" that is not necessary for the plot, but enriches it and deepens the believability of the world in which it is set.

Watching this made me think on how, if this film had been made at the same time outside of Europe, the British would have probably made it as a crass Carry On movie, and the Americans would most likely have turned it into a Jerry Lewis vehicle, without any subtlety, thoughtfulness, sensuality, societal commentary or beauty, and yet this is funnier than any of those put together, too.

The wedding scene is hilarious, with so much going on at every moment outside of the dialogue, and the "wave to daddy" line on the docks is priceless.

It's always a comedy, and yet one in which the viewer is never allowed to escape the oppressive moral weight of taking another's life, and the inability to look away from this increases as it goes along, until the ending borders on harrowing.

It's a film that really should be as well known as some of those by Fellini, and I'm eager now to see more by its mischevious writer and director, Luis Garcia Berlanga.

The Executioner's plot is simple: after his father-in-law retires, a man must take over his role as an executioner in order to preserve the family's state-leased apartment, but he hates the job. It's not a flashy film. There's no nudity, violence, or special effects. It's hard to say there's even anything like a serious plot twist. Instead, it's just an excellently scripted and well-designed satire.

From the beginning of the movie, Jose Luis is a weak-willed man. He talks of wanting to go to Germany to become a mechanic, but instead stays in his day job as an undertaker. Although he seems to find the state executioner's job repellent, Jose Luis ends up sleeping with the executioner's daughter, possibly because no one else will date an undertaker. From there, he winds up applying to become the next executioner - notwithstanding his own numerous objections - in order to keep the family in a nice, new state-owned apartment. When he's finally called up to execute a man, Jose Luis gets cajoled by his father-in-law and wife (who wants a vacation) to go consider it at the site rather than resign. Once he's finally there - in one of the film's best scenes - Jose Luis gets egged on even more by the prison warden after he tries to resign at the site. By the end, Jose Luis somehow finds himself having done exactly what he said he wouldn't do. His comfortable wife seems not to care.

The Executioner doesn't have a lot of out-loud laughs, but it's very funny. It manages to achieve great situational irony without descending into slapstick; it's an absurd plot that feels totally believable. Throughout, there are a number of memorable scenes, and the dialogue usually is witty and excellent. It's a movie that somehow manages to satirize capital punishment - with clever commentary along the way, particularly about state bureaucracy - without coming across as political or partisan. Overall, The Executioner is well worth a watch.

Here we have a tragicomedy about executions released in 1963, when executions and censorship did still exist in Spain. How did they do it...? I only can say... using their imagination. It has a really brilliant story, and a screenplay that combines in a so wise way the comic and dramatic/tragic aspects of the story. Also, the actors know at every moment what to do. As a result we find a really funny film, a really sad film... and a perfect recreation of the reaction of common people to a hard and dangerous epoque. A masterpiece in my opinion.