The Traveling Executioner

An unusual movie about a vanished type of tradesman who like the iceman, buggy whip maker, milkman, and fuller brush man has gone from the American scene. Formerly this type of tradesman traveled about the south with his truck, switchboard, genarator, and of course electric chair

exeucutin' folks who wuz on death row yeah! Stacy Keach plays such a' one in this 1970 "gallows~humor" tradgi~comedy

One of the great forgotten cinematic gems of yesteryear! From 1970, a young, whipcord fit, badass Stacy Keach stars as Jonas Candide, a traveling executioner who cruises the American South with his beloved portable electric chair, pulling the switch on murderers and thieves in 1918. Keach is shockingly good as he gets caught up in a scheme to save the life of a beautiful German woman slated for execution.

Keach's trademark facial scar is on full display here, not obscured by a mustache as it would be almost forevermore in later films. It adds something to the role, like a tiny crack in an otherwise perfect human statue. The film also features character actor Bud Cort in an early role.

The opening and finale scenes where Keach delivers Jonas' Fields of Ambrosia monologues are some of the best in 1970s cinema, and Jonas Candide is one of the great characters of Seventies film, he's a drunkard, a womanizer, a liar, a glutton, (the massive meal Candide sits down to eat after an execution has to be seen to be believed, massive plates of biscuits, Canadian bacon and Darwin knows what else) yet beneath it all he has a heart, Jonas, like the film, is darkly funny and darkly lovable.

Fantastically directed by Jack Smight, with a fine score by Jerry Goldsmith, and the seemingly only feature film screenplay credit by forgotten rebel screenwriter Garrie Bateson.

If there ever was a Traveling Time Traveler, a jump back into the wayback machine could correct the travesty of not nominating this film for Oscars for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture in 1970!

This hard-to-find cool little film starring Stacy Keach is really special. A great performance by Keach (along with other early films of his, such as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Fat City, Judge Roy Bean, Brewster McCloud, and The Dion Brothers) and a fascinating study of this quirky traveling man who pushed his luck. Why is this not on video or DVD?

Before Keach became a Hollywood hack (with the exception of Long Riders) he made a series of films that showed the tremendous promise he had on stage. After the TV show Caribe he seemed to slide into obscurity except for Mike Hammer. This is a charming film that slipped under the radar in 1970 and is well worth your time. An 8 out of 10.

This here thing purely is an oddity. This is most definitely a Stacy Keach movie and most definitely a 'southern period wacky black comedy' product of 1970. Despite the absurdity of the plot, the writers keep it on point. Might be a good companion piece to "The Ninth Configuration" 1980. If for no other reason than a young M. Emmet Walsh at work.

I saw this film in Mexico around 1971 and I was so mesmerized by Stacy Keach's performance as a very eccentric traveling electrocutioner hired by Southern prisons to do the dirty deed. His hypnotic presentations to the condemned prisoners were heavenly and sublime as he always captured their attention by taking them to the "Fields of Ambrosia". I do remember thinking back then (1971) that these prisoners were being given a lot more than their warden ever bargained for. This was back in time when Soylent Green had come out and Edward G. Robinson was accepting the gift promised if he went along with assisted suicide. (This was set in the future when there was not enough food for the population and his remains would be used for processed food for people.) His quid pro quo was to watch pictures of all the extinct wildlife and other ecstatic beautiful scenes that no longer existed and nobody had had the privilege to ever see). Stacy Keach made the imminent execution so painless, that you would have thought the prisoners were wanting to die and experience the "Fields of Ambrosia". I am 70 years old and I do not go to many current movies any more as they are without art, taste, merit, etc, but I wonder why those who control the release of this movie won't let us old timers see it some more.