The Executioner (1963) on Netflix
Amadeo is an executioner in Madrid, close to retirement. His daughter Carmen loses suitors when they learn her father's trade, and José Luis, an undertaker, meets the same rejection.
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- Netflix2.5/5
- IMDb7.9/108,308 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
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Plot summary
Carmen, the daughter of an executioner named Amadeo, has no suitors: men who court her leave once they learn what her father does for a living. José Luis works in a funeral parlor and knows the same rejection, since women turn away when they hear of his trade. He comes to collect a prisoner's body after an execution, and there he meets Amadeo. José Luis and Carmen begin a relationship, and when she becomes pregnant they tell her father. Amadeo, a civil servant, hopes the government will give him an apartment, but it is refused because by the time the flat is granted he will already be retired. He and Carmen press José Luis to take the executioner's post when Amadeo retires, and they assure him that he will not have to kill anyone.
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Executioner (1963)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The final scene is based on the 1959 Valencia execution of poisoner Pilar Prades Expósito, unwillingly carried out by executioner Antonio López Sierra, who was plied with brandy; years later, José Monero took the same job expecting never to act and had to execute Heinz Ches in 1974.
- The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1963 Venice Film Festival, and Spain's ambassador to Italy, Sánchez Vega, denounced it as "communist" while Francoist Spain was under international pressure over the death sentence of Communist leader Julián Grimau.
