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The Executioner (El Verdugo)

Luis García Berlanga
Spain / 1963 / 91 mins. / Spanish with English subtitles

Berlanga’s most elegant film tells the story of a funeral-home employee who marries a government executioner’s daughter and – in order to get an apartment – agrees to take over his father-in-law’s job with the hope of never actually having to perform it. El verdugo is a farce or domestic comedy filled with macabre touches and scenes of black humor in which the taboos associated with death are transgressed. Even the actual mode of execution is the subject of morbid jokes as the executioner, who garrots his victims, measures the neck size of his future son-in-law. 

Through a savagely black humorous tone, The Executioner is a vehement condemnation of the death penalty, which caused the Spanish government to try (unsuccessfully) to stop it being screened at the Venice Festival and later to make numerous cuts.

Luís García Berlanga was born in Valencia (1928). in 1951 he directed (together with Bardem) the film That happy couple  (1953). After being expelled from the Falange, he started to adopt an individualistic and libertarian position. Berlanga and Bardem collaborate on Welcome Mr. Marshall! (1953); this film received an International award and a Special Mention award at the Cannes Festival. Berlanga's conceptual and political audacity continued in his other films during the 50s. In fact, his film Miracles on Thursday (1957), was modified by the censors and was delayed for several years before its eventual release. In 1956 he filmed Calabuch . With Placido (1961) received an Oscar nomination in 1963. That same year, Berlanga made of his best films: The executioner (1963). After Franco's death, he filmed a trilogy comprising La escopeta Nacional (1978), National Heritage (1981) and National III (1982).