The Traveling Executioner

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 movie made a huge impact when I saw it in the theater. I was a tough (or so I thought) eighteen year old young man here in Vancouver when I saw it in 1970. I think that it might have played for a week.

I loved the humanity and charm that Stacy Keach brought to the executioner's role. I remember the loving way that he would sooth the fears of the condemned as they faced the terrors to come. It was a job that had to be done, and if he was the one to do it, he demanded craftsmanship and style.

The ending caught a deep nerve and I cried as I left and walked home. (It remains the only film that I can say that about). It is amazing how a film that is almost unknown has remained so brilliant in my mind.

I suspect that I might give it a higher rating if I ever saw it again.

and the Lord taketh away. Stacy Keach (Jonas) is the good-natured psychopath who travels around America in his van performing an usual ceremony. He's the travelling executioner and transports his own electric chair around with him to each gig. He straps in the victim, provides a kindly speech and then flicks the switch. Then, it's a big meal and on to the next appointment. One day, it's a woman who is due to die and this seriously upsets Keach's routine. He likes her. Can he save her?

This is a dark comedy. The music is comedy music, Keach's performance keeps you smiling and there are funny episodes. One example is the scene where Keach procures a van load of prostitutes to hire out to inmates so that he can raise some money for a ludicrous plan to bring the condemned Mariana Hill (Gundred) back to life after the event. Doctor Graham Jarvis (Brittle) is the doctor who Keach is relying on for this experiment that works with rats.

Out of the cast, other than Keach, the standout performance is by sadistic warden James Sloyan (Piquant). He is the blueprint for the character in "The Green Mile" (1999) – you'll know the one I mean. There are two things to take from this film. Firstly, women are trouble. Secondly, if anyone starts talking about the Field of Ambrosia to you, get out of there fast!

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!

A short word on this marvelous rare to find movie; Well what can I say, except we find here a Stacy Keatch in what my humble opinion may be, one of his greatest roles ever put by him onto screen. He's an executioner who gets paid 100 bucks for each execution. The year we're in is 1918 South states of America. `The traveling executioner' is a black comedy love-story with a western undertone. It's the music that creates that pleasure full funny western feeling. What for sure is marvelous in this movie. The moment he's starting philosophizing to the condemned to death by his electric chair are `quality moments' in this movie. Not even to mention the funny truck he drives thru the country to visit every possible jail to for fill his task. The conversations are sometimes hilarious. Example, the moment he rents out hookers to some inmates. They each have to pay him, and on the amount they pay, he decides how much time they get.

Executioner, `Well for this you get room 5 and 4 minutes'. Inmate, `What kinda cover can I shoot in 4 min?' Executioner, `Well you gat from now 4 minutes, so start shooting'.

So the humor is one of a kind, and the love tale is great. `The contract killer badly in love with his victim'. The story goes on to a strange, though org. road. I try not to spoil too much, but will the executioner exchange his chair for her life, or will he even meet his own electric chair for real by trying to save her. Well it is a fact he doesn't leave any way unexplored to rescue her from her death sentence. Are you in for a funny black romantic comedy movie. With a superb, strong acting Stacey Keatch go for this one, for sure a must see!

Dario/