A dark, dark comedy.
It reminded me a little of Ida Lupino's The Bigamist. Through a complex set of circumstances, a young fellow is forced to do something no right-minded person would agree to.
Good-looking young Spaniard Jose can't find a girlfriend because of his job as an undertaker. He's hired to remove the body of an executed criminal from the prison. He and his partner give the executioner a ride home and he meets his daughter who can't find a man because of her father's ghastly occupation.
Soon, the couple has to get married. Because the bride's father is retiring, the only way they can keep their apartment is for Jose to get a government job as an executioner himself which he really, really doesn't want to do.
If you're willing to do it, you only have to work a few days a year. There are a couple of executioners in the movie and they seem like nice guys.
We learn that Spain under Franco executed prisoners by strangulation with a garrotte. The older man argues that this is far better than America's electric chair or the French guillotine. Even now, Arizona is "refurbishing" its gas chamber, preparing for executions.
Available on The Criterion Channel.
Make it a double feature. Watch it with Season 1 Episode 32 of Bonanza, "Death at Dawn" (1960). The Cartwrights blithely take it upon themselves to execute an especially obnoxious prisoner (Gregory Walcott) after the sheriff is killed. The episode is public domain so it shouldn't be hard to find.
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