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.
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steveo12219 March 2018
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merklekranz25 January 2017This is not your average "black comedy". The subject, electric chair executions, is dark, there is no "feel good" ending, and the entire film teeters on bad taste. Nevertheless this is certainly fertile ground for some dark comedic moments. The acting is especially good for what had to be a daring MGM low budget film that was likely to have difficulty finding an audience. Practically unseen for many years, the remastered edition DVD from the Warner Brothers Archive Collection looks great. Stacy Keach is convincing as the sympathetic executioner. Marianna Hill barely makes an impression as the condemned love interest. Bud Cort, M. Emmet Walsh, and Charles Tyner appear in supporting roles. "The Travelling Executioner" is a somewhat unpredictable, somewhat uneven, "black comedy" that deserves cult status because of the daring subject matter. - MERK
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AAdaSC17 May 2017and 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! -
newnoir8 February 2015One 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! -
mark-lonsdale-119 September 2008This film was released in the UK on video as I have a copy I bought from a video seller many years ago. It is a rare film though as I'd never seen a copy for sale before and only isolated copies on amazon since, selling for something ridiculous like £85! It's an interesting film, with good music, but like a lot of the science fiction films from around this era, overall it just doesn't quite work. Would never get made now though - and certainly not like this, so perhaps I should be glad it got made at all. Keach very good in the central role. After all your good reviews, I'll give it another look. If anyone would like a copy of the film email me and maybe I could sort one out for you. mark.lonsdale@ntlworld.com
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stedder-2684625 October 2022There's an entry in the Goofs column saying that the generator rig was impossible, because there was no source of power for the generator. But the truck has a gas engine, and power take-offs for farm machinery were common in those days. A shaft could run from the engine and drive a belt on the generator easily. Power take-offs are used on farm machinery to this day, and people are regularly injured coming too close to the rotating shaft.
Other than that, the movie is a typical 70s flick, and even has Bud Cort in the cast, the mark of a real 70s black comedy. Stacy Keach gives a fine performance as the executioner who comforts the guest of honor with a BS spiel about the paradise he's going to, similar to what some major religions believe even today. -
boblipton24 May 2022Stacy Keach used to be a convict, then he was a convict. Now in the second decade of the 20th Century, he travels around with his portable electric chair, offering the latest in death sentences throughout the state. He takes what he does seriously, offering comfort to his clients, and passing on the wisdom he has learned in his profession. Business is good, and Bud Cort wants to learn what he does. Then he falls for one of his clients, Marianna Hill, and his life takes a nasty turn.
It's directed by Jack Smight, and you'd expect him to do a bang-up job with what is obviously a black comedy. There's a hole in the script, though: there's no one in the movie to be the audience's mediator, and so it becomes not a comedy, but philippic, a denouncing of capital punishment. Perhaps the hole isn't in the script, but the performances; everyone is serious about what's going on, particularly Keach. He gives a bang-up performance, but there's no sense of madness other than the society. It's scolding, rather than darkly funny. -
shepardjessica23 June 2004This 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. -
gregory-8119 December 2005This 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. -
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.
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Dario_the_2nd20 December 2003A 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!
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tiwannae21 May 2005Made up of a good story line and cast, I was so happy to find a copy of this film. Also, I am researching the career of Bud Cort, and I knew that there was more to him as an actor than what I saw in "Harold and Maude". He speaks in an adorable southern accent, playing an dedicated but somewhat disillusioned mortician, Jimmy Croft. As one of his best films giving him one of his best supporting roles, I would highly recommend this film. I hope that it ends up on DVD someday.
Interestingly, regarding Bud Cort, I noticed that Stacy Keach, and in a smaller role, Charles Tyner, played in other films with Bud: "Brewster McCloud" (Keach, as 'Abraham Wright') and "Harold and Maude" (Tyner, as 'Uncle Victor'). -
This is an exceptionally difficult movie to see. As others have noted, it has not received a DVD release, and the VHS video is difficult to track down and probably prohibitively expensive if found.
I saw it just the once, on TV, about ten years ago, but it made a strong impression on me. Stacy Keach gives a very brilliant performance as that most paradoxical of beings: a likable, humane executioner. He is ably supported by Bud Cort who adds his undertaker character to the gallery of eccentric young men that were his early stock in trade.
I also recall the general atmosphere of levity, a failure to take the central theme of the movie - death - very seriously. This is possibly explained by the fact that in 1970 (or, more probably 1969, when the film is likely to have gone into production) the death penalty itself probably seemed to have become a permanent relic of the past, unlikely to be employed again as the United States joined most of the developed world in rejecting it de facto if not yet de jure. (This abolition was only confirmed in 1972, and was short lived, as it happened.) The movie - although much blacker in its comedy - has a similar feel to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (or its TV doppelgaenger, "Alias Smith and Jones"). In these, the Wild West had been somehow not merely domesticated, but suburbanised, and there was an overlay of late 60s/early 70s Southern Californian sensibilities on the period setting. "The Traveling Executioner" does something similar to the Deep South of the late 1910s.
The return of capital punishment in the U.S. in the late 1970s (and its mounting use in the 80s and 90s) is likely to distort the perceptions of those too young to remember the atmosphere of the time in which the movie was made, when its black humour appeared to be excused by the fact that the actual horrors of execution that it so lightheartedly depicted seemed unlikely to reappear. -
RodrigAndrisan7 March 2021The kind of movie that will become your favorite of all movies ever. And this is primarily due to the lead actor, Stacy Keach, one of the best of all time. I've seen him in great films like: "Brewster McCloud"(1970), "Fat City"(1972), "The New Centurions"(1972), "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" (1972), "All the Kind Strangers"(1974), "Slave of the Cannibal God"(1978), "The Long Riders"(1980), "Mistral's Daughter"(1984), "False Identity"(1990), "Body Bags"(1993). Marianna Hill, very sensual in the role of the death row inmate, with whom Stacy Keach falls in love. James Sloyan, convincing in the role of a vicious guard, and M. Emmet Walsh is very funny in the role of head of the prison, especially in the scene when his naked ass is seen. The film is absolutely a delicious masterpiece, everything is superlative, the actors, the script, the direction, the music, everything. A movie of millions!
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desund200127 December 2006I have been searching for The Traveling Executioner. It doesn't seem to be on VHS or DVD. I saw many years ago once on TV, and the "Fields of Ambrosia" still come to mind. I want to have my son be able to see this movie that meant so much and stayed in my mind all these years. I hope demand may make someone decide to get this film out so it can be seen. My words cannot make the film come alive for my son. I think this is one of Stacy Keach's best performances and the tenderness of the story is profound. The atmosphere captured in the film and the WWI anti German atmoshpere that was happening at that time is spot on. The Executions truck is strong in my memory. Bud Cort as the sidekick for Stacy and then the person to move Stacy's character on to the fields of ambrosia was incredibly touching. I hope to see this film again.
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plmarbes17 May 2004Spoiler
I saw this movie on television quite a long time ago. I think it was one of the best movies Stacy Keach acted in. My brother and I had many laughs during the film. The setting was in the very early 1900's when prisons didn't have electric chairs yet. Keach played this man who had an old van type truck with an electric generator and chair for executing prisoners on death row. He has an apprentice who goes with him to learn the trade. Keach ends up on death row after murdering a woman. At the end his apprentice has to execute him. I always remember the line he blurts out when he is finally strapped in. "O.K., Willie, fry me while I'm hot!" I would like very much to find a copy on VHS or DVD if anyone has one. I thought of contacting a TV station to see if they could air it some night. I think it would be a great seller! -
DickHodgson5 March 2003Great movie, loved every minute. Thought the story and plot were very original and the film was well done. I have been trying to locate a copy of this movie for 15 years without success, as I liked it that much. Anyone who knows how to get a copy of the movie (not music track) please email me . Thanks
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zog-316 November 1998An 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 -
The story of "The Traveling Executioner" is quirky and original, but recommended only if you wish to see the performances of Bud Cort or Stacey Keach. Otherwise, the story tends to progress slowly, not enticing me to have repeated viewings. Interesting, though, is to contemplate why the character of Bud Cort would want to follow in Steach's character's profession.
Despite the film not being the best in Cort's oeuvre, it was wonderful to see him in a large supporting role, which came scarcely after having been type-casted. His performance is excellent, as always, being able to rise above the material. He gives his character an appealing, amiable on-screen personality (opposite of the demure Harold Chasen he portrayed in "Harold and Maude"). -
fedor84 August 2018There must be a logical explanation why this movie is completely overlooked, and why it's been one of the hardest-to-find American films for decades. Although, the latter may well be directly related, at least somewhat, to why this is a complete unknown to most people, even film buffs. I've had it sitting on my waiting list since the 90s; no other movie has eluded me for that long, especially not in the era of free downloads. There were times I was questioning the very existence of this film - that's how impossible it was to find.
Maybe it was a box-office flop, as so many good and great movies are/were, but then again many financial duds get TV re-runs, over and over and over, have their own special DVD/BluRay releases even, so that alone certainly wouldn't explain much. Is it too wild and experimental? Not at all. (In fact, that would only make the movie more appealing for the lunatic fringe, which is always growing, especially among snowflake millennials filled with helpless sadistic rage and aggression.) Is it some odd hence rare example of Hollywood making a politically incorrect movie that doesn't suit movie fans accustomed to political propaganda? No. Is the movie some kind of stereotypical boring commercial fluff with little appeal value to any demographic? Far from it.
The theme may be quite original and there is no movie quite like it, but this is basically a slightly off-the-wall comedy that almost anyone should be able to enjoy. (Or perhaps I'd been watching Monty Python for so long that my sense of the "normal" in terms of comedy is a little skewered.) Having never read the synopsis beforehand - combined with the cult status it "enjoys" as an unfindable movie - lead me to half-expect some bizarre "New Hollywood" LSD trip with gore, which would have explained a lot, but that's not what this is about at all. It is in many ways a typical movie of its period (the best period in cinema): original, wonderfully shot, and unique.
If there is one flaw, it would be the predictability of Keach getting some poetic (in)justice by landing on his own chair. I saw that coming well in advance. Nevertheless, in the film's defense, there are one or two plot-twists right after that, which cement the quality and fun factor of TTE.