After years of idle duty, the official executioner decides to retire, but first he must appoint a successor who will collect his state salary and, if luck has it, marry his desirable daughter. A squeamish undertaker, José Luis (played to the hilt by Nino Manfredi) finds his head in this double-knotted noose, succumbing, after much compromise, to this grim profession and its husbandly benefits. José Luis lives a life of domestic denial-hoping the death penalty won't be employed-until the noose tightens. Berlanga's masterpiece is a dark comedy backlit by the knowledge that in Franco's regime execution was the penalty of choice. This is gallows humor until the bottom falls out, then it's tragedy.