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!

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.

Made 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').

SpoilerI 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!