An electric chair, a traveling executioner, and the price of mercy in the Deep South, 1918.
THE TRAVELING EXECUTIONER
1918: The year this man traveled the South with a portable electric chair.
Jonas Candide performs his job as state executioner in early 20th century Mississippi like a combination preacher and carnival barker, persuading condemned men to accept their deaths before electrocuting them on his electric chair. After he's assigned his first woman to execute, however, Jonas' sense of purpose is shaken.
Quick Answer
The Traveling Executioner is a 1970 American comedy-drama western directed by Jack Smight about Jonas Candide, a roving executioner in 1918 Mississippi who faces a moral crisis when assigned to execute a female inmate.
Programmer's Pick
Electric chairs on wheels, a death row romance, and a protagonist who could sell you a miracle or your own last rites—this is the revisionist western at its weirdest. Stacy Keach’s Jonas Candide brings a preacher’s patter and a carny’s hustle to capital punishment, making existential dread look almost like show business.
— SassyFlix Programmer
Overview
Why This Matters
This 1970 comedy-drama Western, directed by Jack Smight and starring Stacy Keach, later inspired the musical The Fields of Ambrosia, marking its influence beyond film into stage adaptations.
Cast & Crew
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Why Cult
Jonas Candide’s traveling execution business—complete with his own electric chair—makes for a uniquely unorthodox western premise.
The film’s plot pivots on Jonas’s relationship with Gundred, a female death row inmate, injecting twisted romance into the gallows.
Stacy Keach’s executioner delivers his 'service' with a mix of carnival showmanship and preacherly gravitas, making every scene a bizarre sermon.
Set in 1918 Mississippi with references to World War I, brothels, and Southern corruption, the film subverts classic western tropes.
Scene Gallery
Questions from the Vault
Who directed The Traveling Executioner? +
The Traveling Executioner was directed by Jack Smight.
How long is The Traveling Executioner? +
The Traveling Executioner has a runtime of 95 minutes.
What genre is The Traveling Executioner? +
The Traveling Executioner is a comedy, drama, and western.
Where can I watch The Traveling Executioner? +
You can watch The Traveling Executioner on SassyFlix.
How does Jonas Candide attempt to fake an execution? +
Jonas tries to enlist the prison physician, Doc Prittle, to simulate Gundred’s execution, but the cost is so high that Jonas is forced into gambling and pimping to raise the necessary funds.
What is unique about Jonas Candide's role as an executioner? +
Jonas travels with his own electric chair from prison to prison, performing executions with theatrical flair and charging $100 per death.
