El Verdugo

Regularly voted by its country's critics as the best Spanish film of all time, Berlanga's brilliantly dark comedy on the peculiar horror of the garotte has not lost its power over the years. Manfredi plays an undertaker's hapless assistant who marries the executioner's daughter, then discovers that they can keep their precious apartment only if he agrees to become his father-in-law's successor. Full of sharp and disturbing insights into the corrupt world engendered by the Francoist mentality, the film's build-up to its terrifying conclusion - when Manfredi, as the new executioner, is dragged literally kicking and screaming to perform his duty - is inexorable.