Movies

El verdugo (The Executioner) 1963 - Spanish comedy in which a newlywed must take over his father-in-law's job as executioner to save their apartment. The means of execution in Spain at the time was the garrote. Might have been more entertaining if it had not been so verbose, and if the amateur subtitler had not been determined to capture every bit of crosschat and radio background, sometimes filling the screen with indecipherable text. Interesting to see the locales and culture, but wearisome. 2/10

Then I made it through half of Who Was That Lady? (1960) starring Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Dean Martin. Leigh and Curtis' chemistry is unmistakable, but Dean is the only one truly in his element in this feeble sitcom. Curtis, supposedly a chemistry professor, is caught kissing a student in his lab and turns to his chum Dean, a TV writer, to save his marriage. Which means pretending he is an FBI agent, with ensuing "hilarity." I'd hate to be stuck on a desert island with this thing. 1/10