Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Better Late Then Never

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

For me to rate any film "perfect," it must contain every element of a perfect movie— the perfect story, the perfect script, the perfect cast, the perfect director, and the perfect cinematographer. This one had all of the above, in droves. Let's start with the casting— phenomenal—from leading roles, to character parts, to cameos, totally incredible, utilizing the greatest talent alive at the time. But perhaps the single most inspired bit of casting was using Liberace as the appropriately funereal casket salesman, hilarious. Robert Morse was so convincing as an Englishman, imagine my surprise when I learned he was 100% American. Rod Steiger showed a rare turn at his genius as a comedy actor after having starred in so many seminal films like "On The Waterfront," and the newcomer, Anjanette Comer... I've had a crush on her for now 50-years! Add a superb John Gielgud and Jonathan Winters in their respective roles to round out the dream cast. I once believed "Some Like It Hot" to be the best American comedy film, but after watching this piece of cinema magic, there was no other. As not to reveal the plot, all I can say is that in the long history of comedy films, particularly in the satirical vein, there is nothing to compare or compete with "The Loved One." It never gets old and never feels dated, although I've heard some cinemaphiles suggest that it should be re-made. But how can you improve upon perfection? To find any writer the equal of Terry Southern, or any cast as good as the one mentioned would be, in a word, impossible. I'm just glad that we have this amazing film to enjoy and laugh with forever.

From the moment Morse's plane touches down in LA, we hear choral strains of America the Beautiful; then, for the next two hours, the movie goes about deconstructing that optimistic note. LA comes in for special ridicule, but so do national institutions. Pentagon brass are bribed into converting Earth's gravitational belt into an orbiting graveyard-- not exactly standard operating procedure.Then there's organized religion's Blessed Reverend who shifts entrepreneurial gears faster than an Enron CEO, but with much better success. And when worker-bee Aimee's virginal illusions are finally shattered by the randy reverend (Winters), she chooses a beautiful death over an unfiltered life. Now she can join the godlike statuary in the eternal beauty that Whispering Glen peddles. Illusion, the movie appears to say, is what ultimately counts in this land of manufactured dreams.The black humor was considered outrageous at the time, especially the mincing Joyboy and his beached-whale of a mom. In those days, "gay" still meant "joyously spirited" and Liberace's sudden appearance with the girls amounted to a new kind of "coming out". The black humor here follows Dr. Strangelove of the preceding year, but lacks the latter's coherence and wallop. This is a movie of bits and pieces-- oblivious Aimee swinging high above the LA precipice; gross-out Mom inspiring gobs of John Waters movies; gate-keeper Coburn thinking poet equals subversive; the Blessed Reverend toting up profits by getting rid of the "stiffs". There are other moments, often hilarious. Nonetheless, the movie doesn't so much culminate as finally peter out. And when the film's final words advise Morse "to go left", we may be getting more than a compass bearing.As another reviewer points out, this is a film ahead of its time. In fact, it may well be a milestone on the way to the general irreverence of the late 60's when no topic was off- limits. 1965 was a transitional period between the convention-bound 50's and the rebellious upsurge still two years away. A more detailed history would, I think, include The Loved One as a key step in the iconoclasm to come. Though much of the initial punch has been lost, the film still has its moments. Besides, I often get a whiff of the Blessed Reverend whenever I hear the dulcet tones of aggressive sanctimony, which these days is all too often.

Evelyn Waugh wrote "The Loved One" in 1947 as a satire on what Jessica Mitford was later to call "the American way of death". Waugh's target was the American funeral industry, with its sentimental "memorial parks" and hugely expensive coffins and caskets, which he saw as exploiting the grief of bereaved relatives for lucrative business purposes.Waugh was well-known for his political conservatism, so it must have come as something of a surprise to him when, in the final year of his life, his novel was adapted for the screen by counter-culture satirist Terry Southern and that old thirties leftie Christopher Isherwood, and then directed by Tony Richardson, one of the Angry Young Men of British cinema. As might be expected, Southern, Isherwood and Richardson make some changes to Waugh's original novel. The story is updated from the late forties to the mid sixties, and there are references to phenomena such as astronauts and Beatles haircuts which were quite unknown in 1947.The central character is Dennis Barlow, a young Englishman who travels to Los Angeles to stay with his uncle Sir Francis Hinsley, a once-famous artist now employed by a Hollywood studio. Sir Francis hangs himself after losing his job, and Dennis is given the task of organising his funeral at the Whispering Glades memorial park. There he meets Aimee Thanatogenos, who is employed by the park as a cosmetician, charged with the task of improving the appearance of the dead "loved ones" prior to burial. Dennis falls in lust with the attractive young Aimee (love being an emotion quite foreign to his nature), but he has a rival for her affections in the shape of her boss, the embalmer Mr Joyboy.Given that Dennis is an Englishman, and that differences between English and American customs are one of the themes of both the film and Waugh's novel, it is surprising that the part went to an American actor, especially as Robert Morse, better known for his stage and television work, was not a major film star. Apparently Morse's difficulties with a British accent meant that his dialogue had to be dubbed over, so it is not surprising that he never sounds convincing. Anjanette Comer's performance as Aimee is rather one-dimensional; her irritatingly high-pitched voice was presumably adopted to try and convey Aimee's naïve idealism. There are, however, some good performances in supporting roles, from John Gielgud as Sir Francis, the aristocrat fallen on hard times, Robert Morley as a pompous British actor, Rod Steiger as the oleaginous Joyboy (who has a most peculiar relationship with his massively overweight mother), and the pianist Liberace, not normally though of as an actor, as one of the memorial park's salesmen. A feature of the film is that a number of well-known stars (James Coburn, Dana Andrews, Tab Hunter) appear in minor roles.Waugh's satire is broadened to include more aspects of American life; the film opens (and closes) with a stirring rendition of "America the Beautiful", the use of which in this context is deliberately ironic. The film's targets include not only the funeral industry but also big business, Hollywood, obesity, motherhood, the military, the American space programme and religion. (Waugh, a devout Catholic, might not have approved of that last one). The owner of "Whispering Glades", for example, poses as an idealistic clergyman, but in reality he is a hard-nosed businessman who simply sees the park as a money-making opportunity. Concerned that the park is running out of space for burials, he approaches the US Air Force with a bizarre proposal for funerals in space.Any comedy set against a background of funerals and death is likely to be dark in character, and this one is particularly black. (There are, for example, two suicides). Black comedy can be a difficult subject to get right. The main rule is that it is not enough to be black; one must be comic as well. Done well, it can be tasteless but hilarious; done badly, it is merely tasteless. "The Loved One" is not the greatest example of the genre (that is perhaps Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove" made two years earlier) but it hits enough of its targets to fall within the tasteless but hilarious category. It is hardly surprising that it was billed as a film with something to offend everyone. 7/10

Maybe in its time this film was provocative and entertaining. The decade of the 1960s was known for its cinematic audacity and spunk, descriptions befitting the film's underlying concept. But what seems daring and futuristic today can look stunningly grotesque when the future actually arrives. And forty years after it was made, "The Loved One" just seems ... bizarre.We're led to believe that the film lampoons the funeral and burial industry. And part of the film's first half does just that. Here, humor derives partly from dialogue, especially as it relates to burial terminology. Our casket salesman, Mr. Starker (Liberace), explains to the film's protagonist: "I can give you our eternal flame in either perpetual eternal or standard eternal". Then he asks: "propane or butane, Mr. Barlow?" Marvelous. And part of the humor is visual, as we watch the finicky embalmer, Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger), trying out various expressions on the loved one's face.But the funeral and burial industry satire consumes less than half of the film's two-hour runtime. The rest of the plot is a mishmash of assorted gags, skits, and pranks, strictly tangential to the stated concept. You get the feeling that the script was written by a committee. Some of this plot tangle derives from too many celebrity cameos. These actors (James Coburn, Milton Berle, Tab Hunter, and many others) appear in a scene or two, then vanish, to be replaced later by others, none of whom are essential to the plot.Probably the best elements of the film are its B&W cinematography and the production design. Outdoor scenes at Whispering Glades are visually lush. And the interior is interestingly ornate, although far more Gothic than any funeral home I've ever been in.The film's casting and acting for major roles get mixed grades from me. Robert Morse as the protagonist, Sir John Gielgud as his uncle, and Rod Steiger as the embalmer are all fine. But as much as I like Jonathan Winters, his performance here, for whatever reason, just does not work; I found it grating and annoying.If I had seen this film when it first came out, I might have had a more favorable impression of it. And, to repeat, it does have a certain charm, if only sporadic. But so much has happened in the last forty years, and there's been so many changes in America's culture, "The Loved One", for all its intended courage and boldness in 1965, now seems, for the most part, just puerile and pointless.