The Loved One
Directed by Tony Richardson
Written by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood from a novel by Evelyn Waugh
1965/UK/USA
Filmways Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Dennis Barlow: They gave me this ticket, so I thought I’d come here. I mean it was either Los Angeles or Calcutta and I thought, what the hell.[/box]
The “Dr. Strangelove” of funeral industry spoofs also takes on Hollywood. A cast of thousands provides the laughs.
Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse) is a naive young British poet who wins an airline ticket to Los Angeles. He plans to stay with his uncle Sir Francis Hensley (John Gielgud), portrait painter to the stars. When Sir Francis is fired after 30 years faithful service to the movie industry, he hangs himself. Dennis finds himself in charge of funeral arrangements and approaches Whispering Glades Funeral Home (a clear send-up of Forest Lawn Cemetery).
After Sir Francis’s bizarre funeral, Dennis gets a job there and falls in love with Aimee Thanotagenous (Anjanette Comer), a make-up artist whose ambition is to become the nation’s first female embalmer. This set up provides limitless opportunity to skewer funeral practices in America in some of the most outrageous ways possible. With Jonathan Winters in a dual role, Rod Steiger, Liberace, Dana Andrews, Tab Hunter, Milton Berle, Robert Morley, and Roddy MacDowell in roles big and small.
Robert Morse could have done a better job with his English accent but this is a pretty funny satire of an easy target. I particularly enjoyed John Gielgud both as a live actor and as a corpse. The scene in which Rod Steiger manipulates his face while applying the funeral make-up is hilarious. The movie overstays its welcome to some extent but is well worth seeing. Recommended.
