Newly arrived in Hollywood from England, Dennis Barlow finds he has to arrange his uncle's interment at the highly-organised and very profitable Whispering Glades funeral parlour. His fancy is caught by one of their cosmeticians, Aimee Thanatogenos. But he has three problems - the strict rules of owner Blessed Reverand Glenworthy, the rivalry of embalmer Mr Joyboy, and the shame of now working himself at The Happy Hunting Ground pets' memorial home. Written by
&view=simple&sort=alpha"
>Jeremy Perkins <jwp@aber.ac.uk>

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B24 from Arizona
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Several of you youngsters have added comments here to the effect you wanted to know how this film was received in 1965. Here is the lowdown.

It was skewered by the few uptight critics who got it, and passed off as sheer nonsense by the ones who didn't. It had a big, big promotional sendoff on television and in the newspapers, featuring its over-the-top ending that is commented on elsewhere in these archives. That, in fact, is the single characteristic placing this film in the history books as one of the first real anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-bourgeois relics of popular culture just at the cusp of an entirely new epoch.

I am still dumbfounded that it went generally over the heads of most people in 1965. (Well, at least I am bemused by it.) "Dr. Strangelove" received much the same treatment. It was as if the country was still on overdrive after the assassination of President Kennedy, numb and oblivious as to what was about to happen. Only the very young, influenced as they were by the Beatles and other revolutionary pop music icons, seemed to have a clue. But they were powerless within the political vacuum that led up to the war in Vietnam, and by the time all the turmoil of 1968 came along, this movie had been long forgotten.

This is one fan, however, who still regards this wonderful satire as one of the top ten of the 20th century, right up there with the best of Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, and Saturday Night Live (in its better days, of course).

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jotix100 from New York
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Tony Richardson's "The Loved One" was seen recently courtesy of TCM. The film seems to have been forgotten by MGM, who didn't promote it the way it deserved when it was released. It's a tribute to Mr. Richardson that "The Loved One" should be discovered by appreciative fans that haven't have a chance to see this masterpiece by one of the cinema's most under appreciated master: Tony Richardson.

This acerbic satire about the funeral business was written by Evelyn Waugh, an Englishman who saw the excesses about the art of preparing "the loved ones" for their final send off into eternity. The magnificent screen play is credited to Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood, although other writers were also involved in its adaptation. The brilliant black and white cinematography by Haskell Wexler still has original crispness in the copy that was shown, which might have been because of a DVD format we saw.

The story is seen through Dennis Barlow,a young Englishman who comes to L.A. for a visit. He looks for his uncle, Sir Francis Hinsley, who works for a movie studio. Sir Francis moves among the English expatriates that had a love/hate relationship with the film industry, but who had better lives than in England. At least, in Los Angeles, they were seen as a rarity with tremendous panache, in sharp contrast with the uneducated heads of studios and so-called stars.

When Sir Francis dies in tragic circumstances, the Brits decide to appoint young Dennis to select the proper way to bury him. That's how Dennis comes to Whispering Glades, the ultimate resting place for the privileged and the famous. To say he suffers culture shock, is to put it mildly. Nothing prepares him for the excesses he sees in the place, that is being run by the mysterious Rev. Wilbur Glenworthy. It's here that he meets and falls in love with Aimee, the girl that is promoted to be the first woman embalmer. He is shown about what to order by the unctuous Mr. Sarles who wants him to pick the best the place has to offer. Dennis is also puzzled by the way the embalmer, Mr. Joyboy, has prepared Sir Francis for his friends to see him at the place.

Dennis, not having a job, is recruited by Henry Glenworthy in helping with the pet cemetery. He meets enough weirdos to last a lifetime. Henry, a businessman himself, decides to add a novel way to send the pets skyward by hiring young Gunther. The devilish Rev. Wilbur sees the invention and wants it for Whispering Glades. In an incredible finale, young Gunther achieves greatness by creating the send off to end all send offs.

The amazing thing about "The Loved One" is the performances Tony Richardson got out of all the actors in the film. Robert Morse is Dennis, a naive in the land of fantasy. Jonathan Winters playing dual roles of Henry and Wilbur Glenworthy, is in top form. Rod Steiger as the mad embalmer, Mr. Joyboy, has one of the best moments of his career. Anjanette Comer shows an affinity for Aimee. John Gielgud makes a wonderful Sir Francis. Paul Williams is young Gunther. But Liberace, who wasn't known as an actor, makes a devastating appearance as the salesman in the Whispering Glades showroom, the man who wants to offer nothing but the best for "the loved one" in his final appearance.

One can only wish "The Loved One" is seen by a lot of movie fans, as this is a tribute to the man who directed it: Tony Richardson.

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lbcsrw from Southern California
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It is hard to place any kind of meaningful description to this film because it takes cultural, social, and moral ideals and stomps on them. Additionally, the casting of the film goes against type, with Jonathan Winters, for example, as a dark, imposing religious force. The acting is superb, intense and, at times, intentionally campy and over-the-top. Each scene seems outrageous and, at times, ridiculous but inexorably moves the characters, and the audience, to a lip-biting conclusion.

Terry Southern, one of the credited screen writers, was also responsible for Kubrick's Dr Strangelove, Barbarella, Candy, Easy Rider, The Magic Christian, and many other wacky films. Knowing this may help to place it in some familiar context. Of all his films, though, this is the darkest.

If you are disturbed or offended by the funeral business, death in general, dead pets, or slightly veiled hints at necrophilia then you might want to give this one a miss. If you're brave and open-minded, however, I highly recommend this truly strange and wonderful film.

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Clamboy Vinyl from Poodlevania
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There are few films I can recommend this highly. Morse is memorable as the hapless Englishman, trying to understand this peculiar American commercial funeral institution and the nearly fanatical devotees to the Jonathan Winters' Blessed Reverend.

The tawdry nature of the corporate funeral industry gradually unfolds in this fantastic study of our fixation with marketing everything, even death.

Jonathan Winters, Rod Steiger is brilliant as Mr. Joyboy, the effete chief embalmer, and the film features such huge talent as John Gielgud and Robert Morley as well as a cameos by Milton Berle, Roddy McDowell, Tab Hunter, and Liberace as the smarmy casket salesman. Look for a very young Paul Williams and...is that James Coburn? Yes, yes it is.

Be advised that there are some dubbing and sound issues common to films of this era, but if you're more concerned with a/v than story and humor, you should be off looking at...I dunno, something from George Lucas.

This film's greatest flaw is that it's hard to find on VHS and doesn't exist on the DVD.

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jimi99 from denver
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As a follow-up to the hugely popular "Tom Jones" the iconoclastic director Tony Richardson chose a modern Evelyn Waugh darkly satiric novel that was ostensibly about the funeral business but in Richardson's (& Terry Southern's) hands became a savagely funny commentary on Hollywood and America as well. The cast is awesome--even disregarding some of the cameos like Milton Berle, Liberace, and Tab Hunter--particularly good are Gielgud, Jonathan Winters in a fabulous dual role, Rod Steiger as the immortal Joyboy, and Roddy McDowell. Hilarious! The leads are strangely effective: Bobby Morse doing the knowing nebbish character that he perfected in the mid-60s, and Anjanette Comer as the aptly-named Amy Thanatogenis. One of my alltime favorite comedies, I've seen it close to 20 times since 1965...For anyone who ever had to save up for "Mom's big tub." Increpitable!

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cjwehner from United States
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I was one who saw it in 1965, and GOT IT. I have waited lo these many years for a video copy. I am only disappointed that the quality of the print is so fuzzy. Why has it not been digitally remastered?!! Sir Francis's cottage and pool were so much more evocative when we could see them. Are you listening, Ted? (but don't colorize it. It's perfect in B&W)My teenage son asked if anyone was doing a remake. Perish the thought! How could anyone improve on Jonathan Winters, Bobby Morse, Rod Steiger and Liberace? Or any of the many cameos? This is truly Terry Southern's finest screen writing, and the acting is unparalleled. Robert Morely's funeral recitation still cracks me up. The world's greatest black comedy!

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poguemathon from Silver Lake, CA
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Having seen a Playboy magazine article on the making of the film, this 15 year-old had to see it to believe it. This was in Boston, and the theater chain (Sack) had lopped off considerable footage, but I never knew of this until a PBS showing of it years later revealed a scene with the astronaut's wife that, after having seen the movie so many times that I could recite it, caught me completely by surprise. I skipped school and sat for an entire day in the glory of this perverted beauty. I received a book on the making of the Loved One, and discovered that there was a whole batch of stars, such as Ruth Gordon, who never made it to the final cut. But with or without, this one packs one hell of a punch - a scathing indictment of the '60s and all that it beheld, from a Jackie Kennedy look-alike in the opening scenes to that wonderful orgy in the casket filled chamber. Look close for a quick Jami Farr changing a portrait of The Queen at the luncheon held at the Brit exile's club. This is my all-time favorite movie, bar none.

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Lynne Bronstein from Santa Monica Ca
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I am another fan of this film who can tell you younger folks what it was like to see it back in 1965. I saw it with my whole family(I was 15). My mother hated it-especially Mr. Joyboy's gluttonous mother. My father laughed at the bit where Liberace comes out of a coffin to flirt with an Air Force officer. But I sensed that this movie represented a new kind of comedy-something hard for me to define (I was not yet familiar with the work of Lenny Bruce). I know the movie received terrible reviews. Seeing it now, it's hard to believe it was released by a major studio. Much of it plays like the most brilliant sketches from early "SNL" or from a John Waters movie. I can't begin to count all the things that I find side-splitting-from the awful eulogy ("red protruding eyeballs and black protruding tongue") to Aimee's slide-area house to the refrigerator/crypt at the pet cemetery (with stiff faux animals) to the Blessed Reverend's line: "How do I get rid of all these stiffs?" I consider this to be one of the funniest films of all time. It certainly should be on DVD.

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ertznaytoouyay from Ertznay
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I can't post anything new about this brilliant movie that hasn't already been posted, I just want to know why,why,why, has MGM not released this movie on DVD? They put out so many of their 'comedies' like the abysmally unfunny 'Madhouse' or the pointless movie version of 'Car 54 where are you?' which had no laughs at all, or how about the nadir of Bill Murrays career the painfully awful 'Larger than Life'. You can get all of these movies on DVD no problemo, but 'The Loved One' no... sorry.. can't be done. Does that make sense to anyone? I am amazed they had the concept to release the awesome 'Lord love a duck.' Get with it MGM!

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barbarella70
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This beautifully sick '60's comedy was incredibly way ahead of its time -like Lord Love a Duck- and the fact that it was released in the same year as The Sound of Music shows that times were definitely changing.

Director Tony Richardson skewers Hollywood culture, big-time corporations, religious beliefs, heros, strippers, and death itself in this dark satirical social commentary that tells the tale of a fresh young innocent (Robert Morse) who comes to Hollywood to stay with his uncle (John Gielgud) and winds up working in a pet cemetary.

Richardson somehow managed to bring out a light-in-the-loafers performance in intense Method actor Rod Steiger and his Mr. Joyboy is a shocking about-face from his heavy dramatic work in The Pawnbroker or Doctor Zhivago. Whether he's arranging the face of a recently deceased corpse or twirling a soon-to-be-embalmed infant, Steiger relishes every single moment he has on screen and Mr. Joyboy is one of the most disturbingly hilarious characters ever put on film.

Anjanette Comer is also a wonderful discovery and her Miss Thanatogenous -the object of Mr. Joyboy's desire- is a happy-go-lucky Morticia Addams and another unique character that's completely her own: she and Steiger create this bizarre twosome with such individual owernship that they're not reminiscent of anyone else in the history of motion pictures. Her light voice has an off-kilter quality that makes her seem so vulnerable to everything and when Miss Thanatogenous discovers the advice columnist she worships (the late Lionel Stander who's perfect) drunk in a bar it becomes the most brutal/funny scene in the movie.

The Loved One starts out at quite a slow pace but just stay with it because you'll never see anything like again. It contains some side-splitting laughs and first-rate contributions from Liberace, Milton Berle, Paul Williams, Johnathan Winters, and Roddy McDowell. (Don't miss what Morse has in his refrigerator!)

Ruth Gordon and Jayne Mansfield were both cut from the released print of the film.
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Director of Photography Haskell Wexler was dissatisfied with some of the outdoor Whispering Glades scenes because they were being filmed at high noon and the trees were not casting significant shadows, which he felt was necessary to give the shot proper depth. To compensate, he had the crew paint tree "shadows" on the ground. This is plainly visible in some scenes, as the trees' "shadows" are entirely dissimilar from those of the actors standing next to them.
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After WWII, Evelyn Waugh came to Hollywood to work on a movie adaptation of his novel "Brideshead Revisited". While in Hollywood he went to a funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Waugh was offended by the pretense of both the American film industry and the American funeral industry, and wove the two together into the novel on which this film was based.
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Evelyn Waugh disowned this film of his famous novella and tried unsuccessfully to get his name taken off the credits. Three days after the film's London opening, he died unexpectedly at his home in Somerset. It is thought that he had not seen it.
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Sir Francis Hinsley drives a Talbot drophead coupè .
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During the studio canteen scene between Robert Morse and John Gielgud, an extra can be seen in the background wearing the monster mask from The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Sixth Finger".
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The news anchor at the end of the film was played by the beloved long-time Laker announcer Chick Hearn.
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Paul Williams, 25 at the time this film was made, was concerned that his natural voice was too deep to play a preteen, and tried make his voice as high-pitched as he reasonably could.
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Final film of Liberace.
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This is Liberace's only film in which he does not play the piano on screen.
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Sir Francis Hinsley, played by John Gielgud, tells his nephew, "Ah, that's Sir Ambrose Abercrombie, one of our most ardent thespians . . . he usually plays prime ministers or butlers". Gielgud himself played prime ministers on the screen three times: Disraeli twice, in The Prime Minister (1941) and later in Edward the Seventh (1975), as well as Salisbury in Murder by Decree (1979), and was perhaps best known to the general public for his role as Hobson the butler in Arthur (1981) and its sequel Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988).
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Anjanette Comer recalled that many well-known actresses wanted the part of Aimee, but Tony Richardson picked her precisely because he wanted an "unknown" for the part.
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At the advance screening for studio execs, many were so offended that they walked out before the film ended. This pleased Tony Richardson to no end, as this was precisely the effect he was hoping to have on "old Hollywood" types.
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American actor Robert Morse had such trouble keeping up his British accent that eventually all of his dialogue had to be recorded in a studio and dubbed over the film.
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According to Robert Morse, director Tony Richardson held John Gielgud in great esteem, and before Gielgud arrived to film his scenes, took Morse aside and asked him to be particularly nice to him.
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When Dennis first arrives in the US, the immigration officer points out his "Beatles" haircut, to which Dennis responds that it's a normal British haircut. In fact, Robert Morse recalled being uncomfortable with having to grow his hair out for the part, as The Beatles were the only male celebrities well-known in the US whose hair was so long in the back.
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Kim Stanley was originally announced to play role of the astronaut's stripper widow, a part that ultimately went to Barbara Nichols.
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'Phil Silvers (I)' was originally announced to play the Milton Berle role.
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funeral|embalmer|death|funeral home|satire|cemetery|poet|military dress uniform|garter belt|swing|harp|boardroom|conference table|bell 47 ranger helicopter|duckling|waterfall|casket|statue|painting|swimming pool|fitness center|personal sauna|meeting|british flag|passport|usa customs|flying on airplane|crying baby|twa|boeing 707|fired from the job|eating disorder|deep focus|gay interest|undertaker|fitness gym|death of pet|preacher|rocket|refrigerator|telephone box|hanging|customs|airport|weight training|lobster|actor playing multiple roles|helicopter|job promotion|airplane|movie studio|filmmaking|nightmare|british expatriate|tour guide|anti semitism|suicide|black comedy|fake guru|advice columnist|pet cemetery|wedding|gun|mother son relationship|love triangle|blackmail|impersonation|mortuary|marriage proposal|obesity|condemned house|los angeles california|suicide by hanging|mortician|cult film|bar|board meeting|based on novel|number in title|

AKAs Titles:


Certifications:
Australia:PG / Finland:K-16 / Norway:16 / Sweden:15 / UK:X