Well, let me tell ya - With its assurance of "containing something in its story to offend everyone" (literally) - I'd say that "The Loved One" completely fell flat on its stupid face by not living up to this false promise.You know, I really wish that "The Loved One" had succeeded in offending me. 'Cause, perhaps, that way I might have found something to actually like about this insufferably dry and totally uninspiring comedy. But, sorry, as it turned out, "The Loved One" was just too bloody stupid to offend, except, maybe, those who are brain-dead.Adapted for the screen from the Evelyn Waugh novel of the same name, I personally think Waugh's morbid piece of fiction translated terribly into this dull, 1965 motion picture. If you ask me, I'd swear that they were actually just making up the story as they went along.Now 50 years old, I found "The Loved One's" story to be grossly out of date, as well as being way too out of touch with reality, to ever appeal to a rational-thinking person like myself.It certainly didn't help matters much that all of the characters in this tale were a completely unlikable bunch. I mean, I don't mind eccentric characters, but when that eccentricity becomes annoying (as it did with this lot), it just grates on my nerves like you wouldn't believe.About the only thing that this lame-brained comedy could boast about (to its advantage) would be its list of cameo appearances from the likes of Dana Andrews, Tab Hunter, James Coburn and Milton Berle, to name but a few.

. . . at least while watching THE LOVED ONE. Instead of FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, it's like THE LOVED ONE is "One wedding and a "Fun-for-All" funeral smörgåsbord. Strippers pop out of caskets, the hot chick embalms only herself, and ARTHUR's butler takes a one-way drop at his swimming pool. Clearly, THE LOVED ONE is a laugh riot--if you're a maggot. Caskets in 1965 are sold like today's Affordable Care Act health plans: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. For Bronze money, your eternal resting place is only waterproof. Pony up for Silver, and you stay "moisture resistant" for all time. But if you have a problem with "dampness," you had better "Go for the Gold." Rod Steiger is a real gut-buster as mortician Laf Joyboy, while Jonathan Winters' twin character outings lampoon Scientology in his role as proprietor\prophet-in-residence of Whispering Glades Cemetery while also spoofing Bhuddism as the family black sheep tabbed to run Happy Hunting Grounds Pet Cemetery. Though some scenes here play like tepid sketch comedy, others seem to foretell today's world. Fire up the grills, anyone?

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