:
Robert Morse,
Robert Morse,
Anjanette Comer,
more...
:
Tony Richardson,
Tony Richardson
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Warner Home Video
: Comedies, Black Comedy
: 121 min.
: English
: English, Spanish, French
see additional details...
|
|
The satire in Evelyn Waugh's darkly comic novel The Loved One was originally double-edged. The book was not only an attack on the Southern California funeral industry but also a lampoon of Hollywood's "British colony," those clannish, cricket-playing English actors of years gone by who bemoaned the artificiality of Tinseltown while eagerly accepting the demeaning and insignificant movie roles they were offered. The film version of The Loved One, anxious to live up to its ad-campaign promise of containing "something to offend everybody," downplays the British-colony business (save for the presence of the magnificent Robert Morley) and pumps up the "death" gags. Innocent British poet Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse) falls in love with funeral-home cosmetician Aimee Thanatogenos (Anjanette Comer), who in turn is loved by prissy funeral director Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger). The latter lives with his obese mother (Ayllene Gibbons), whose eating sequence is far more hilarious (and more tasteless) than many of the film's calculatedly "black" jokes. A huge guest-star cast is headed by Jonathan Winters in a dual role as a funeral home manager and his covetous twin brother, who operates an elaborate pet cemetery. Musician Paul Williams is also on hand as a 13-year-old aeronautics genius who develops a method of sending corpses into "eternal orbit" (a plot device that Waugh neglected to include in his novel). Film historian William K. Everson has commented that The Loved One is one of the best and most underrated comedies of the 1960s. For others, especially those who might feel guilty chuckling at the sight of Anjanette Comer committing suicide with an embalming needle, it's purely a matter of taste...or lack of same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
|
| A Dead Movie About the Dead
by talltale
August 7, 2006 - 12:44 PM PDT
|
|
|
3 out of 5 members found this review helpful
|
Guess I am among the contrarians regarding this film. Not having seen it since its debut in 1965, I gave it another shot. Big mistake. Among the utterly dismal, "nothing works," clubfooted comedies in history, THE LOVED ONE may stand tallest of all. Crass without being clever or funny, totally lacking in comic timing, and featuring mostly tired targets for its slapdash satire, the movie is, for me, among the most shocking of misfires. "Ishtar" had more going for it, for god's sake. You sit there waiting for something to jell. It never happens.
While the burial procedure was/is not exactly ripe for comic pickings (Evelyn Waugh published his satirical novel in 1948, and Jessica Mitford's "The American Way of Death preceded this movie by two years), one might imagine that something funny would take shape. A simple perusal of the credits may explain why nothing did: Martin Ransohoff, the producer, also gave us "The Beverly Hillbillies"; Tony Richardson directed art films like "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" and the art/mainstream success "Tom Jones"; the actors run the gamut from perhaps the most miscast lead ever (Robert Morse, opposite the pointless Anjanette Comer) to John Gielgud & James Coburn, Margaret Leighton & Milton Berle, Liberace & Lionel Stander, and poor Rod Steiger, who manages to go consistently over the top and yet does nothing but "mince." The writers? Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood! Talk about mismatches. Could any of these people have had anything to say to each other, let alone collaborate on a film?
Mr. Morse can't even manage a consistent British accent: it varies wildly within the same scene and is far worse than the cowboy trying to ape a Brit accent of which the movie makes tired fun. The tag line upon release was "Something to offend everyone." If only. The offense here is utter, abject failure. Something to embarrass everyone is more to the point. (Haskell Wexler did the cinematography and it is the single thing worth watching in this corpse of a film.) |
|
|
GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.78)
23 Votes
add to list 
|
|
|
Your cart
KGreen2
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.