THE LOVED ONE is a hilarious black comedy about the glamourous funeral industry in California. It was written by Evelyn Waugh in 1948, after a visit to a Hollywood cemetery. Waugh's novel also attacks the "British Colony" in Tinseltown and was brilliantly adapted by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood for the film, which also takes pot shots at racism, materialism, populism, and commercialism.
Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse) is a young innocent English poet who visits California when he wins a free airline trip. He stays with his uncle, Sir Francis Hinley (John Gielgud), a portrait painter for a Hollywood movie studio who commits suicide when he is fired by young studio executive D. J. Jr. (Roddy McDowell).
Barlow is stuck with an exorbitant funeral bill, and takes a job at a cemetery. Whispering Glades cemetery is run by the Blessed Reverend Wilbur Glenworthy (Jonathan Winters), an unscrupulous clergyman. Mr. Starker (Liberace) is the unctuous coffin salesman. Horace Joyboy (Rod Steiger) chief embalmer with a lisp and effeminate mannerisms competes with Barlow for the affections of scatterbrained beautician Aimee Thanatogeous (Anjanette Comer). Mr. Joyboy is a momma's boy and his 400 pound glutton mother Mrs. Joyboy (Ayllene Gibbons) has to be seen to be believed. She obviously was an inspiration for John Waters. Most of her time is spent eating and Mr. Joyboy sings to her, "Mama's little Joyboy loves King Crab, King Crab..."
At Sir Hinley's funeral Barlow recites his poem for his late uncle: "They say dear Francis Hinsley, they say that you were hung. With red protruding eyeballs and black protruding tongue..." Barlow also plagiarizes classic poetry to woo Aimee Thanatogeous. She is promoted and is like a broken record repeating, "The first lady embalmer of Whispering Glades." When she shows Barlow around the Whispering Glades park she says, "These are the Falls of Xanadu, where the bodies of sailors, fisherman, yachtsmen, and admirals are buried underwater." Barlow remarks that the falls are not mentioned in Coleridge's poem and Aimee replies, "What poem? All the features here were created by the Blessed Reverend."
Jonathan Winters also plays twin brother Henry Glenworthy, who runs sleazy pet cemetery Happier Hunting Grounds where Barlow works. There is a great scene with Mr. Kenton (Milton Berle) regarding his wife's dead dog. Musician Paul Williams plays Gunther Fry, a 13-year old aeronautics genius who invents rockets to send corpses into "eternal orbit".
At a Whispering Glades Board of Directors meeting, the Blessed Reverend is distressed about the dismal profit forecasts for his funeral business. He announces plans to turn the cemetery into a very lucrative retirement city, "a haven for our senior citizens". One member asks, "You're not thinking of disinternment?" Another says, "Out of the question. After all, it's consecrated ground." The Blessed Reverend replies, "There's got to be a way to get those stiffs off my property."
Whispering Glades and its staff are bizarre. The film was promoted as "the motion picture with something to offend everyone", and it does not disappoint. Some of it is gross, disgusting, and macabre, but it is very funny. Jokes about death, love, sex, capitalism, religion, and poetry have lost some of their bite in our post-modern pop culture, but LOVED ONE is like a series of connected Monty Python sketches directed by David Lynch. It's a deadpan farce, irreverent, dense, obvious, intriguing, crass, creepy, and includes a coffin-based orgy scene with Air Force brass. A general says, "I don't trust those Washington egghead civilians. Too many pinko preverts."
The all-star cast also includes: Dana Andrews (Gen. Buck Brinkman), James Coburn (immigration officer), Tab Hunter (tour guide), Robert Morley (Sir Ambrose Ambercrombie), Margaret Leighton (Mrs. Helen Kenton), Barbara Nichols (Sadie Bldgett), Lionel Stander (Guru Brahmin), Roxanne Arlen (Hostess), Dort Clark, Pamela Curran (Hostess), Robert Easton (Dusty Acres), Don Haggerty (Haggerty), Chick Hearn (Announcer), Warren J. Kemmerling, Bernie Kopell, Asa Mynor (Nikki), Brad Moore, Alan Napier, Edwin Reimers, Reta Shaw, John Bleifer, Bella Bruck, Jamie Farr, Gail Gilmore, Beverly Powers, Martin Ransohoff, Christopher Riordan, Claire Kelly, and Elizabeth Ann Roberts. Ruth Gordon and Jayne Mansfield filmed scenes, but were cut from the released print. Original music is by John Addison and non-original music is by Edward Elgar. Tony Richardson directed.
This satire on the California way of death is not for everyone, but must be seen by those who appreciate sick humour. Film historian William K. Everson calls it "one of the best and most underrated comedies of the 1960's".
