Rating: NR
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 06/20/2006
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 121 Minutes
Flags: Questionable for Children, Adult Humor
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
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
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