The Loved One (film)

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See also the novel: The Loved One
The Loved One
Directed by Tony Richardson
Produced by John Calley
Haskell Wexler
Written by Terry Southern
Christopher Isherwood
Evelyn Waugh (novel)
Starring Robert Morse
Anjanette Comer
Rod Steiger
John Gielgud
Liberace
Music by John Addison
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Running time 122 min.
IMDb profile

The Loved One is a 1965 film about the funeral business in Los Angeles, which is based on The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy (1948), a short satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh.

It was directed by British filmmaker Tony Richardson and the screenplay -- which also drew on Jessica Mitford's book The American Way of Death (1963)[1] -- was written by noted American satirical novelist Terry Southern (Dr Strangelove) and British author Christopher Isherwood.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Young Englishman Dennis Barlow (Morse) visits his Uncle, Sir Francis Hinsley (Gielgud), in Los Angeles, California. For years, artist Hinsley has worked as a dialect coach for actors at a major Hollywood studio; employer D.J., Jr. (McDowall) eventually fires Hinsley, despite the old man’s faithful dedication to the company. In despair, Hinsley commits suicide by hanging himself. Dennis makes plans for the burial at Whispering Glades cemetery and mortuary where he soon meets comely Aimee Thanatogenos (Comer), a psychologically-disturbed cosmetician with whom Dennis immediately lusts over, but has no serious intentions on a lasting relationship. Aimee, in turn, naively worships head embalmer Mr. Joyboy (Steiger) who, like Dennis, is only interested in her for ulterior motives. To raise money, Dennis begins working at Happy Hunting Grounds, a local pet cemetery, owned by Henry Glenworthy (Winters). Dennis persists in courting Aimee with plagiarized poetry. With the help of Joyboy, she discovers Dennis’ ingenuous nature and discredits him as a dishonest man. Joyboy has also tried in vain to win her confidence after inviting her to join him and his mother for a home cooked dinner. Aimee is immediately put off at the prospect of any type of relationship with Joyboy as soon as she witnesses the couple’s bizarre and unhealthy relationship with each other. Also, Aimee realizes that the mother, homebound due to her morbid obesity, has an obsessive-compulsive attraction to food. Aimee seeks spiritual solace with her correspondent counselor, the Guru Brahmin (who turns out to be a fraud), and the Reverend Wilbur Glenworthy (Winters), who makes overt sexual advances on her. After-hours, the woman becomes so distraught that she too commits suicide; using Joyboy's equipment, she simultaneously bloodlets herself from one arm and injects embalming fluid into the other. Later, Joyboy discovers her dead body, and Dennis shows up shortly thereafter to blackmail him into switching Aimee's body with that of a dead astronaut who's closed casket is scheduled to be placed into a rocket and given a dignified burial in space. After the televised funeral ceremony, Dennis then returns to the airport to catch a return flight to England.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production Notes

  • Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, is the inspiration for Whispering Glades.
  • The film was shot in and around the Los Angeles area; Hollywood, and Burbank, among other southern California locales.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lee Hill - A Grand Guy: The Life and Art of Terry Southern Boomsbury, 2001) p.135

[edit] External links