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
