bkoganbing I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed in watching The Loved One after all the acclaim it has gotten. There are several wonderful cameos by a lot of the name stars that Tony Richardson got for the film. But in looking back it seems it just wasn't the sum of all its parts.The Loved One is not a satire on the funeral business per se, it is a satire on it when it's done Hollywood style. In Tinseltown everything is done gaudier even burying one. Robert Morse is an English poet who arrives in Hollywood to meet with Uncle John Gielgud who promptly offs himself.As the closest relative by blood and geography Morse gets to make the funeral arrangements. The film is his experiences doing so. And since poetry doesn't exactly pay the rent Morse decides to go into the burying business.Lots of familiar faces are crammed into The Loved One. Liberace as the funeral home director and Rod Steiger as the cosmetician to the dead stars are shown to best advantage. The Loved One runs a bit too long and much of the satire just doesn't gel.If you like to stargaze however, you can't go wrong with The Loved One.

johnstonjames this is practically a companion film to Kubrick's 'Dr. Strangelove'. anyone looking for more of the same and couldn't get enough of Terry Southern's brilliant screen writing, this movie offers up more of Southern and a uncannily similar experience although it's not by director Kubrick.although i think 'Strangelove' to be the better film, in someways this movie is even hipper and more cutting edge. it's satire of the funeral industry is probably more original than satire of the atomic age and limited nuclear warfare. 'Strangelove' was right on the mark, but it's parody of the bomb and the nukes age was nothing new and had been explored heavily in the previous decade.'The Loved One' follows a similar formula to 'Strangelove', it satirizes the establishment, it's filmed in artsy, avant garde B&W, and it features a actor (Johnathan Winters) playing multiple roles. but it is a little more quirky than Kubrick's film because it offers off the wall celebrity cameos and a sense of humour that proceeded John Waters by a decade. definitely the roles of Rod Steiger and his mother are characters straight out of 'Pink Flamingos' or 'Desperate Living'.it is also notable for a outstanding cameo performance by legend Liberace who rarely made appearances as a actor which was too bad because he was considerably more talented as a actor than given credit for. this film also has a ultra cool juvenile role played by Paul Williams. even though Williams was twenty here, his character Gunther is only fifteen. the character Gunther is such a ultra cool teen because Williams gives the role his usual debonair sophistication with that certain touch of mystery that Williams is known for. not to mention director Tony Richardson has Gunther often dressed like someone out of a Tarantino film like 'Reservoir Dogs'.this is probably one of Hollywood's smartest and most effective comedies. it has brilliant insights into life and possibly the hereafter.

beatcamel I really wanted to like this film. The creative team behind it is astonishing and its cast is remarkable.However the film is obviously written by two people who know how to write novels, not films.The story just meanders and wanders and rambles and it takes quite some time to figure out exactly what is going on and what action we're supposed to be following.It's worth watching as a cultural snapshot, it's got that zany 60s laugh- in type humor happening in spades (the scene with the girls in the coffins comes to mind) but as a film itself it is a mess.

dougdoepke From the moment Morse's plane touches down in LA, we hear choral strains of America the Beautiful; then, for the next two hours, the movie goes about deconstructing that optimistic note. LA comes in for special ridicule, but so do national institutions. Pentagon brass are bribed into converting Earth's gravitational belt into an orbiting graveyard-- not exactly standard operating procedure.Then there's organized religion's Blessed Reverend who shifts entrepreneurial gears faster than an Enron CEO, but with much better success. And when worker-bee Aimee's virginal illusions are finally shattered by the randy reverend (Winters), she chooses a beautiful death over an unfiltered life. Now she can join the godlike statuary in the eternal beauty that Whispering Glen peddles. Illusion, the movie appears to say, is what ultimately counts in this land of manufactured dreams.The black humor was considered outrageous at the time, especially the mincing Joyboy and his beached-whale of a mom. In those days, "gay" still meant "joyously spirited" and Liberace's sudden appearance with the girls amounted to a new kind of "coming out". The black humor here follows Dr. Strangelove of the preceding year, but lacks the latter's coherence and wallop. This is a movie of bits and pieces-- oblivious Aimee swinging high above the LA precipice; gross-out Mom inspiring gobs of John Waters movies; gate-keeper Coburn thinking poet equals subversive; the Blessed Reverend toting up profits by getting rid of the "stiffs". There are other moments, often hilarious. Nonetheless, the movie doesn't so much culminate as finally peter out. And when the film's final words advise Morse "to go left", we may be getting more than a compass bearing.As another reviewer points out, this is a film ahead of its time. In fact, it may well be a milestone on the way to the general irreverence of the late 60's when no topic was off- limits. 1965 was a transitional period between the convention-bound 50's and the rebellious upsurge still two years away. A more detailed history would, I think, include The Loved One as a key step in the iconoclasm to come. Though much of the initial punch has been lost, the film still has its moments. Besides, I often get a whiff of the Blessed Reverend whenever I hear the dulcet tones of aggressive sanctimony, which these days is all too often.