If you thought that funeral homes could only make for grim plots in movies, then you've got a real surprise coming! "The Loved One" portrays a young Brit Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse) coming to the Los Angeles and getting involved in a funeral parlor, with some very zany results. It's the sort of wacky humor that pervaded comedy flicks in the 1960s, right down to the giant cast (aside from Robert Morse, there's Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer, Dana Andrews, Milton Berle, James Coburn, John Gielgud, Tab Hunter, Liberace, Roddy McDowall, Robert Morley, Lionel Stander and Rod Steiger).

Anyway, this movie really does have something to offend everyone. Goofy but lovable, it's not to be missed.

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.

Being an innocent eighteen year old in 1965, we were in downtown Minneapolis, trying to figure out a movie to see. At that time there were nine or ten movie houses in the downtown area, long before the Cineplex. We chose this film, not knowing a thing about it, and it proved to be one of the strangest I've seen. I'm still trying to figure it out. Evelyn Waugh, one of my favorite writers now (had never heard of him at the time) penned this satire on the funeral industry. There are so many great performances here, with Bobby Morse (How to Succeed in Business) leading the way. Jonathan Winters and Rod Steiger are stellar as offbeat characters. The doe eyed, somewhat air-headed Miss Thanatogenis (of course, Miss Death) is really into embalming and wants to break through the glass ceiling (so to speak). She is being wooed by Morse and Steiger. Of course, much centers around the business of funerals and what can be done to make them continue to prosper. Thanatogenis sees embalming and looking good as an art and suffers for it. Anyway, the people I was with said it was the worst movie they had ever seen and choosing it ruined the evening. I didn't know what to think. Now I realize it is a genius work and one of the darkest comedies of all time.