The Loved One (film)
Encyclopedia
The Loved One is a 1965 black comedy
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) – was written by noted American satirical novelist Terry Southern
and British author Christopher Isherwood
.
) wins an airline ticket and visits his uncle Sir Francis Hinsley (John Gielgud
) in Los Angeles. Hinsley has worked as a production staffer at a major Hollywood studio for over thirty years. His employer D.J. Jr. (Roddy McDowall
) fires Hinsley, despite the old man's faithful dedication to the company. Hinsley commits suicide by hanging himself. Dennis is swayed by a prominent member of the local English expatriate community to spend most of the money from his uncle's estate on a socially prestigious burial at Whispering Glades cemetery and mortuary where he soon meets and becomes infatuated with Aimee Thanatogenos (Anjanette Comer
), a hopelessly naive and idealistic cosmetician who says she was named after Aimee McPherson
. Meanwhile, Aimee's superior, head embalmer Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger
), is also an admirer, but though she respects him professionally she doesn't have any romantic feelings toward him. Aimee's idol is the Reverend Wilbur Glenworthy (Jonathan Winters
), owner of Whispering Glades. Aimee worships the solemn and pious reverend, but in private he is calculating businessman who regards Whispering Glades as just a business venture.
To raise money, Dennis begins working at Happier Hunting Grounds, a local pet cemetery run by the reverend's brother Henry Glenworthy (also played by Winters), who has lately been fired by the studio as well. Dennis courts Aimee with poetry, which fascinates her though she fails to recognize famous verses. When Aimee asks whether Dennis wrote these passages he changes the subject. Dennis dares not let Aimee find out where he works since she regards the pet cemetery to be sacrilegious. Aimee is increasingly frustrated by Dennis' cynical and disrespectful attitude toward Whispering Glades and is shocked at his suggestion that they marry and live on her income when she gets a promotion. So, acting on advice given by Guru Brahmin (Lionel Stander
), actually a drunken staff writer at a newspaper, she accepts a dinner invitation from Mr. Joyboy who secured her promotion. Thoughts of a serious relationship with Mr. Joyboy are dismissed when she sees his bizarre and unhealthy relationship with his morbidly obese mother whose only interest is food. Again acting on the advice of Guru Brahmin, she becomes engaged to Dennis. She invites him to her home, a partially finished house build on a cliff, condemned and abandoned due to the danger of landslides. He cuts the visit short, alarmed at occasional ominous trembling and Aimee's lack of concern over her own safety.
Meanwhile, Dennis and Henry Glenworthy meet their neighbor, a boy genius (Paul Williams
) with an interest in rocketry and they let him set up a lab at the pet cemetery. Mr. Joyboy, brings in his pet myna bird to be buried and discovers the identity of his rival. He agrees to have the bird by shot into orbit by one of the neighbor's rockets instead of being buried. Mr. Joyboy brings Aimee to the ceremony and she is outraged when she sees Dennis performing the service, this greatly pleases Mr. Joyboy.
Reverend Glenworthy, seeing little profit in the cemetery once the plots have been filled, decides to convert it to a retirement home, but is unable to proceed without a plan for dealing with the bodies interred there. When he learns of his brother's idea of sending bodies into orbit he recognizes it as a solution to his own problem. He proceeds to obtain surplus rockets by hosting an orgy at Whispering Glades with top Air Force brass as guests of honor. Dennis, in a desperate attempt to reconcile with Aimee, tells her that Whispering Glades is to be shut down. She flees but is afraid that what Dennis told her might be true.
She first seeks Mr. Joyboy for comfort, but he has been called to the cemetery to prepare the body to be launched in orbit, an ex-astronaut nicknamed "The Condor". She then tracks down Guru Brahmin in a bar, but he drunkenly advises her to jump out a window. Finally, she flees to cemetery and find Reverend Glenworthy, who confirms Dennis' story and tries to seduce her with promises of continued employment with higher pay at the new facility. Wholly distraught since her faith in everything she held sacred has been shattered, she attaches herself to an embalming machine and dies peacefully.
Mr. Joyboy finds her body but is afraid to report it because of the scandal it would cause, so he calls Dennis to dispose of her in the pet cemetery's crematorium. Dennis agrees but only if Mr. Joyboy gives him a first class ticket back to England and all the cash he can lay his hands on. Dennis also imposes the condition that Aimee be placed in the casket headed for space and The Condor be sent to the pet crematorium. After the televised funeral ceremony and launch, Dennis is seen boarding the first class section of a plane to England.
, Beverly Hills, LAX and Burbank
among the locations. Whispering Glades was drawn from Forest Lawn Memorial Park
in Glendale with the exterior and interior scenes shot mostly at Greystone Mansion
.
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
film about the funeral business in Los Angeles, which is based on The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy
The Loved One
The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy is a short satirical novel by British novelist Evelyn Waugh about the funeral business in Los Angeles, the British expatriate community in Hollywood, and the film industry.-Conception:...
(1948), a short satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
. It was directed by British filmmaker Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
and the screenplay – which also drew on Jessica Mitford
Jessica Mitford
Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford was an English author, journalist and political campaigner, who was one of the Mitford sisters...
's book The American Way of Death
The American Way of Death
The American Way of Death was an exposé of abuses in the funeral home industry in the United States, written by Jessica Mitford and published in 1963...
(1963) – was written by noted American satirical novelist Terry Southern
Terry Southern
Terry Southern was an American author, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style...
and British author Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...
.
Plot
Young Englishman Dennis Barlow (Robert MorseRobert Morse
Robert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business...
) wins an airline ticket and visits his uncle Sir Francis Hinsley (John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
) in Los Angeles. Hinsley has worked as a production staffer at a major Hollywood studio for over thirty years. His employer D.J. Jr. (Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
) fires Hinsley, despite the old man's faithful dedication to the company. Hinsley commits suicide by hanging himself. Dennis is swayed by a prominent member of the local English expatriate community to spend most of the money from his uncle's estate on a socially prestigious burial at Whispering Glades cemetery and mortuary where he soon meets and becomes infatuated with Aimee Thanatogenos (Anjanette Comer
Anjanette Comer
Anjanette Comer is an American actress.Born in Dawson, Texas to Rufus Franklin and Nola Comer, her first major television credit was a guest appearance in a 1963 episode of Gunsmoke, followed by roles in several other dramatic series of the 1960s, such as Dr. Kildare and Bonanza...
), a hopelessly naive and idealistic cosmetician who says she was named after Aimee McPherson
Aimee Semple McPherson
Aimee Semple McPherson , also known as Sister Aimee, was a Canadian-American Los Angeles, California evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s. She founded the Foursquare Church...
. Meanwhile, Aimee's superior, head embalmer Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
), is also an admirer, but though she respects him professionally she doesn't have any romantic feelings toward him. Aimee's idol is the Reverend Wilbur Glenworthy (Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Winters
-Early life:Winters was born in Bellbrook, Ohio, the son of Alice Kilgore , a radio personality, and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an investment broker. He is a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio...
), owner of Whispering Glades. Aimee worships the solemn and pious reverend, but in private he is calculating businessman who regards Whispering Glades as just a business venture.
To raise money, Dennis begins working at Happier Hunting Grounds, a local pet cemetery run by the reverend's brother Henry Glenworthy (also played by Winters), who has lately been fired by the studio as well. Dennis courts Aimee with poetry, which fascinates her though she fails to recognize famous verses. When Aimee asks whether Dennis wrote these passages he changes the subject. Dennis dares not let Aimee find out where he works since she regards the pet cemetery to be sacrilegious. Aimee is increasingly frustrated by Dennis' cynical and disrespectful attitude toward Whispering Glades and is shocked at his suggestion that they marry and live on her income when she gets a promotion. So, acting on advice given by Guru Brahmin (Lionel Stander
Lionel Stander
Lionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...
), actually a drunken staff writer at a newspaper, she accepts a dinner invitation from Mr. Joyboy who secured her promotion. Thoughts of a serious relationship with Mr. Joyboy are dismissed when she sees his bizarre and unhealthy relationship with his morbidly obese mother whose only interest is food. Again acting on the advice of Guru Brahmin, she becomes engaged to Dennis. She invites him to her home, a partially finished house build on a cliff, condemned and abandoned due to the danger of landslides. He cuts the visit short, alarmed at occasional ominous trembling and Aimee's lack of concern over her own safety.
Meanwhile, Dennis and Henry Glenworthy meet their neighbor, a boy genius (Paul Williams
Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
) with an interest in rocketry and they let him set up a lab at the pet cemetery. Mr. Joyboy, brings in his pet myna bird to be buried and discovers the identity of his rival. He agrees to have the bird by shot into orbit by one of the neighbor's rockets instead of being buried. Mr. Joyboy brings Aimee to the ceremony and she is outraged when she sees Dennis performing the service, this greatly pleases Mr. Joyboy.
Reverend Glenworthy, seeing little profit in the cemetery once the plots have been filled, decides to convert it to a retirement home, but is unable to proceed without a plan for dealing with the bodies interred there. When he learns of his brother's idea of sending bodies into orbit he recognizes it as a solution to his own problem. He proceeds to obtain surplus rockets by hosting an orgy at Whispering Glades with top Air Force brass as guests of honor. Dennis, in a desperate attempt to reconcile with Aimee, tells her that Whispering Glades is to be shut down. She flees but is afraid that what Dennis told her might be true.
She first seeks Mr. Joyboy for comfort, but he has been called to the cemetery to prepare the body to be launched in orbit, an ex-astronaut nicknamed "The Condor". She then tracks down Guru Brahmin in a bar, but he drunkenly advises her to jump out a window. Finally, she flees to cemetery and find Reverend Glenworthy, who confirms Dennis' story and tries to seduce her with promises of continued employment with higher pay at the new facility. Wholly distraught since her faith in everything she held sacred has been shattered, she attaches herself to an embalming machine and dies peacefully.
Mr. Joyboy finds her body but is afraid to report it because of the scandal it would cause, so he calls Dennis to dispose of her in the pet cemetery's crematorium. Dennis agrees but only if Mr. Joyboy gives him a first class ticket back to England and all the cash he can lay his hands on. Dennis also imposes the condition that Aimee be placed in the casket headed for space and The Condor be sent to the pet crematorium. After the televised funeral ceremony and launch, Dennis is seen boarding the first class section of a plane to England.
Cast
- Robert MorseRobert MorseRobert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business...
as Dennis Barlow - Jonathan WintersJonathan Winters-Early life:Winters was born in Bellbrook, Ohio, the son of Alice Kilgore , a radio personality, and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an investment broker. He is a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio...
as Henry & Wilbur Glenworthy - Anjanette ComerAnjanette ComerAnjanette Comer is an American actress.Born in Dawson, Texas to Rufus Franklin and Nola Comer, her first major television credit was a guest appearance in a 1963 episode of Gunsmoke, followed by roles in several other dramatic series of the 1960s, such as Dr. Kildare and Bonanza...
as Aimee Thanatogenos - Rod SteigerRod SteigerRodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
as Mr. Joyboy - Dana AndrewsDana AndrewsDana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
as Gen. Buck Brinkman - Milton BerleMilton BerleMilton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
as Mr. Kenton - Ayllene Gibbons as Joyboy's mother
- James CoburnJames CoburnJames Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
as Immigration Officer - John GielgudJohn GielgudSir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
as Sir Francis Hinsley - Alan NapierAlan NapierAlan William Napier-Clavering was an English actor, best known for portraying Alfred Pennyworth in the 1960s live-action Batman television series.-Early life and career:...
as a British club official - Robert EastonRobert Easton (actor)Robert Easton is an American actor whose career in film and television spans more than 60 years. His mastery of English dialect has earned him the epithet "The Man of a Thousand Voices", For decades he has been a leading Hollywood dialogue or accent coach.Easton was born Robert Easton Burke in...
as Dusty Acres - Tab HunterTab HunterTab Hunter is an American actor, singer, former teen idol and author who has starred in over forty major films.-Background:...
as Whispering Glades tour guide - Margaret Leighton as Mrs. Helen Kenton
- LiberaceLiberaceWladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
as Whispering Glades funeral salesman - Roddy McDowallRoddy McDowallRoderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
as D.J., Jr. - Robert MorleyRobert MorleyRobert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
as Sir Ambrose Abercrombie - Barbara NicholsBarbara NicholsBarbara Nichols was an American actress who often played brassy comic roles in a number of films in the 1950s and 1960s.-Early life and Career:...
as Sadie Blodgett - Lionel StanderLionel StanderLionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...
as the Guru Brahmin - Bernie KopellBernie KopellBernard Morton "Bernie" Kopell is an American television character actor who is probably best known for his roles as Dr. Adam Bricker in The Love Boat and KAOS agent Siegfried in Get Smart...
as Brahmin's assistant - Paul WilliamsPaul Williams (songwriter)Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
as Gunther Fry - Chick HearnChick HearnFrancis Dayle "Chick" Hearn was an American sportscaster. Known primarily as the long-time play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, the legendary Hearn is remembered for his rapid fire, staccato broadcasting style, inventing colorful phrases such...
as space-burial funeral announcer
Production
The film was shot in and around the Los Angeles area with Hollywood, the Hollywood HillsHollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...
, Beverly Hills, LAX and Burbank
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
among the locations. Whispering Glades was drawn from Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...
in Glendale with the exterior and interior scenes shot mostly at Greystone Mansion
Greystone Mansion
Greystone Mansion, also known as the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor-style mansion on a landscaped estate with distinctive formal English gardens, located in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The architect Gordon Kaufmann designed the residence and ancillary structures, with construction...
.