The Loved One (1965)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) Notions of good and bad are almost irrelevant when you’re desperately weird, and The Loved One finds itself in a vein of very dark comedy—unshackled from social disapproval, the dying Production Code and good taste, but not quite able to do anything successful with all of that excess of freedom. Our story largely revolves around a young British man (Robert Morse!) who deals with his uncle’s estate while visiting Los Angeles and gradually gets drawn into the sordid mortuary industry. Adapted from a novel by a British author satirizing America’s obsession with death, the film was initially advertised as having “something to offend everyone,” and while that’s hyperbole, the film does keep much of its very dark sense of humour. While scattered, incoherent and a bit naïve compared to the un-satirizable twenty-first century, The Loved One does have moments that are funny and witty. A very, very good cast includes Rod Steiger, Dana Andrews, Milton Berle, James Coburn, Tab Hunter, Roddy McDowall and Liberace. Still, it does feel meandering and overstuffed at slightly more than two hours—a bit of editing and focus could have done much for the final result. But The Loved One can’t be mistaken for any other film of the period—it’s that odd.