The Loved One

Tony Richardson's 1965 film adapts Evelyn Waugh's novel and is a merciless satire aimed at the American funeral industry. Newly arrived in Hollywood from England, Dennis Barlow has to arrange his uncle's interment at the highly organised and highly profitable Whispering Glades, where he is taken with one of the cosmeticians, Aimee Thanatogenos. The screenplay was written by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood, and the film was marketed as the picture with something to offend everyone. Mr Joyboy, played by Rod Steiger, is among the strangest characters in American cinema. What it says about death, religion, commerce and display still bites; the tone is scattered, though, and some sections drown in their own joke. Who it's for: viewers interested in black comedy, Evelyn Waugh adaptations and 1960s American satire. Who it's not for: anyone troubled by humour made from death and corpses, or wanting a coherent story.