A Connecticut-based newspaper weblog contains a feature-length article that is essentially a review of the DVD of the 1965 film based on Waugh’s novella, The Loved One (1948). The review concludes that the film begins well with the early scenes satirizing Hollywood and its British film colony but then falls apart when it tries to depict the love affair between Dennis Barlow and Aimee Thanatogenous. But where it really goes to pieces is in the story concocted by the scriptwriters in which the director of the Whispering Glades cemetery (played by comedian Jonathan Winters) adopts a project for reburying his clients in space to convert the graveyard into a real estate development. Sounds funny but it doesn’t work. A copy of the promotional poster for the film is attached to the article. If you look very closely indeed, you may see Waugh’s name in minute print below the name of Rod Steiger (who played Mr. Joyboy).
Thanks to Robert Murray Davis for calling this article to our attention. Those wanting to know more about how this film came about and Waugh’s reactions might want to consult Prof. Davis’s Mischief in the Sun: The Making and Un-Making of The Loved One (1999)
