I had recorded "The Loved One" on TCM a long time ago without knowing much about it, and not realizing that it was based on an Evelyn Waugh novel. Then I decided I would read the novel first, which I did. It's not bad, but it's a trifle. It feels like something Waugh hammered out while killing time in between writing better things. I watched the movie the day that I finished the book and...oof!...is the movie bad.
It was aired on TCM as part of a tribute to gay Hollywood and to John Gielgud, the acclaimed gay actor. The hosts of the segment went on and on about how great he was in the movie and gives its best performance. I couldn't figure out how that could be possible, since the character he plays in the book dies within the first couple of pages. I thought maybe they revised the adaptation so that he was in the story longer. But no...he indeed dies within the first five minutes of the movie. While he's in it, he's ok, I guess, but I can't for the life of me figure out why the hosts were fawning over him. As for the rest of the film, it tries to capture the tone of Waugh's book, which is black black comedy (it's set in a mortuary, for starters), but it misses by a mile. Nothing the movie attempts works, and the performances are mostly ghastly. Robert Morse mugs and grimaces his way through the lead role, while Rod Steiger minces around as if he was told he was in a completely different movie. By the time the movie was over, I outright hated it.
After the airing, the hosts came back to talk about it some more, and it became clear then (oh sure, after you've convinced me to watch it), that they didn't think it was a good movie either. They gave it some lukewarm praise in the "well, it's got some good moments" and "it's turned into a cult classic" vein, but they didn't try very hard to convince their viewers that it had much merit.
Read the book, skip the movie.
Grade: D
It was aired on TCM as part of a tribute to gay Hollywood and to John Gielgud, the acclaimed gay actor. The hosts of the segment went on and on about how great he was in the movie and gives its best performance. I couldn't figure out how that could be possible, since the character he plays in the book dies within the first couple of pages. I thought maybe they revised the adaptation so that he was in the story longer. But no...he indeed dies within the first five minutes of the movie. While he's in it, he's ok, I guess, but I can't for the life of me figure out why the hosts were fawning over him. As for the rest of the film, it tries to capture the tone of Waugh's book, which is black black comedy (it's set in a mortuary, for starters), but it misses by a mile. Nothing the movie attempts works, and the performances are mostly ghastly. Robert Morse mugs and grimaces his way through the lead role, while Rod Steiger minces around as if he was told he was in a completely different movie. By the time the movie was over, I outright hated it.
After the airing, the hosts came back to talk about it some more, and it became clear then (oh sure, after you've convinced me to watch it), that they didn't think it was a good movie either. They gave it some lukewarm praise in the "well, it's got some good moments" and "it's turned into a cult classic" vein, but they didn't try very hard to convince their viewers that it had much merit.
Read the book, skip the movie.
Grade: D