The Loved One Is So Good, You Guys!

I've gotten stuck in pretty deep reviewing a couple of multi-film collections, which has taken longer than expected.  As a consequence, I've started to go pretty long without an update.  So that's still coming.  But in the meantime, here's a quick, DVD/ BD comparison of a single catalog title I can get up a little faster. It's a film that was bound to wind up on this site sooner or late anyway; I kinda love it, it's pretty unsung and it's also kinda nuts: 1965's The Loved One from Warner Archive.

The Loved One was directed by Tony Richardson right after he set the cinema world on fire with Tom Jones.  It's based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, you most people know from Brideshead Revisited, but this is nothing at all like that.  Rather than a stoic period piece, this is a wacky, contemporary comedy, but also dark, with teeth and the depth Waugh is known to bring to his work.  And when I say "contemporary," I mean for the 60s when it was made, and you know all the hellzapoppin' zaniness 60s comedies could get up.  I mean, just look at this cast: Johnathan Winters (in dual roles!), John Gielgud, James Coburn, Liberace, Tab Hunter, Chick Hearn (as himself), Roddy McDowall, Rod Steiger and Milton friggin' Berle are in this.  It's like a year's worth of Oscar winners and celebrity guest stars from The Love Boat pitched together to make an art movie.  and yes, Milton Berle's actually pretty great.

The slogan "the motion picture with something to offend everyone" is definitely over-stating things.  This isn't Men Behind the Sun or Meet the Feebles.  But it doesn't play it it safe, either, as it irreverently sends up the funeral home business, satirizing religion, capitalism, sex, Hollywood and the way we compartmentalize death.  In tone, I guess it's closest to Dr. Strangelove.  The tendency towards extreme silliness will surely put a lot of viewers off; but it's sort of a mad genius of a movie.

Warner Bros first released The Loved One on DVD in a nice, semi-special edition in 2006.  They later reissued it as part of the Warner Archive collection in 2013, which might've been a DVR?  I'm not sure; I've got the original '06 one.  Anyway, it's same content on both discs otherwise.  In 2016, they remastered the film and released it on blu.

2006 Warner Bros DVD top; 2016 Warner Archives BD bottom.

Both discs are presented in 1.78:1, which is to be expected for the DVD, but I would've thought they'd tweak it to 1.85 for the BD.  I don't know; maybe 1.78 is Richard's preference.  Because the blu is clearly a fresh scan, with additional picture along all four sides.  It's got stronger contrast and detail is definitely sharper and clearer - you can now read the "Happier Hunting Grounds" card on Winter's desk in that first set of shots.  And the image is much more filmic with grain, which is admittedly a little pixelated - this ain't 4k - but an entirely different league from the DVD, which smooths all of it away.

The DVD has the original English mono plus a French dub, with English, French and Spanish subtitles.  The blu-ray drops all the foreign language options, but keeps the subtitles and bumps the audio up to DTS-HD.

And a pleasant surprise - these aren't barebones!  Both discs have the same special features, which primarily consists of one fifteen minute-ish retrospective featurette, which interviews several key members of the cast and crew. You don't get a lot of extras on these Archive discs, and they went to the trouble of gathering up not just a handful of experts, but five of the original participants.  Besides that, there's the trailer, which is worth cheeking out just for the animation of the crazy poster image.  This one's a real essential in my collection.