Evelyn Waugh's audacious satire on the Southern California way of life (and death) was a long-time project of Luis Buñuel's, eventually brought to the screen by British director Tony Richardson from an adaptation by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood. Billed on its release as "the film with something to offend everyone," this classic black comedy concerns the sudden suicide of a Hollywood celebrity and his nephew's subsequent problems in paying the exorbitant funeral bill. The Loved One boasts a star-studded cast, including Robert Morse as the Candide-like nephew, Rod Steiger as the Oedipal Mr. Joyboy, and Liberace as a fastidious casket salesman—as well as appearances by John Gielgud, James Coburn, Milton Berle, Dana Andrews, and a host of others.