The Man Who Liked Funerals is a 1959 British comedy film starring Leslie Phillips, Susan Beaumont and Bill Fraser. It was directed by David Eady and written by Margot Bennett, Cecily Finn and Joan O'Connor. The film was released in the United Kingdom in January 1959.
Synopsis
In order to help a youth club which is under threat of closure, a man begins attending funerals where he blackmails the relatives of the recently deceased, threatening to publish incriminating stories about them. However, his plans encounter problems when he tries to blackmail the family of a prominent villain.
Cast
Leslie Phillips as Simon Hurd
Susan Beaumont as Stella
Bill Fraser as Jeremy Bentham
Thelma Ruby as Junior Mistress
Mary Mackenzie as Hester Waring
Paul Stassino as Nick Morelli
Jimmy Thompson as Lieutenant Hunter
Charles Clay as Colonel Hunter
Anita Sharp-Bolster as Lady Hunter
Shaun O'Riordan as Reverend Pitt
Marianne Stone as Bentham's secretary
Critical reception
It was one of 15 films selected by Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane in The British 'B' Film, their survey of British B films, as among the most meritorious of the B films made in Britain between World War II and 1970. They describe it as "fresh and gently funny", "consistently amusing, its plot worked out with some wit" and add that "its cast, amiably led by Phillips at the start of his starring career, enters into the spirit of the joke".