By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Elaine May
Starring: Doris Roberts | Elaine May | George Rose | Jack Weston | James Coco | Renée Taylor | Walter Matthau
Country: united_states
Year: 1971
Running time: 102
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067482/reference
Michael says: “I find Elaine May’s career rather fascinating, although I haven’t seen a lot of her work more of her writing, some of her acting, and little of her directing. I’m hoping to change that. A NEW LEAF, released in 1971, was her directorial debut, adapted from a short story, ’The Green Heart.’ She also co-stars with Walter Matthau. The film revolves around Henry Graham, a playboy and heir to a wealthy family he discover one day that he is out of money. Even while considering suicide, Graham convinces his uncle to loan him $50,000 on the condition that he will marry a woman of wealth within six weeks or forfeit all his property to his creditor. As the days pays with Henry unsuccessful in finding a suitable wife-to-be, he discovers the painfully shy heiress, Henrietta Lowell, who is also a botany professor. In desperation, he woos Henrietta to the altar, and meets his deadline, despite her unscrupulous and corrupt lawyer trying to expose him for a gold-digger.
“The second half of the film deals Henrietta’s similarly unscrupulous staff, in league with her lawyer, Henry’s taking control of that situation, as well as Henrietta’s accounts, and then idly plotting ways to rid himself permanently of his new wife. While this is a black comedy, it’s a black romantic comedy, and sometimes love arrives when it is least expected, and causes plans to go awry… leading to a wacky but happy ending. This is a fascinating film in many ways, some of them swirling around it’s creation. May adapted the shot story, but had no intention of directing or starring in it. The studio offered her $200,000 for writing it, but her agent wrangled a deal with the studio for her to direct it and him to produce it. That deal found her being paid only $50,000 as she was a first-time director.The studio also case Carol Channing as Henrietta, but May balked, because she felt the film was about Henry, and the woman had to fade into the part, something Carol wouldn’t just not do. She asked if she could cast Henrietta, and instead the studio told her that she could play the part, but didn’t pay her anything additional. When production and editing went weeks over, the studio brought Robert Evans in to recut the film without May’s permission, and after unsuccessfully suing the studio to have her name removed from the production, ended up with a critically well-received but low-performing at the box-office flop. Still, despite the kind of misogynistic treatment of Henrietta, including her husband’s idle plotting to kill her, May constructed a funny and warm film with rather kooky but entertaining performances from her and Matthau, and a fun supporting role by a very young Doris Roberts. 4 cats“