A New Leaf
Encyclopedia
A New Leaf is a dark comedy film based on the short story The Green Heart by Jack Ritchie, starring Elaine May
, Walter Matthau
, George Rose
and James Coco
. Better known for her collaboration as a stage comedienne with The Graduate
director Mike Nichols
, May also wrote and directed (in her debut). For this film May consulted Dr. Dominick Basile, a botany professor at Columbia University. Dr. Basile wrote botanically accurate lines into the script and supplied the botanical equipment seen in the film. May also modeled Henrietta's office after his.
The film was a critical success upon its initial release and is now considered a cult classic. However, despite several accolades, award nominations, and a Radio City Music Hall
run, A New Leaf fared poorly at the box office and remains little known by the general public.
Henry, unwilling to exercise the only solution he can think of—suicide—devises a plan with the help of his imaginative butler Harold. He can obtain money the old-fashioned way—he can marry it.
With a loan from Uncle Harry to tide him over, Henry has just six weeks to find a rich bride and repay the money. Otherwise he must forfeit all of his property to his uncle.
Desperation sets in as Henry's attempts to meet a suitable mate all fail. With only days remaining on his deadline, Henry bumps into clumsy, painfully shy heiress Henrietta Lowell. She is the answer to his prayers.
Henrietta's suspicious lawyer is a problem for Henry, as is his own distaste for marriage. He considers the latter to be a temporary inconvenience, however, since he plans to do away with his new wife as soon as possible.
Murder never far from his mind, Henry takes charge of his wife's life. He reorganizes her household staff, which has been taking advantage of her timidity and naivete. Henrietta is completely disorganized and welcomes Henry's guidance.
A botany
professor, Henrietta discovers a new species of tree fern and names it after him. She loves Henry and invites him to join her on a canoe trip to a remote area. Henry sees his opportunity to rid himself of Henrietta forever, knowing she cannot swim. The plan works perfectly; the canoe overturns and Henrietta is swept away down the river.
But as soon as Henry swims to safety, the first thing he finds is a tree fern of the type Henrietta named after him. At this moment he comes to the realization that he has fallen in love with his victim. He quickly rescues Henrietta and resigns himself to his unexpected fate as a happily married man.
, who described the movie as "hilarious, and cockeyed, and warm." In his New York Times review, Vincent Canby
called it "a beautifully and gently cockeyed movie that recalls at least two different traditions of American film comedy... The entire project is touched by a fine and knowing madness."
a rough cut of the film ten months into editing, Robert Evans took the film away from her and recut it. May's version was rumored to run an unwieldy 180 minutes. It is not known if the original cut still exists. Supposedly, at one point May hid the negative under her bed in order to gain negotiating leverage. Evans shortened it to 102 minutes. Angered by the alterations, May tried to take her name off the film and unsuccessfully sued Paramount to keep it from opening.
The original story included a subplot in which Henry discovers from the household accounts that Henrietta is being blackmailed on dubious grounds by the lawyer, McPherson, and another character played by William Hickey
; Henry poisons both of them. This darkly casts Henry's eventual acceptance of a conventional life with Henrietta as his "sentence". By eliminating the subplot, Paramount fixed the excessive running time, avoided the awkwardness of Henry getting away with murder and transformed the ending into a rather sweet affirmation of love and personal redemption.
Roger Ebert discusses this issue in his review: "Miss May is reportedly dissatisfied with the present version; newspaper reports indicate that her original cut was an hour longer and included two murders. Matthau, who likes this version better than the original, has suggested that writer-director-stars should be willing to let someone else have a hand in the editing. Maybe so. I'm generally prejudiced in favor of the director in these disputes. Whatever the merits of Miss May's case, however, the movie in its present form is hilarious, and cockeyed, and warm."
Vincent Canby remarked: "Not having seen Miss May's version, I can only say that the film I saw should be a credit to almost any director, though, theoretically at least, Miss May is right. The only thing that gives me pause is the knowledge that its success will probably be used in the future as an argument to ignore the intentions of other directors, but with far less happy results."
and the Oakland Gardens
section of Queens, New York City.
It was co-produced by Aries Productions and Elkins Productions International Corporation, whose only other production was A Doll's House
(1973).
, the film's original $1.8 million budget shot up to over $4 million by the time it was completed. Shooting went 40 days over schedule and editing took over ten months. Similar problems dogged her subsequent project, Mikey and Nicky
.
During shooting, producer Howard W. Koch tried to have May replaced, but she had put a $200,000 penalty clause in her contract and he was persuaded to keep her.
Elaine May
Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
, Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...
, George Rose
George Rose (actor)
\...
and James Coco
James Coco
James Coco was an American character actor.- Early life and career :Born James Emil Coco in New York City, son of Feliche Coco, a shoemaker and Ida Detestes Coco, James began acting straight out of high school. As an overweight and prematurely balding adult, he found himself relegated to character...
. Better known for her collaboration as a stage comedienne with The Graduate
The Graduate
The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder...
director Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
, May also wrote and directed (in her debut). For this film May consulted Dr. Dominick Basile, a botany professor at Columbia University. Dr. Basile wrote botanically accurate lines into the script and supplied the botanical equipment seen in the film. May also modeled Henrietta's office after his.
The film was a critical success upon its initial release and is now considered a cult classic. However, despite several accolades, award nominations, and a Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
run, A New Leaf fared poorly at the box office and remains little known by the general public.
Plot
Spoiled, pompous, self-involved Henry Graham has a big problem: he has run through his entire inheritance and is completely unequipped to provide for himself. His childhood guardian, Uncle Harry, refuses to give him a dime.Henry, unwilling to exercise the only solution he can think of—suicide—devises a plan with the help of his imaginative butler Harold. He can obtain money the old-fashioned way—he can marry it.
With a loan from Uncle Harry to tide him over, Henry has just six weeks to find a rich bride and repay the money. Otherwise he must forfeit all of his property to his uncle.
Desperation sets in as Henry's attempts to meet a suitable mate all fail. With only days remaining on his deadline, Henry bumps into clumsy, painfully shy heiress Henrietta Lowell. She is the answer to his prayers.
Henrietta's suspicious lawyer is a problem for Henry, as is his own distaste for marriage. He considers the latter to be a temporary inconvenience, however, since he plans to do away with his new wife as soon as possible.
Murder never far from his mind, Henry takes charge of his wife's life. He reorganizes her household staff, which has been taking advantage of her timidity and naivete. Henrietta is completely disorganized and welcomes Henry's guidance.
A botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
professor, Henrietta discovers a new species of tree fern and names it after him. She loves Henry and invites him to join her on a canoe trip to a remote area. Henry sees his opportunity to rid himself of Henrietta forever, knowing she cannot swim. The plan works perfectly; the canoe overturns and Henrietta is swept away down the river.
But as soon as Henry swims to safety, the first thing he finds is a tree fern of the type Henrietta named after him. At this moment he comes to the realization that he has fallen in love with his victim. He quickly rescues Henrietta and resigns himself to his unexpected fate as a happily married man.
Cast
- Walter MatthauWalter MatthauWalter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...
as Henry Graham - Elaine MayElaine MayElaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
as Henrietta - James CocoJames CocoJames Coco was an American character actor.- Early life and career :Born James Emil Coco in New York City, son of Feliche Coco, a shoemaker and Ida Detestes Coco, James began acting straight out of high school. As an overweight and prematurely balding adult, he found himself relegated to character...
as Uncle Harry - George RoseGeorge RoseThe Right Honourable George Rose was a British politician.Born at Woodside near Brechin, Scotland, Rose was the son of the Reverend David Rose of Lethnot, by Margaret, daughter of Donald Rose of Wester Clune...
as Harold - Jack Weston as Andy McPherson
- Doris RobertsDoris RobertsDoris Roberts is an American character actress of film, stage and television. She has received five Emmy Awards. She began her career in 1952, and may be best-known as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996–2005....
as Mrs. Traggert - Renee TaylorRenee TaylorRenée Taylor is an American actress, Academy Award nominated writer and one-time director, best-known for having played Fran Drescher's outspoken mother, Sylvia Fine, on the TV series The Nanny.- Career :...
as Sally Hart - David Doyle as Mel
- William RedfieldWilliam Redfield (actor)William Redfield was an American actor and author who appeared in numerous theatrical, film, radio, and television roles.-Acting career:...
as Beckett
Critical reception
The film was well received by critics. It received a top rating of four stars from Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, who described the movie as "hilarious, and cockeyed, and warm." In his New York Times review, Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
called it "a beautifully and gently cockeyed movie that recalls at least two different traditions of American film comedy... The entire project is touched by a fine and knowing madness."
Nominations
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy - lost to Fiddler on the RoofFiddler on the RoofFiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...
(1971) - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or ComedyGolden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or ComedyThe Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1950...
(Elaine MayElaine MayElaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
) - lost to TwiggyTwiggyLesley Lawson née Hornby known as Twiggy is an English model, actress, and singer. In the early-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London with others such as Penelope Tree....
in The Boy FriendThe Boy FriendThe Boy Friend is a musical by Sandy Wilson. The musical's original 1954 London production ran for 2,078 performances, making it briefly the third-longest running musical in West End or Broadway history until it was surpassed by Salad Days...
(1971) - WGAWriters Guild of AmericaThe Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
Award (Screen) for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium (Elaine MayElaine MayElaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
) - lost to John PaxtonJohn PaxtonJohn Paxton was an American screenwriter.-Biography:Some of his films include Murder, My Sweet in 1944, Cornered in 1945, Crossfire in 1947...
for KotchKotchKotch is a 1971 American comedy film which tells the story of an elderly man who runs away so as not to be put into a nursing home, and strikes up a friendship with a pregnant teenage girl. It stars Walter Matthau, Deborah Winters, Felicia Farr, Charles Aidman and Ellen Geer.The film was adapted...
(1971)
Alternate versions and edits
After May wouldn't show Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
a rough cut of the film ten months into editing, Robert Evans took the film away from her and recut it. May's version was rumored to run an unwieldy 180 minutes. It is not known if the original cut still exists. Supposedly, at one point May hid the negative under her bed in order to gain negotiating leverage. Evans shortened it to 102 minutes. Angered by the alterations, May tried to take her name off the film and unsuccessfully sued Paramount to keep it from opening.
The original story included a subplot in which Henry discovers from the household accounts that Henrietta is being blackmailed on dubious grounds by the lawyer, McPherson, and another character played by William Hickey
William Hickey (actor)
William Edward Hickey was an American actor. He was best known for his Oscar-nominated role as Don Corrado Prizzi in the John Huston 1985 film Prizzi's Honor, as well as the voice of Dr...
; Henry poisons both of them. This darkly casts Henry's eventual acceptance of a conventional life with Henrietta as his "sentence". By eliminating the subplot, Paramount fixed the excessive running time, avoided the awkwardness of Henry getting away with murder and transformed the ending into a rather sweet affirmation of love and personal redemption.
Roger Ebert discusses this issue in his review: "Miss May is reportedly dissatisfied with the present version; newspaper reports indicate that her original cut was an hour longer and included two murders. Matthau, who likes this version better than the original, has suggested that writer-director-stars should be willing to let someone else have a hand in the editing. Maybe so. I'm generally prejudiced in favor of the director in these disputes. Whatever the merits of Miss May's case, however, the movie in its present form is hilarious, and cockeyed, and warm."
Vincent Canby remarked: "Not having seen Miss May's version, I can only say that the film I saw should be a credit to almost any director, though, theoretically at least, Miss May is right. The only thing that gives me pause is the knowledge that its success will probably be used in the future as an argument to ignore the intentions of other directors, but with far less happy results."
Production
It was filmed in both MaineMaine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and the Oakland Gardens
Oakland Gardens, Queens
Oakland Gardens is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is bounded to the north by 48th Avenue, to the east by Alley Pond Park, to the south by Union Turnpike, and to the west by Cunningham Park. Bayside is to the north, and Queens Village and...
section of Queens, New York City.
It was co-produced by Aries Productions and Elkins Productions International Corporation, whose only other production was A Doll's House
A Doll's House (1973 Garland film)
A Doll's House is a 1973 British film, directed by Patrick Garland. It is based on Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House.-Cast:* Claire Bloom - Nora Helmer* Anthony Hopkins - Torvald Helmer* Ralph Richardson - Dr...
(1973).
Financial issues
In what would become a hallmark of Elaine MayElaine May
Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
, the film's original $1.8 million budget shot up to over $4 million by the time it was completed. Shooting went 40 days over schedule and editing took over ten months. Similar problems dogged her subsequent project, Mikey and Nicky
Mikey and Nicky
Mikey and Nicky is a 1976 film written and directed by Elaine May. Using three cameras that she sometimes left running for hours, May captured spontaneous interaction between Peter Falk and John Cassavetes...
.
During shooting, producer Howard W. Koch tried to have May replaced, but she had put a $200,000 penalty clause in her contract and he was persuaded to keep her.