A New Leaf (film)

Henry Graham, a playboy from a wealthy patrician family, 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 considers but is unwilling to exercise the only solution he can think of—suicide. At the suggestion of his valet Harold, Henry decides the only other viable option open to him: marrying into wealth. With a $50,000 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 fail. With only days remaining, Henry meets clumsy, painfully shy heiress Henrietta Lowell, a botany professor. She is the answer to his prayers: wealthy and with no family. However, Henrietta's suspicious (and crooked) lawyer Andy McPherson is a problem, as Uncle Harry plots with the shyster to prove to Henrietta that Henry only wants her for her money. They fail, and Henrietta marries Henry. On their honeymoon, Henrietta discovers what may be an unknown species of fern.

Murder never far from his mind, Henry takes charge of his wife's life. He reorganizes her household staff, who had been taking full advantage of her timidity and naivete and sharing their profits with her former lawyer. He also learns how to manage accounts and a vast estate. Henrietta is completely disorganized and welcomes Henry's guidance. She also finds out that he has a B.A. in history, and suggests he could get a teaching job at the university she works at, so they could be together all the time and grade term papers together. Henry finds this prospect utterly horrifying.

When Henrietta's fern is confirmed as a new species, she names it Alsophila grahami after Henry. He is unexpectedly touched.

She invites him to join her on her canoe trip to the Adirondacks for her annual field trip. Henry sees this as an opportunity to rid himself of Henrietta in a remote area with no witnesses. Before he can dispose of her, however, their canoe capsizes. Henry makes it to shore, but Henrietta tells him she cannot swim. Henry tells her to let go of the log she is clinging to and he will rescue her. As he is leaving her to her watery fate, he finds an example of the fern Henrietta named after him and turns to tell her about it, forgetting for the moment the situation. With the realization that he loves her, he rescues her and resigns himself to his unexpected fate as a married man. When she asks him if he will always be there to take care of her, he responds, "I'm afraid so."

• Walter Matthau as Henry Graham
• Elaine May as Henrietta Lowell
• Jack Weston as Andy McPherson
• George Rose as Harold
• James Coco as Uncle Harry
• Doris Roberts as Mrs. Traggert
• Renée Taylor as Sally Hart
• David Doyle as Mel
• William Redfield as Beckett

The film was well received by critics. It received a top rating of four stars from Roger Ebert, who described the movie as "hilarious, and cockeyed, and warm."[6] In his review for The New York Times, 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."[3] The film was placed at #2 on Gene Siskel's list of the best movies of 1971.[7]

As of June 2019, A New Leaf holds a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.99/10.[8]

• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy - lost to Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Elaine May) - lost to Twiggy in The Boy Friend (1971)
• WGA Award (Screen) for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium (Elaine May) - lost to John Paxton for Kotch (1971)

[9]

After May would not show Paramount Pictures a rough cut of the film ten months into editing, Robert Evans took the film away from her and recut it even though she had final cut in her contract. May's version was rumored to run an unwieldy 180 minutes and contained the two murders in Ritchie's story, as well as subplots about misogyny. Supposedly, at one point May hid the negative under her bed in order to gain negotiating leverage. It is not known if the original cut still exists. 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 being released.

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.

May sued Paramount to get her name removed as writer and director, but no one with power was on her side. Matthau never thought her capable of holding all three roles of actor, director, and writer, and the judge eventually sided with Paramount, saying their version was hilarious and bound to be a hit.

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."[6]

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."[3]

May wrote A New Leaf from Ritchie's short story, but she never intended to act in or direct the picture. She was originally offered $200,000 for the script, but her agent cut a deal with Paramount so that May could direct and he could produce. She was paid only $50,000, as her agent told her a first time director could not expect such a large sum of money.

May was told that she could not get the picture on without Matthau, and that Paramount wanted Carol Channing to play the part of Henrietta. May protested, saying it was the man's movie and that the woman had to be someone who disappeared. She asked if she could pick the actress, and the studio declined, saying that instead, May could play Henrietta, and all for the same money.

A New Leaf was filmed in both Maine and multiple sections of New York City, including Lutèce restaurant on 50th Street in Manhattan and the interchange between the Long Island Expressway and Cross Island Parkway in the Oakland Gardens section of Queens.

It was co-produced by Aries Productions and Elkins Productions International Corporation, whose only other production was A Doll's House (1973).

• List of films cut over the director's opposition
• 1971 in film
• The Heartbreak Kid - May's 1972 follow-up film

• A New Leaf at IMDb
• A New Leaf at the TCM Movie Database
• A New Leaf at AllMovie