A New Leaf (film)

1971 film directed by Elaine May

A New Leaf is a 1971 American black comedy film written and directed by Elaine May in her directorial debut based on the short story "The Green Heart" by Jack Ritchie. It stars May, Walter Matthau, Jack Weston, George Rose, James Coco, and Doris Roberts. In 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Henry Graham, a wealthy gadabout from a patrician New York family, has squandered his entire inheritance and is completely unequipped to provide for himself. For months, he dodges his exasperated accountant’s phone calls and takes no agency over his ruination. His disgusted accountant writes off $550, paid from his own funds, to finally be rid of Henry. When Henry's avaricious uncle Harry, his contemptuous former guardian, rebuffs his appeal to borrow money, Henry’s pragmatic valet Harold suggests to his depressed master that he should marry into wealth. Deciding to marry then murder a rich wife, Henry wheedles a $50,000 loan from Harry to tide him over and finance his courtship campaign. Henry has just six weeks to find a rich bride and repay the money or forfeit everything he owns (worth $500,000, primarily in his beloved art collection). Desperation sets in as Henry's attempts to meet a suitable mate fail. With only days remaining, Henry meets the answer to his prayers: clumsy, painfully shy, immensely wealthy heiress Henrietta Lowell, a botany professor with no family. Henrietta's suspicious lawyer Andy McPherson opposes the union, however, and plots with Harry to frustrate the marriage plans. The good natured Henrietta is so guileless that McPherson’s manipulations backfire. When Andy reveals to her the $50,000 loan with a six week deadline, Henry “reluctantly discloses” that he had intended to settle his debts before committing suicide, but that meeting Henrietta has made life worth living. When Andy points out that friends will believe penniless Henry is marrying her for her money, Henrietta declares that Henry’s debts will be paid before their marriage, and he will be given unlimited access to her bank account—in her eyes making him financially independent takes away mercenary motives. To Andy’s exasperation, the madly in love Henrietta marries Henry. On a honeymoon to the Caribbean, Henrietta discovers what may be an unknown species of fern. Never losing focus of his plan, Henry takes charge of his wife's life. He immediately fires her 17 corrupt household servants, who are in collusion with her crooked lawyer, splitting 50 50, to bilk her for bloated salaries and outrageous expenses. The housekeeper, who has her own bank account, hides the account books under her mattress. Henrietta often takes the bus because the chronically unavailable chauffeur is too busy with amorous escapades. The cook’s daughter is employed as a “mother’s helper” despite Henrietta’s childless state. Henry immerses himself in sorting out Henrietta’s accounts, learning about managing a vast estate and taxes. Complicating his plans, however, the gardener informs him that Henrietta allows only organic gardening methods—no strychnine or other poisons are stocked. When Henrietta discovers that he has a BA in history, she suggests that he could join her teaching at the university where she works, fantasizing about grading papers together in the evenings. He gruffly refuses. Henry hints that it is nearly time to dispose of his helpless wife, a competent academic inept in life skills (he asks the valet if he brushed the breakfast crumbs off her before she left for work). The valet expresses that Henry’s taking care of Henrietta, who the valet deems a kind hearted lady, has enabled Henry to grow and given him a new competence he never had. Henrietta's fern is confirmed as a new species; her name Alsophila grahami, dedicated to Henry, is accepted. Henry is uncharacteristically touched by the tribute. She invites him to join her on her annual field trip, a canoe adventure in the Adirondacks. Henry sees this as a perfect opportunity to finally rid himself of her. Instead, he ends up taking care of her. They embark on a canoe excursion that takes them into dangerous whitewater. Their canoe capsizes. Henry makes it to shore, but Henrietta is left clinging to a fallen log, confessing she cannot swim. He makes it safely to shore, intending to leave her to her fate. There he finds a chance example of the fern Henrietta named after him. Realizing that he has fallen in love in spite of himself, he rescues her, then resigns himself to a life together, promising to always be there to take care of her. He even agrees to consider teaching history.

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

In what would become a hallmark for Elaine May, 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 projects, Mikey and Nicky and Ishtar, the latter named by critics at the time as one of the worst films ever made. During shooting, producer Howard W. Koch tried to have May replaced, but she had put a $200,000 (equivalent to $0.2 in 1971 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years million in ) penalty clause in her contract and he was persuaded to keep her.

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 180 minutes and contained the two murders in Ritchie's story, as well as subplots about misogyny. 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". Paramount eliminated this subplot. (In the early 1990s, then head of Paramount Repertory Michael Schlesinger asked that the vaults be searched to see if the trims had survived, in the hopes of restoring May's original cut; nothing was found.) 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." 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."

The film was well received by critics. Contemporary reviewer Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four, and described the film as "hilarious, and cockeyed, and warm." As of 2019 the film had an approval rating of 94% at review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 68 reviews, with an average score of 8.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Elaine May is a comedic dynamo both behind and in front of the camera in this viciously funny screwball farce, with able support provided by Walter Matthau."