Friday, November 25, 2011

Friday Flashback: Rec. #56: A New Leaf

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.


What: In 1971's A New Leaf, Walter Matthau is Henry Graham, a supremely selfish man who's run through his family's entire fortune and finds himself completely broke. Of course, the obvious solution is to marry an heiress and then get rid of her. Unfortunately for Henry, the heiress he finds is Henrietta Lowell, a botanist whose complete lack of life skills eclipses even Henry's own. Henrietta is played by the genius Elaine May, who also wrote and directed.

Representative quote: "Excuse me, you're not by any chance related to the Boston Hitlers?"

Bonus representative quote: "Who do I know who's pregnant and a good sport?"

Bonus bonus representative quote: "He was an industrialist or a composer. Something like that."

You might not like it if: You don't like your comedies quite so dark.

How to get it: I wish you luck! It's not on DVD. (This is one reason I can't get rid of my VCR just yet.) If you do manage to will it into existence, please send me a copy. Thanks.

[Originally posted 2/24/11.]

[Update: It's still tricky to find, and I'm still intermittently desperate to own it. YouTube can only do so much. Please write to your congressional representative.]

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