It’s always special when a filmmaker is able to create a world that shows off their unique sense of humour in a comedy. With A New Leaf, Elaine May has done that in spades. It’s even more impressive considering that the film was her filmmaking debut. But A New Leaf isn’t just unique in style and execution, it’s also one of the funniest films ever made. The sheer assured handling of the subject matter, along with May’s deft approach to comedy, makes the film an all time classic.
A New Leaf takes many tropes from the classic American screwball comedy of the 1930s, yet twists it into darker territory. In this setup, we follow wealthy playboy Henry Graham (Walter Matthau), a man who is used to his high class living. He is so aloof with his status and privilege, he doesn’t realize that he has spent all of his money and is now broke. He tries to argue is way of it with his attorney, who in turn can’t put it in simpler terms other than to say he has no money.
Finding that he has alienated everyone in his life, and full of no prospects, Henry is about to throw in the towel, until his valet gives him the idea that he could marry someone with a lot of money. This seems like the only course available to Henry, yet since he’s rather unlikable and anti-social, he plots to kill whoever he marries and take their money for his own.
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Enter Henrietta Lowell (Played by May herself), a sweet, clumsy heiress who is also a botanist. With Henrietta, Henry feels that he has found the perfect victim for his crime, and after a whirlwind courtship, the two marry. Yet as with most screwball comedies, things don’t always go as planned, and in the most unsuspecting ways, romance can be found.
A New Leaf is a film that feels ageless, and when it comes to comedies, this might be the most difficult thing to pull off. Very often comedy has the reputation to be the genre that ages the quickest. Sometimes what was considered funny ten years ago, can often be old fashioned or tepid. Occasionally gags could be deemed politically incorrect, or old references are no longer understood. Yet with May’s talent, she has made a film that doesn’t fall into those trappings.
Each joke builds and builds in every scene, while the timing of some gags are seamlessly artful. There is one scene during Henry and Henrietta’s wedding night where the simple task of trying to properly fit into a Grecian gown organically becomes transcendently hilarious.
As Henry, Matthau is perfectly cast. And when I say perfectly cast, I mean no one could pull off this selfish, self-involved, anti-hero, and still make him redeemable other than Matthau. His cantankerous line delivery, and bull dog jaw line fit nicely with Henry’s own vanity about himself, that his own appearance makes him endearing.
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As Henrietta, May is more soft spoken and mousy. She doesn’t command the scene like Henry who demands attention. She moves in and out of the film subtly, but leaving an indelible mark.
In the first scene where we see Henrietta, she is quickly introduced, but is then shown in the background as Henry talks to someone else in the room. Yet our eyes do not leave her, as May sits in the corner as still as a statue. We are anticipating her movement, and when it happens, it brings the house down. I found this anticipation coming over me, every time Henrietta would appear throughout the film, as we would know something delightfully surprising would come of it.
Along with the comic prowess of Matthau and May at the forefront, the film is populated by many other great character pieces from the ensemble. Among them is George Rose as Henry’s valet Harold who works as his sidekick, but also conscience. There is also Jack Weston as Andy McPherson, Henrietta’s crooked lawyer and rival for her affections. These characters populate the comical world May has set up, and she lets them shine in their own way, peppering the film with something that is always interesting to watch.
When it was first released, A New Leaf was notoriously taken from May by the studio and the length of the film was practically cut in half. May originally intended the film to be 180 minutes long, which included more of a subplot involving two murders which are never shown in the released version. May was understandably upset by this decision, and tried to protect the film, yet she ultimately lost control.
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It’s always a shame when we are not privy to the director’s original vision, and it would certainly be interesting, to perhaps one day, see what she had originally envisioned. Yet despite the cuts to the film, we are still left with what could simply be called a comedic masterpiece. May’s genius is still prevalent in individual scenes, and I don’t remember laughing as hard in a movie in a long time.
Elaine May should have had the career as her male contemporaries did at the time such as Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and her former comedy partner Mike Nichols. The films by those men have become canonical when we talk of great comedies of that period, yet May was just as talented.
She had one big hit after A New Leaf, which was The Heartbreak Kid, but then she made the crime film Mickey and Nicky which premiered with a thud. She didn’t direct for ten years, until making what would be her last film to date, the notorious flop Ishtar.
Today however, people have been re-evaluating May’s work, and she seems to be getting a second life with a new generation. A few months ago, at the age of eighty-eight, it was announced that May was assigned to direct her first film in over thirty years called Crackpot, which will star Dakota Johnson.
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It’s nice to know her creativity has not gone unnoticed, and even though it has taken this long, she is being welcomed back to the film community with open arms. One would only hope she could live thirty more years to give us the films we could not have during her exile.
Yet despite her small amount of films, we still have ones like A New Leaf which belongs in the ranks of great American comedies. It is a hidden gem, but it is a reminder that comedy is a high art, and it takes someone with wit and humor of Elaine May to make it sing on screen.
A New Leaf is available to stream on various platforms including YouTube.
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