ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

David Allen "A New Leaf" (1971) starring Walter Matthau and Elaine May is one of best screwball romantic comedies ever made.The story is based on a short story by Jack Ritchie titled "The Green Heart" and Elaine May wrote the movie script, directed and starred in the movie.By far, this is her best movie of all time.The movie presents a "poor little rich boy" meets "poor little rich girl" story, and follows the two into an unlikely marriage and a story which ends happily, even though the lovable villain, Walter Mathau playing "Henry Graham" does not have good or honest intentions, and does not intend to remain married to his new wife.(He plans to become a widower taking his new wife's fortune, but at the last moment, changes his mind and his life, and the two literally go off together into a beautiful sunset....a heartwarming ending rare and almost corny, but very welcome).The movie depends very much on the two main players, and the viewer comes to like them both very much as the story unfolds.Other supporting actors in the movie are also lovable and wonderful, and very funny.A really good movie has likable characters the viewer befriends from the very beginning of the film, and which characters remain lovable throughout.There are no true villains in good movies, and current era movies (2013) often make the mistake of foisting villains of such ugliness and brutal, violent character no onlooker could ever like them.The movie suffers when this happens, and the fact that despicable people exist in the world and have over history does not justify putting such people into the movies as characters.No movie can be edifying when such people are portrayed, no matter how skillfully.A good movie is edifying.That is true of all good art in any and all fields and categories of art."A New Leaf" (1971) is a gratifying example of an edifying movie where all portrayed, large and small roles, major and minor roles, are wonderful and memorable.It's a movie which makes the viewer feel good, and makes him/her glad for having spent time watching the movie.....and glad to return to it for many repeat screenings.Very, very few works of cinematic art are like this. That is why "A New Leaf" (1971) really is a treasure. Other classic screwball romantic comedies of note worth seeing, good for the same reasons "A New Leaf" (1971) was good, include "His Girl Friday" (1939), and "Lovers And Other Strangers" (1970).------------- Tex (David) Allen is a SAG-AFTRA accredited movie actor.See details about him on the IMDb website by searching for "Tex Allen."Email to TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com

Bob Pr. Henry (Walter Matthau), having squandered his large inheritance, his butler advises him that his only remedies are either suicide or marrying for money. The first option is less appealing to Henry so he quickly searches for a likely candidate--and finds Henrietta (Elaine May).This film is an example of what's sometimes called "comedy noir" in which undesirable acts or conditions set the stage for satire or laughs. Henry's an arrogant, completely self-centered man, profligate of his considerable inheritance, and seemingly never with any close emotional relationships. He risks taking out a very punitive short term loan to maintain his appearances as a man of considerable means with the aim of both quickly finding a wealthy woman to marry and then "doing her in." He finds his ideal candidate/victim: Henrietta --- the only child of deceased parents, extremely wealthy, a botanical scientist, AND with almost NO social sense or grace. Henry quickly courts her, proposes, and they marry. Henry researches potential poisons while Henrietta is researching ferns. But suddenly, Henry realizes Henrietta's love for him has become as gratifying as her abundant money and he begins a transformation. This film is liberally sprinkled with great (funny) one-liners and dialog; many people find it side-splitting hilarious. I chuckled some but neither Henry's extreme haughtiness nor Henrietta's "Asperger's"-like behavior was that funny to me nor such quick transformations believable.My rating of 6 was possibly influenced by my career (clinical psychologist) working with disturbed people which may have lessened my appreciation? Most friends in non-therapeutic fields think it's extremely funny.FWIW: Elaine May's (the director as well as co-star) original version of this film was 3 hours long which the studio found unacceptable so it was cut to its present length, eliminating 2 murders in the process. Elaine May was so dissatisfied with this cutting, she sought to have her name removed from the film credits. More about this can be found in IMDb's "Did You Know" Trivia for this film and/or look for this film's title on Wikipedia.

secondtake A New Leaf (1971)A kookie, forcibly odd movie. If at first you think it's just plain stupid, keep watching. It's really well balanced, smartly written, and acted with more restraint than usual for a madcap movie like this.It's billed (by some) as filled with dark humor, but it didn't strike me as dark, not like the contemporary "Harold and Maude" for example. But there is an unusual tone achieved here that is just slightly different and worth getting a feel for. There is, for another example, a parallel in general plot and scenario to "How to Murder Your Wife" from 1965, complete with the willing butler and the hapless rich bachelor, but that movie is a silly 1960s farce and this one has an edge of almost poignancy to it. (I write that word and think Elaine May would cringe--only because I don't think there is an intention to be sentimental or even romantic, the last scene notwithstanding.)The star is singularly Walter Matthau, who is almost necessarily goofy just by appearances. But maybe the first clever trick by the director, Elaine May, is putting the goofy man in even goofier situations so that he comes off as actually someone serious and believable. To have his character, Henry Graham, driving in his red Ferrari wearing a crash helmet is pure insanity, yet you don't blink an eye. The guy is self-absorbed and nuts. But also very likable, a little out of touch the way we all are, or wish we could be (if we had his money).And of course the man's dilemma is stated immediately: the money he once had so much of is used up. And you have to see to appreciate the one long scene in the first twenty minutes with Graham meeting his financial adviser about some bounced checks. This is comedy at its absolute best--I mean that. Watch only this scene if you must (and I dare you to skip the rest of the movie once you do). The actor opposite Matthau here is William Redfield, who pulls off the most brilliant of performances. The other leading character, eventually, is Elaine May herself as the clumsy, naive, filthy rich scientist who Graham sets his sights on for salvation. She is terrific, as well, and like Woody Allen of the same time ("Bananas" is also 1971) seems to direct her own comic zaniness with a calculated distance. The rest of the shenanigans play out with the necessary twists, and it's consistently funny. So, see this for its freshness even four decades later. No wonder it has a (small but growing) cult following. May has suffered historically from having made the bizarrely awkward "Ishtar" and for being forever linked in the early 1960s as the comedy partner of Mike Nichols, whose movie career overshadows almost everyone's. But here, at least, she shines on her own terms, without distraction.

laura-6 For some of us, the only recent recording of this film came from either TCM or PBS (can't remember which), wherein the sound sync was off kilter. Also, some images were fuzzy. The print shown on SHO(W)is crisp and in sync. That has to do for those of us who await a DVD with Ms. May's comments -- we hope.This is a drolly funny film with great location shots in New York City, parts of Long Island, NY as well as Maine. The line that will live forever for me is this: "And she has to be vacuumed every time she eats!" What a gem of a film.