A New Leaf

Brilliantly staged and performed . . . illustrates how fluidly May fuses verbal and physical comedy.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times
featuring

Elaine May, Walter Matthau, Jack Weston, George Rose,

A New Leaf stars Walter Matthau as Henry Graham, a playboy who has squandered his wealth and must marry a rich woman or forfeit all his passions, and May as Henrietta Lowell, a nerdy heiress/botany professor and possibly Graham’s next ticket to support his idle, rich lifestyle. May adapted the screenplay from a short story by Jack Ritchie, and the film became her directorial debut. The film “reveals the essence of marital love more brutally than many confrontational melodramas” (Richard Brody, New Yorker).

FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Elaine May
Based On
  • a short story by Jack Ritchie

Cinematographer
  • Gayne Rescher
Print Info
  • Color
  • 35mm
  • 102 mins
Source
  • Paramount Pictures