
A New Leaf
Director: Elaine May Run Time: 102 min. Release Year: 1971
Starring: Elaine May, George Rose, Jack Weston, James Coco, Walter Matthau
Screenwriter: Elaine May
Producers: Howard Koch, Joseph Manduke, Hillard Elkins
The legendary Elaine May pulls triple duty as writer, director, and star of this wonderfully wry dark comedy of greed, love, plants, and plotting murder. Walter Matthau stars as Henry Graham, a trust fund baby who’s overspent his fortune into non-existence. Rather than work for a living, he decides to find a suggestible heiress to marry and murder. Awkward horticulturalist Henrietta Lowell (played by May herself) seems like the perfect mark, but maybe she’s more endearing with her penchant for cheap wine and generosity than he planned for.