Harold and Maude (ranked number 9 on the American Film Institute's new top 10 list of romantic comedies) shocked audiences before eventually developing cult status. This sweetly perverse romantic comedy explores love, freedom, and death through the eyes of an old woman (Ruth Gordon) who has experienced everything life has to offer and a young man (Bud Cort) whose experiences are limited to staging suicides around his parent’s mansion.
About the Production of Harold and Maude
1. The film was based on a 30-minute thesis project by Colin Higgins for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) screenwriting program. He expanded the story into a full-length feature film for director Hal Ashby.
2. Higgins went on to write adaptations of his script including Harold et Maud for a French play and Harold i Mod for a Yugoslavian TV movie. His other writing credits include the films Silver Streak, Foul Play, and Nine to Five.
3. Despite the low budget (reportedly about $1 million), much of the production design and some of the camera angles give Harold and Maude an artsy quality resembling still-life paintings.
4. Ashby was quoted in Film Quarterly (1972) as saying that he originally planned a sex scene between the couple, but was told by studio executives that he couldn’t film the scene because “it would turn everybody off.” An implied scene was substituted for Ashby’s original concept.
5. Harold, with his staged suicides and remodeled hearse, was “Emo” before it became fashionable.
6. Joyful, life-affirming music by Cat Stevens helps deliver the message of the film.
7. Maude’s wonderful statement to Harold has become part of our pop culture: “Go ahead and live. Otherwise, you’ve got nothing to talk about in the locker room.”
About the Actors in Harold and Maude
8. Ruth Gordon, who died in 1985 and also was an award-winning writer, won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 1969 for her role as the monstrous Minnie Castevet in the horror film Rosemary’s Baby before transforming into the charming character of Maude soon afterward.
9. During shooting, which took place entirely in San Francisco, Cort accidentally got hit in the head with a shovel while outside and a young woman (Ellen Geer as “Sunshine”) slipped on the floor in the mansion. Both of these bloopers remain in the film.
10. Look for Hal Ashby as a bearded man watching a model train, Cat Stevens as the man in front of Maude at the funeral, and a young Tom Skerrit as a motorcycle officer.
Harold and Maude is a must-see cult classic (rated PG and running 91 minutes) about a love with no boundaries.
For more information about oddball romances, read Lars and the Real Girl on DVD.
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