Fifty-five years after its launch, “A New Leaf” nonetheless stands alone. Its director, multihyphenate Elaine Could, introduced her experiences as a Technique actor and an improvisational comic to her filmmaking fashion, which would have been acknowledged for its singular brilliance had Could been born a person. As an alternative, her insistence on tight scripts and free, improvisational performances earned her a status for being “tough.”
Elaine Could’s directorial debut isn’t the primary movie about lovers plotting to homicide each other: The idea drives Preston Sturges’ “Unfaithfully Yours” (1948), for instance, in addition to 1965’s “Tips on how to Homicide Your Spouse.” Nonetheless, Could’s distinctive voice and elegance give “A New Leaf” unmatched poignancy and depth, which sneak into the movie unnoticed whereas the viewers is busy laughing on the characters and their screwball antics. As critic Richard Brody wrote in 2024, “the core of Could’s work is the horror of romantic relationships as skilled by girls”—a theme that’s handled right here first as farce, then as one thing that’s tougher to outline.
Henry Graham (Walter Matthau) is the movie’s predominant character, a heartless Manhattan playboy for whom cash is an summary idea. It by no means occurred to him that he might run out of cash, and he’s confused when his lawyer explains that his belief fund has been depleted. Promoting his artwork assortment—which, to be honest, does embody some fairly placing trendy items that might be price tens of millions in 2026—is out of the query. And so, in a murderous reversal of the “gold digger” stereotype, he units out to discover a rich single lady to marry, after which kill, so as to keep his life-style. (Staying married to his unfortunate bride can be out of the query.)
Henry might be a sinister determine, however Could refuses to take him too critically. A deadpan montage early within the movie reveals the shallow Henry bidding an absurd farewell to the trimmings of his wealth, whereas his beloved Ferrari, which breaks down each time he drives it, symbolizes the futility of his existence. Could lampoons Harry so completely, in truth, that it comes as a shock when he’s really good at one thing moreover telling a sure seam from a French one.
Henry has an amazing bullshit detector, because it seems. The viewers is aware of that he’s solely serving to his new spouse, Henrietta (Could), along with her funds so he can maximize his return after her demise, however she doesn’t. She thinks he’s defending her. The strain between what the viewers is aware of and what the characters know is among the movie’s most cynical jokes: “Are you able to consider that this fool thinks that she lastly discovered somebody who loves her for her?” Could appears to be saying. “He’s really attempting to kill her!”
It’s tempting to learn into the truth that Could forged herself because the guileless Henrietta, a girl whose brilliance goes unnoticed as a result of everybody’s targeted on the crumbs on the entrance of her gown. (She’s the mannequin for Tina Fey on “30 Rock,” right down to the glasses.) Could is notoriously reluctant to debate her life—she refused to cooperate with the 2024 biography “Miss Could Does Not Exist,” for instance—which implies that this hypothesis should stay simply that. Nevertheless, Henrietta’s naiveté has a word of tragedy to it that feels susceptible, even private, for the director.
Henrietta’s clumsiness and lack of refinement are each performed for laughs in “A New Leaf.” Though she primarily made her residing with phrases, Could reveals an unimaginable aptitude for bodily efficiency within the position. In addition to being hilarious, even the awkward method she holds her arms when she sits—Could dangles her appendages in entrance of her, as if her wrists are damaged—tells us quite a bit about her character. Henrietta is self-conscious and uncomfortable in her physique, and solely relaxes when she’s speaking about her favourite topic: ferns.
Right here is the place “A New Leaf” begins to mature into one thing extra nuanced. Initially framed as predator and sufferer, each Henry and Henrietta turn into extra sophisticated than their comically exaggerated personas counsel. Henrietta doesn’t care about materials issues, however she isn’t fully selfless, both: Her dream of getting a brand new plant species named after her is motivated by her want for scientific immortality. Henry pertains to the ego underlying this want, and briefly softens on his mark/bride. It’s one other darkish joke from Could: A person solely acknowledges a girl as human when she acts as he does.
However what actually adjustments their dynamic is when candy, delusional Henrietta names the fern she found on their honeymoon after her new husband reasonably than herself. (He didn’t discover on the time; he was too busy studying a e book referred to as “Newbie’s Information to Toxicology.”) Appropriately flattered, Henry begins to marvel if having a spouse—this spouse, particularly—won’t be so unhealthy in any case. He’s not a horrible husband, both, if you may get previous the entire “homicidal intentions” factor. The charred-black joke might be summed up right into a single picture: At its core, “A New Leaf” is a girl saying, “Yeah, he tried to kill me, however apart from that he’s a pleasant man.”
Based mostly on the story “The Inexperienced Coronary heart” by Jack Ritchie, Could’s script for “A New Leaf” is filled with elegant phrasing and absurd bon mots. (“Sooty blot” is an effective one, as is “your erotic obsession along with your carpet.”) As absurd as a few of it may be, each aspect within the movie is tightly managed. On set, Could insisted on perfection and repeated scenes till they have been proper, however whereas such control-freak tendencies have been forgivable from, say, Stanley Kubrick, the identical was not true of Elaine Could.
“A New Leaf” went over price range and over schedule, and when Could emerged after ten months within the modifying room with a three-and-a-half-hour tough lower, Paramount’s Robert Evans determined to disregard Could’s contract (which gave her last lower) and edited the film right down to 102 minutes. (Matthau, who turned out to be one thing of a Henry himself, took the studio’s facet.) Outraged that management over her movie had been taken from her in such a public, humiliating method, Could sued the studio to have her title faraway from its credit; she misplaced after a choose dominated that the ultimate lower was nonetheless humorous.
“A New Leaf” made cash and led to Could helming one other comedy basic, 1972’s “The Heartbreak Child.” However for this self-taught genius, it was the start of a slow-motion heartbreak, because the drama over “A New Leaf” would repeat itself all through Could’s regrettably transient tenure as a director. Talked over, dismissed, and by no means given the advantage of the doubt, Could struggled to keep up management over all 4 movies she directed between 1971 and 1987; finally, preemptive criticism of her movie “Ishtar” would kill her directorial profession.
Now 93 years outdated, she by no means offers interviews and seems in public solely not often. And why would she? The film business, a suitor she by no means actually wished within the first place, tried to kill her. She’s no hapless Henrietta, however each time somebody discovers “A New Leaf,” her immortality is assured.
