Harold and Maude (1971)
Paramount Home Video
91 minutes
Director: Hal Ashby
While you could argue that Harold and Maude is one of the great black comedies of all time, it also has a great deal of color. Sure, you’ve got the rich-and-unloved 20-something [Bud Court] who’s constantly staging his own grotesque suicides. Granted. But you’ve also got a cute little old lady with a philosopher’s mind and a penchant for car theft. And then this (very) older woman [Ruth Gordon] gives the young man wisdom, they fall in love, and well, they wind up doing what a young man and a woman about to turn 80 shouldn’t. Color. Gross, but colorful. With a storyline that sets it apart from any pack, standout performances from the leads, some excellent support work from Vivian Pickles (Bud’s mom) and Charles Tyner (Uncle Victor), and deft directing from Hal Ashby, this film hasn’t lost any of its luster decades after it was made. And watch out for the outstanding cameo performance by Eric Christmas as the priest who dies the death of a thousand cuts trying to explain to Harold why getting it on with octogenarians is not the done thing. Plain but true: With Hollywood being what it is now, they just don’t make ’em like this anymore.
-- Adrian Zupp