Review of A New Leaf (1971) by Archibald T — 22 Mar 2011

Henry Graham has exhausted all of his funds leaving him to be essentially broke. His butler, Harold, comes up with a few options for Henry to consider: Suicide or finding a woman who has a fortune and then marrying her. Somehow, Henry combines those two options comes out with an equal negative. He decides to find a wealthy woman, marry her and then have her killed so he can gain from her fortune so he won't be broke anymore.

Henry isn't a very well liked man. His own Uncle Harry laughs at his nephews predicament. In order for Henry to get things off the ground he needs some starter money since he has none. So, he asks his Uncle for 50, 000 dollars. His uncle decides to give him the money after Henry puts up many of his own belongings as collateral. However, his uncle wants to be repaid and gives Henry a deadline to get married and pay back his uncle in six weeks time.

Six weeks! Henry marches into the dating game. Many of the women he meets frighten him even one that is willing to unleash her milk bombs (breasts) sends him running. It's when he finds a woman who can't seem to hold her tea cup is when he's found the perfect one.

Her name is Henrietta and she's a clumsy little thing. Not very bright, kind of dumbfounded and completely incompetent. Henry is self indulgent, greedy, arrogant, rude, ambition-less and spoiled to the core. In a strange world these two complete each other due to their utter desperation. He's desperate for money and she's desperate for self confidence. She sees a self assured man in Henry and finds that to be utterly irresistible.

Henry's proposal is hilarious stuff. Not to mention that Henrietta's lawyer, Andrew, has been in love with her for 10 years and when he walks her down the aisle on her wedding day (because her family as passed) he quietly and so desperately professes his love to her in the most awkward of all scenes.

Much of the film deals with Henry growing more and more interested in wanting to kill Henrietta. You see, every little thing she does is annoying to him, but he soon realizes something about her when she surprises him by making him see how much she really loves him. It's a hilarious film with great performances from Matthau who never steers clear of making his character likeable.