Harold and Maude

February 17, 2004 3:41 PM

Harold and Maude. We hold on his wretched face as his mother's hysterical cries are heard in the background. Harold moves his head and listens. He breaks into a sly, satisfied grin.
posted by thebabelfish (42 comments total)

[I just saw this today, but I can't for the life of me remember how I got there (I have a tendency to open up lots of tabs and then go back to read them later when I have time). It might have been inside a MeFi thread (can't find it though) or somewhere else in my daily traversal of the web. Doesn't seem like a dupe though, and sorry I can't give credit where credit is due.]
posted by thebabelfish at 3:43 PM on February 17, 2004

nice find.
posted by moonbird at 3:50 PM on February 17, 2004

PSYCHIATRIST
And were they all done for your
mother's benefit?

HAROLD
(thoughtful pause)
I wouldn't say "benefit."
posted by xmutex at 3:54 PM on February 17, 2004

credit done
posted by Domain Master 666 at 3:59 PM on February 17, 2004

Ah! So it was in a MeFi thread. Anyway, where'd you originally find the link DM666?
posted by thebabelfish at 4:18 PM on February 17, 2004

He gives her the little piece of metal.

MAUDE
Oh, a gift.

She reads it.

MAUDE
(continuing)
"Harold loves Maude."

She looks up. Harold is blushing.

MAUDE
(softly)
And Maude loves Harold.

They both smile at each other.

MAUDE
Ohhhhh! This is the nicest
present I've received in years.

She kisses it and tosses it happily into the ocean. She
turns back to Harold. His face is one of disbelief. He
looks out to the ocean and then back to Maude. He begins
to form the word "Why?"

MAUDE
So I'll always know where it is.

Harold accepts that. Women, after all, are strange
creatures. Maude smiles.
posted by ColdChef at 4:26 PM on February 17, 2004 [1 favorite]

It strikes me that this is somewhat along the lines of Amelie, although according to the date at the bottom, much older (AFAIK). I absolutely loved Amelie. Anyone else see the similarities?
posted by thebabelfish at 4:59 PM on February 17, 2004

Oops, seems like it was produced.
posted by thebabelfish at 5:03 PM on February 17, 2004

I'm a little confused. Is there an in-joke involved here? Harold and Maude is a pretty well-known film, I thought.
posted by Hildago at 5:08 PM on February 17, 2004

yeah I'm confused too Hildago, in fact I would even say it's a classic film. What's the deal?
posted by BloodyWallet at 5:10 PM on February 17, 2004

I'll see your confusion, and add some extra confusion as to why a link to a movie script is considered a good post. (The movie was OK, but I liked it better when I was younger.)
posted by languagehat at 5:15 PM on February 17, 2004

Well, when you were born 16 years after it was originally released (1971, I've read), it doesn't dawn upon you that what you're reading might actually be a classic film. Sorry about that.
posted by thebabelfish at 5:15 PM on February 17, 2004

Don't worry kid. I gotta million of 'em.
posted by Domain Master 666 at 5:27 PM on February 17, 2004

Harold and Maude is a great movie and an old favorite. I recommend it highly. It is a very funny, very dark comedy. It also has a great soundtrack by Cat Stevens.
posted by wsg at 6:34 PM on February 17, 2004

Hmm... I was born in 1978, and first saw Harold and Maude in seventh grade or so...
posted by dmd at 6:51 PM on February 17, 2004

Wow, great find.

Thank you so much. Harold and Maude and Network (link to the script, as well) are two of my favorite movies. And both so very well written.

Time to do some rereading!
posted by tittergrrl at 7:14 PM on February 17, 2004

youth is wasted on the young.
posted by crunchland at 7:26 PM on February 17, 2004

I was born ten years after it came out. Netflix is the great leveler. Good script though.
posted by Hildago at 7:43 PM on February 17, 2004

I can only hope that someday a studio will take a chance on adapting novels such as The Godfather or The Exorcist for the screen.
posted by jjg at 8:16 PM on February 17, 2004

The chick in this movie was way hot. Remember Nathan Hale!

Poor Bud Cort never amounted to much, did he.
posted by Slagman at 10:30 PM on February 17, 2004

I found a paperback version of this, in English, in a little bookseller in Spain some years back. It had less stage direction, presented almost like a play. But it made fod good reading, especially on the road, where you never know what you'll be able to get.

Incidentally, I don't feel that linking to the full text of a much-beloved script does much to honor it (unless it's in the public domain or something). Definitely a weird post, but thanks anyway.
posted by scarabic at 10:47 PM on February 17, 2004

?! Finding the script of Harold & Maude on the internet is really your first encounter with it? My mind is now blown.

And poor Bud Cort ammounted to plenty — see? Brother Jacques in The Chocolate War…The Toyman’s voice on the Paul Dini Superman…I could go on.
posted by sherman at 10:49 PM on February 17, 2004

And Bud Cort is in Wes Anderson's next film, The Life Aquatic, coming out some time this year. If you like Wes Anderson's stuff (Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore), and you haven't seen Harold and Maude, you really must.
posted by teg at 12:19 AM on February 18, 2004

Yes, sherman, it is. I don't really watch that many movies, even if I should see some of the "classics." (Still haven't seen Bonnie and Clyde, for instance.)
posted by thebabelfish at 5:40 AM on February 18, 2004

Well, when you were born 16 years after it was originally released (1971, I've read),

so, wait... you're 17?

who let you in here?
posted by crunchland at 5:41 AM on February 18, 2004

I'm 16 right now. And I snuck in the back.
posted by thebabelfish at 6:03 AM on February 18, 2004

Well, when you were born 16 years after it was originally released (1971, I've read),

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy predates you too.
posted by JanetLand at 6:07 AM on February 18, 2004

I'm sorry....

But who didn't know that Harold and Maude was a film? Raise your hands. High.
posted by grabbingsand at 6:32 AM on February 18, 2004

Uh, isn't this pretty blatant copyright infringement? If so, [this is very, very bad]
posted by mkultra at 6:32 AM on February 18, 2004

Geez. I was born in 71 (didnt see H&M until my 20s though). I must be the oldest MeFi here. How friggin depressing. To think you were born AFTER Star Wars. And weren't alive during Wham!
posted by Dantien at 7:02 AM on February 18, 2004

I was born in the early 60's. I've seen Howard and Maude dozens of times. Grew out of it sometime in the late 80s. An interesting front page link, as opposed to this one, might be about the practice of "Harolding." Hanging out in cemeteries. Maybe people don't do it anymore. So I imagine this kid at home coming across the screenplay and thinking...what, exactly. Google, dude. Google.
posted by Slagman at 7:05 AM on February 18, 2004

mkultra, screenplays are all over the internet. Drew's Scriptorama has tons. Studios/writers don't seem to mind unless the script is still in print in book form and therefore taking money out of someone's pocket. I think most screenwriters are happy that people are able to read what they wrote rather than judge them based on the dreck most directors make out of their words (H&M excepted, of course).

Oh, and thebabblefish... Harold and Maude is nothing like Amelie, except that they're both off-kilter love stories.
posted by dobbs at 8:21 AM on February 18, 2004

And they both star totally hot chicks!
posted by Hildago at 9:17 AM on February 18, 2004

I'm 16 right now. And I snuck in the back.

A good point for all of us to remember, next time we read something that gets us riled up and a flamewar erupts.

Your adversary may still be wet behind the ears.
posted by crunchland at 9:45 AM on February 18, 2004

Slagman -- your mention of Harolding sent me off searching for the Douglas Coupland piece on the subject.

And I still like hanging out in cemetaries. Just don't get as much time to do it as I did in my teens and twenties.
posted by aine42 at 11:30 AM on February 18, 2004

The film, by the way, is different in some areas than this script. For example, there's much more dialogue here.
posted by JanetLand at 11:47 AM on February 18, 2004

Harold and Maude is a great movie and an old favorite. I recommend it highly. It is a very funny, very dark comedy. It also has a great soundtrack by Cat Stevens.

I disagree vehemently with all four statements. I think it is an abomination on all counts.
posted by y2karl at 12:32 PM on February 18, 2004

I found a paperback version of this, in English, in a little bookseller in Spain some years back. It had less stage direction, presented almost like a play.

The film, by the way, is different in some areas than this script. For example, there's much more dialogue here.

Oddly enough, Colin Higgins did turn Harold and Maude into a stage play in 1980 with a Broadway production starring Hollywood ancient Janet Gaynor. It closed after four performances, and deservedly so. The reviews were, as I recall, particularly savage. It was among the most humorless comedies I'd ever seen onstage.

Skimming through this treatment reminds me of some of the changes I noticed at the time in the play - it's possible, even probable, that Higgins had additional material in the screenplay that didn't make it into the final print that he then re-purposed for the staged version. Higgins also published the material in novel-form at one point, but it's hardly great literature.

Not having learned from either of those experiences, the material is once again apparently in development, this time as a musical, with book and lyrics by Tom "I Should Know Better" Jones.

(How odd - I've always used one's feelings about Harold and Maude as a sort of predictor for other personality traits, and whether you'd be someone I find amiable to be around. On preview, y2karl has just confirmed much of what I already thought of him based on his postings here...)
posted by JollyWanker at 12:46 PM on February 18, 2004

I've always used one's feelings about Harold and Maude as a sort of predictor for other personality traits, and whether you'd be someone I find amiable to be around.

hahahahaha lol! hahahahahaha... zzzzzzz.....
posted by y2karl at 1:34 PM on February 18, 2004

Ruth Gordon will always be more remembered for her part in a truly classic movie--number 22 on the American Film Institute's list of America's 100 Funniest Movies--Adam's Rib, for which she and Garson Kanin wrote the Oscar nominated script. Nothing twee about that film, nosiree.
posted by y2karl at 2:10 PM on February 18, 2004

JanetLand, yeah, Hitchhiker's was, but that's different; my parents have a pretty decent amount of books that I can browse through and read at my leisure. Same doesn't go for films, and no one recommended it, unlike other older films. Honestly, my first thought was that it was some unknown writer who put their script up. That's when I submitted the FPP. Then I saw it wasn't. Then I realized that the other scripts in the directory were from common films. Then I realized I could buy it off Amazon. Then I realize I kinda screwed up. Still, I greatly enjoyed reading it, and hopefully at least a few people have enjoyed that as well (and judging from the trackbacks it seems like that is so).

Ok, I'll stop now.
posted by thebabelfish at 2:43 PM on February 18, 2004

I got to work with Ruth Gordon, and one of the seminal directors of the '70's, Hal Ashby. But when I first looked at the cut of this movie, it was horrifying, it was a disaster. All the delicious moments were on the floor. Anything moving between me and Ruth was on the floor; the reason I go to bed with her was on the floor. Ashby said: "I totally agree with you. But they won't listen to me." Shortly after that they asked me to come to New York, to the top floor of the Gulf and Western building. There's a huge conference table, and I looked like I was about 4 in those days, and they sat me down at the head of the table and said, "Bud, we've got eight pages in Vogue, we've got the cover of Rolling Stone, we've got this, we've got that, blah, blah, blah." And I said: "Gentleman, until this film is recut, not only to my specifications, but to Ms. Gordon's and to Mr. Ashby's, I am not available for any publicity on this film. Thank you very much. Good day." And from that moment on I've been persona non grata over at Paramount. I was in Paris a couple of years later, sitting in a cafe, and this woman stopped dead in her tracks and said: "Oh, my God, we've been looking for you. You've won our French academy award. Didn't Paramount give you the information?" I don't even receive--well, I receive a residual check maybe once every two years for $11 made out to Bob Cort for "Harold and Maude."

Bud Cort
posted by y2karl at 7:07 PM on February 18, 2004