Most critics have called this a black comedy
and it is in spirit if not in deed - but it could have been so much blacker
if Paramount had allowed director Elaine May to go with her edited version.
But it was three hours long and for a comedy that is a death sentence. This
was May's debut as a director, but she was already a well-known comedian
for her partnership with Mike Nichols in a stage act and records. She would
go on to direct a few other films - The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky and
Ishtar (death sentence) and also the script for Heaven Can Wait. Highly respected
in the entertainment world, but she was taking over ten months to edit this
mass of film and they took it away from her and cut it down to a manageable
100-minutes. May tried to have her name taken off of it and sued Paramount
to stop it from being released. But it was released and the critics loved
it. Later on, there was some demand from fans of the film to see the original
cut, but the elements of the film could not be found. As of this review,
she is still alive so maybe she has the missing film somewhere.
It is definitely a peculiar off-kilter film
that took me a while to get in the rhythm of. It stars Walter Matthau who
was huge at the time after The Odd Couple and The Fortune Cookie and Elaine
May takes on the female role. Matthau is Henry - a totally privileged sociopath
now in his forties who has been living on his trust fund his entire life
and happily not worked a day of it. He loves his life. The club, his Ferrari,
his lifestyle, the top restaurants, his apartment with its original artwork.
His manservant Harold (George Rose) who tends to his every wish and whim.
Comfort is the point of living. As Harold tells him "You have preserved in
your own lifetime sir, a way of life that was dead before you were born.”
And then in a lovely scene, his financial advisor tells him the money is
gone. He spent more than the capital replenished. It takes a while before
this sinks in. So, you are trying to tell me that I have no money? Ok, but
can you pay this check? Matthau plays his character with zero warmth, no
ability to show compassion or caring, completely self-absorbed. But it is
Matthau and he earns points because of his other films. We love Matthau and
it is transferred to his character here - to some degree.
But he has a plan. A simple one. Find a
rich woman, romance her, marry her and mur... her. All in the week
he has before a debt comes due. After a few false attempts, he comes across
Henrietta (May), a totally passive female - clumsy, bumbling, shy, a wallflower
- but enormously wealthy from her father's inheritance. He turns on what
little insufferable charm he has and begins boning up on poisons. The comedy
is done with a straight face - it never goes for a cheap joke - but the absurdity
of the situation creates some very funny bits. And finally, a bit of warmth.
But in May's version, he actually murders
two people with poison - think how much that would have changed the tenor
of the film. He is a killer. A psychopath. Does it end the same way? It must,
but how would audiences have reacted to that I wonder. How would I have?
Sure, he is a pure narcissist - but he is our narcissist - but a killer is
a different matter. Still, I would like to see it. In a very strange way
this is a romance, of two people in this fucked up world who need each other.
If he doesn't kill her first. If played differently, this could have been
Hitchcock, but it is Elaine May quirkiness. Supporting them are Jack Weston,
James Coco, Doris Roberts and David Doyle.
