‘Harold and Maude’s quirky love blossomed 50 years ago – The Hollywood Reporter

Of all the great screen romances, never has one been less likely – or more touching – than 1971. Harold and Maude, turns 50 on December 20 (Paramount is marking the occasion with a Blu-ray remastered release on December 7)

The unlikely pair at the heart of Hal Ashby’s unusual comedy were a 19-year-old rich boy obsessed with death (Bud Cort, then 23) and a 79-year-old woman has a lust for life (then played by Ruth Gordon) 74, three years after winning an Oscar for Rosemary’s Baby). The two meet at a funeral, and love blossoms as they teach each other about living life to the fullest. It was written by Colin Higgins, then 28, who devised a 20-minute version of his master’s thesis for UCLA’s screenwriting program. While working as a pool boy and private driver for Spartacus producer Edward Lewis, Higgins – at the urging of Lewis’ daughter and wife – expanded the script into a feature.

Impressed, Lewis passed it on to Paramount director Stanley Jaffe, who bought it and mounted Ashby, then 41 and about to release his first film, 1970. Host. Maude is a union of three women in Higgins’ life: his grandmother; a bohemian woman from his youth in Australia; and an elderly woman he met while settling in America, who, despite being a concentration camp survivor, always kept a sunny look.

Filmed in and around San Francisco for $1.2 million ($8.5 million in today’s dollars), the film features a soundtrack by Cat Stevens, and is played by Elton John, who was offered the role of Harold on the condition that You have to write and perform music. (John has passed.) Stevens recorded two original songs for the film and made a brief appearance as a bearded man in a funeral scene. Ashby also appeared as a bearded guest at an amusement park.

The film was bombed but became a favorite, being programmed in cinemas for many years. Higgins, who has always been open about being gay, has gone on to write and direct hits like 1978. Unfair-play and the 1980s 9 to 5 before dying of AIDS in 1988 at the age of 47.

This story first appeared in the December 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.