Film Summary CCCLXXXII (A New Leaf)

Poor Henrietta.

A New Leaf is a story of A pompous man who belongs to the class of the idle rich. He spends his days frolicking about, driving an expensive sports car (1966 Ferraris 275GTB*) eating Fine Food and living a very strict and simplistic life that would not look out of fashion in Edwardian England.

But alas all good things come to an end as our Bertie Wooster substitute Henry (Walter Matthau) realises that he's out of money. After his bank manager not only informs him that he's out of money, and that he (the Bank financier) has taken money out of his own account to personally cover some of his clients needs. And the only reason he did this is so he can look Henry straight in the eye and tell him; ''I knew of your financial downfall. I told you about it and I am absolutely not responsible for it in any way shape or form.'' Thus assurance that the financier is completely clear of any wrongdoings that have been made towards his 'previous' client. And that he'll never have to deal with him again.

Now Henry is poor. He has no money to his name, his personal capital is dwindling and soon his house and all his possessions will be lost. He uniforms his personal Butler of his situation and the prepair for the worst.
His Butler being a resourceful and charismatic man informs him of one final option. Marriage. If Henry is able to get married within a relatively short amount of time he can regain most of his capital and go back to a life of Simplicity and routine under the guides of someone else's money. But he can't just marry any old woman. He needs to find one that's extravagantly wealthy, has little to no family relationships and is either simple or submissive towards other people. In short somebody that he can scam over and acquire their assets with relative ease.
However there is one pressing immediate problem. Henry needs some money to tie him over until he can be married. So we goes to his uncle (a man he dislikes and is equally disliked by) to require a loan. His uncle has no interest in giving him money and is more than happy to see him go destitute.
He's finally able to convince his uncle of a $50,000 loan by claiming that he can be married within 6 weeks. A task that he's Uncle thinks is quite impossible as Henry has never shown interest for a woman in his entire life (or for any sort of relationship for that matter.)
So he gives him the $50,000 with the collateral of Henry's car and all of his possessions if he should lose. Now it's a race against the clock as Henry goes from single woman to single woman looking for an ideal candidate and ultimately failing in every case because of his own personal problems or disinterest in the woman's personal affairs. All things look desperate until he comes upon a woman known as Henrietta Lowell. Who fits the description just perfectly.
She's extremely wealthy has no personal family connections and is very shy and passive. She's also extraordinarily clumsy and socially awkward.

Now that Henry is found the perfect person he must do everything in his power to court her. To convince her that he is in fact in love with her and that she should be in love with him. To even go as far as marriage within a relatively short period of time.
Oddly enough this whole Affair goes quite well for Henry. As Henrietta is not used to being wuud and fondled over by other people. And very easily falls for Henley.
He puts the effort to learns of her profession as a botanist and does everything in his power to learn as much about plants as humanly possible.
He also pretends that his immense to passion for the upper-class way of living. That it is but a mirage and that at heart he is a simple man who cares nothing for the extreme luxuries of life.
Henry finds this extraordinary difficult as he is both repulsed by Henrietta's simplistic tastes and clumsiness, that leads to destruction of many of his fine pieces of Art and decorative furniture.

But after all that time and work he is able to convince Henrietta to marry him. And all seems to be going extraordinary well. Until his Uncle hears about it. He has little interest in honouring the bet. So he does a little digging and discovers that the only person Henrietta has any connection to outside of her private estate is her lawyer and financial overseer. Andy McPherson as played by Jack Weston. The uncle informed this man of a suspicious marriage.
and the lawyer (who we discovered is crooked) decides to meet up with Henrietta and Henry to try and convince her that the marriage is nothing more than a scam. He even provides Henrietta with a signed receipt of the Bet between Henry and his uncle.
Henry now in a extraordinary dire situation resorts to a final compromise. He tells Henrietta that the receipt is partly true. And that he was only trying to make a bed for $50,000 to repay the last of his debt. He then tells Henrietta that he had planned to kill himself and was only saved from that most gruesome of Fate because he looked upon the eyes of Henrietta and discovered a new meaning for life**.

Henry and Henrietta get married in what can only be described as the most awkward wedding ceremony scene with in the late sixties or early seventies.
Now Henry moves into Henrietta's estate where he discovers to his horror that she has an unseemly amount of personal servants who don't seem to be doing much of anything. In fact they're all bunch of layabouts and criminals, taking advantage of Henrietta and scamming her out of thousands of dollars a month. Henry has his Butler find the personal finances of all these people and quickly as the lot of them fired.
Then convincing Henrietta to transfer all Financial dealings directly to Henry. To make sure that nobody else can scam them out of money. It's from this point on that Henry's character goes from something of a complete degenerate to partially good-natured fellow. He's by no means a good man at this point as he wants nothing really to do with Henrietta and even as the occasional glimpse in his head of various ways to murder Henrietta as to rid himself of her altogether.
It's only at the very end of the film when he's confronted by a plant which Henrietta had previously discovered and named after him, that he finally decides to and commit himself to her. The two at the end of the movie had gone on a camping trip. And where they are lifted out of a canoe and falling down a waterfall. Henrietta informs Henry that she can't swim. And Henry is debating on using this situation as an excuse to let her die so that he might resume his previous life. The whole thing's incredibly dastardly and even a bit unsettling. But it ultimately doesn't go that dark as Henry does save her in the end.
Apparently this entire film The was revised from an original 3 hour cut in where Henrietta had a blackmailer and Henry was actually a murderer of two other people who were the blackmailers in question. They have been cut out in the film was given a slightly more 'positive' angle. I've heard a lot of people complain that this, that it made the movie worse or that it may have even ruined it. I'm a little unsure of this. I like the idea that everything turns out semi okay in the end. It creates a more confusing contrast between Henry's good nature and his outward psychotic Tendencies to try and murder this woman earlier in the film.

Conclusion: An absolutely astonishing film. Nay perfect in my eyes. I loved the contract between the various characters and how my opinions of them very differently throughout the film. The conversations were great the atmosphere was wonderful, the storytelling was enjoyable and I think I might have fallen more in love with Henrietta than Henry ever could.

Watching two characters evolve around one another. As each learn from the other and better themselves as a person all while one of them is planning on eliminating the other one. It's like watching two praying mantises joining together in a Shakespearean play only to escape death in the end. The odds of success are so drastically against anything positive but ultimately it all works out, in a kind of strange and still unsettling way.



In short as of this moment this is my favourite movie. Everything in it just clicks so well.


*There's apparently another model of Ferrari driving around in this movie as well. I'm about as well versed in cars as I am 'cold fusion' so I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to know if such an accusation is true. Anything short of the car turning green would most likely go over my head.

**This is easily the funniest part of the entire movie. It's a kind of mockery of the old Hollywood way of romance. Where a man and a woman would meet each other and within a week's time instantly fall in love and want to get married so that they may enjoy each others company forever. The whole thing reeks of fantasy and is so incredibly unrealistic. And the way this movie rips into that and shows the reaction of everybody who knows that it's absolutely incorrect. With the exception of Henrietta herself who follows head over heels for the speech and gives in.