Fourteen Interesting Facts About Harold and Maude
Released in late 1971 Harold and Maude portrayed the relationship between the 20-year-old death-obsessed Harold (Bud Cort) and the 79-year-old life-loving Maude (Ruth Gordon) who meet while attending the funerals of strangers for fun.
It was director Hal Ashby’s second film following 1970’s The Landlord. The movie, while unpalatable to a lot of viewers’ tastes on release has over the years transcended cult classic status to become simply a classic.
Here are fourteen points of interest in the film’s history.
The Script Was Written by a Pool Cleaner
Speaking to Peter Biskind for his book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls vice-president of production for Paramount Pictures Peter Bart said, “To me, Harold and Maude was a symbol of that era. It would have been unthinkable in the 80s or 90s. In those days [the late 60s] people would walk in, wacked out, with the most mind-bending, innovative, and brilliant ideas for movies. Harold and Maude was written by a pool cleaner.”
Colin Higgins had written Harold and Maude for his twenty-minute UCLA MFA thesis film. Around this time he began working for Edward Lewis, producer of films such as Spartacus and Grand Prix.
