Premiering on this day in 1971, as our faithful chronicler informs, the
romantic black comedy by Hal Ashby and Colin Higgins relates the narrative
of Harold Chasen, an adolescent obsessed with the macabre, staging elaborate
fake suicides, driving a hearse and attending the funerals of random
strangers to the dismay of his wealthy, socialite mother, who goes to great
lengths to try to make him more respectable, and Dame Marjorie Chardin, a
seventy-nine year old he meets at a funeral mass, who counters his morbid
demeanor and teaches him joie de vivre for the first time as their
relationship develops into a more intimate one. The film’s soundtrack is
provided by Yusuf Stevens. Producer and writer Higgins had expressed an
interest later the decade after his work attained cult status after its
initial mixed reviews in both a prequel, Grover and Maude wherein Maude
learns how to break into cars and fence stolen property and a sequel,
Harold’s Story about his life after meeting Maude though neither were
pursued though was adapted into a Broadway stage play, a French
made-for-tv-movie and a musical version.