# Harold and Maude **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2008, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128 "2008-02-11T05:32:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/1 "2008-02-11T05:32:31Z")
I just saw this for the first time in maybe ten years. What a sweet film. I still love it. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/2 "2008-02-11T05:37:12Z")
Love the car. ---
**Author:** ![petew83](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@petew83](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/petew83)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/3 "2008-02-11T05:39:42Z")
I recently found out Cat Stevens has returned to making music (as Yusuf Islam). His 2006 album ‘An Other Cup’ was pretty good; I love ‘Maybe There’s a World’ from it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/4 "2008-02-11T06:18:50Z")
I’ve wondered if the deleted/extended scenes to this are still available. In the trailer, for example, there’s a scene of the two kissing that’s obviously in the scene before Harold’s bubble blowing scene (it’s at about 2:40 into [this trailer](http://youtube.com/watch?v=BHekCJdQUHE) ), and in the novelization there’s a lot more of Glaucus (his hope is to sculpt the perfect statue out of ice for his eyes alone) and other anecdotes told by Maude that I’ve wondered if they appeared in the movie. (Of course in the novel she also lives in a row house rather than a train car, so obviously some things were changed.) Trivia: it was made into a musical that flopped on Broadway (4 performances) but was revamped and plays in community and regional theater sometimes. Janet Gaynor was in the shortlived [B’way version](http://ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3682); in two of the various revivals Maude has been played by Ellen Geer [Will “Grandpa Walton” Geer’s daughter and Sunshine Dore from the movie- she inherited an outdoor theater from her father and her version was staged there= [recent pic](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3495927040/nm0311619) ) and [Estelle Parsons](http://www.curtainup.com/haroldandmaude.html) (an Oscar winner [_Bonnie & Clyde_] but probably best known as ROSEANNE’s mom). The musical apparently still has some bugs, but Carol Burnett has expressed interest if the musical is ever “fixed”. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/5 "2008-02-11T06:54:33Z")
I love that movie too. My favorite scene is when he giver her the bracelet. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/6 "2008-02-11T06:58:12Z")
My favorite scene and favorite line are the one where Harold has just seen Maude’s tattoo and she says > [@](#): > > Dreyfus once wrote from Devil’s Island that he would see the most glorious birds. Many years later in Brittany he realized they had only been sea gulls. For me they will always be “_glorious_ birds”. I’ve no idea whether or not the comment about Dreyfus is true, but either way it’s just one of my favorite scenes from any movie. Of course next to that I love the line > [@](#): > > Officer: Let me get this straight… > > Maude: Alright then, we’ll be off! ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/7 "2008-02-11T07:02:17Z")
I always wondered about the visual when she says “All the world loves a cage.” The camera pans to the interior of her trailer – is that to imply that she’s living in a cage, too? Or to show the contrast between her home and the typical one? I’ve only ever seen the movie on a television, I figured that scene was one for the big screen. Absolutely adore _Harold and Maude_. That’s one of the things I’m looking forward to sharing w/my kids when they’re teenagers. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/8 "2008-02-11T07:10:58Z")
My all time favorite movie! I need to did it out. I haven’t watched it in a couple years. Now I’m humming the song at the end. I think it’s call _If You Want to be Free_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/9 "2008-02-11T07:11:12Z")
The novelization is available full-text [online](http://www.geocities.com/rainforest/5862/xhiggins.txt) for those interested. (A lot more on Maude’s husband particularly.) As for the cage, I don’t think there’s really any meaning in the shot other than Harold taking her in. This is from the book: > [@](#): > > Harold looked around the large living room and was struck by the odd > assortment of furnishings. No two chairs were alike. The couch was covered > with a Persian rug. Colorful canvases hung on the walls, a baby grand piano > stood in one corner next to a huge carving of highly polished wood, and a > samovar full of dried flowers sat on a tapa mat by the fireplace near some > Japanese screens. > > “It’s very … interesting,” said Harold, somewhat at a loss for words. “Very > different.” > > “Oh, it’s all foolish memorabilia,” said Maude, going over to the window. > “Incidental but not integral, if you know what I mean. Oh, come look. The > birds.” > > She opened the window and filled a small tin cup with seed. Then she released > a spring that shot the cup out along a wire and dumped the seed on a bird > table. Harold was impressed with the mechanical ingenuity of the device. > > “Isn’t that delightful?” said Maude. “This is my daily ritual. I love them so > much. The only wild life I see any more. Look at them. Free as a bird.” > > She took the empty birdseed box into the kitchen. “At one time I used to break > into pet shops and liberate the canaries, but I gave it up as an idea before > its time. The zoos are full and the prisons overflowing. My, My. How the world > so dearly loves a cage.” > > She looked out the window over the sink. “Look, Harold. There’s Madame _Arouet_ > cultivating her garden. Yoo-hoo!” > > She waved at the black-clad old woman diligently hoeing in her large vegetable > patch, but the old woman didn’t notice. > > Maude sighed. “She’s really very sweet. But so old-fashioned. Please sit down, > Harold. I’ll put on the kettle and we’ll have a nice hot cup of tea.” So, it’s just an introduction to Maude. (_Arouet_ [italics mine here and above] was the family name of [Voltaire](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire)- it reminds me that Colin Higgins was a college student when he began writing the screenplay as it’s probably a sort of heavy handed attempt at subliminal homage [though it doesn’t detract from the book and wasn’t in the movie iirc) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/10 "2008-02-11T07:17:42Z")
PS= Another Francophilic homage: Maude’s surname is [de Chardin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin). ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/11 "2008-02-11T07:44:16Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] …in two of the various revivals Maude has been played by Ellen Geer [Will “Grandpa Walton” Geer’s daughter and Sunshine Dore from the movie- she inherited an outdoor theater from her father and her version was staged there [/QUOTE] Back in the summer of 1979 I was 12 years old and spending the summer with my aunt. She was a member of [Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum](http://theatricum.com/) and I got to spend a summer doing theater with Ellie Geer and her siblings. It was a marvelous experience, and I always smile when I see Ellie in various TV shows and movies. She was a very, very kind and creative person. - [Richard Moll](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0596959/) (who played Bull on Night Court) was a member of that group as well. He went by the nickname “Charlie” and was friends with my aunt. We spent an afternoon at the beach with him. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/12 "2008-02-11T18:47:39Z")
[QUOTE=Girl Next Door] Back in the summer of 1979 I was 12 years old and spending the summer with my aunt. She was a member of [Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum](http://theatricum.com/) and I got to spend a summer doing theater with Ellie Geer and her siblings. It was a marvelous experience, and I always smile when I see Ellie in various TV shows and movies. She was a very, very kind and creative person. [/QUOTE] Cool story. Will Geer seems something like a male version of Maude himself- jovial and kind and wacky in spite of all he went through. For those who don’t know the story of his theater, he was a botanist by training who owned a small farm in Topanga before becoming rich, and when his career was hijacked by McCarthy (he had been a member of the Communist Party at one time) he and other blacklisted actors took refuge there doing Shakespeare in the open air, and it became the Theatricum Botanicum. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/13 "2008-02-11T19:08:10Z")
I never understood his fake suicides. They looked really real. Was he pretending to kill himself or was he really killing himself and then resurrected? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/14 "2008-02-11T22:07:40Z")
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun] I never understood his fake suicides. They looked really real. Was he pretending to kill himself or was he really killing himself and then resurrected? [/QUOTE] The former. It was his hobby – that is, it was his way of freaking out his mother. "Harold! She was your **last date!"** ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/15 "2008-02-11T22:23:56Z")
This film was a huge cult classic in Berlin and played in a movie theater there every weekend for years. As far as I know, it might still be playing! Trivia about the Berliners - the film was originally released in English with only German subtitles. They often did that with smaller films they didn’t think were worth spending money on dubbing into German. Well after many years of being the cult film, they finally dubbed it into German - and the core audience was furious! Apparently the English was fairly easy for most Germans to understand and they hated the dubbed version. The uproar was so vocal that they pulled the dubbed version and put the original English version back into the theaters, where it again scored big with the late night crowds. At the height of its German popularity, Colin Higgins (the author) came to Berlin and put together a stage version of it - I don’t think it was the musical, but I might be wrong. At any rate, the play was a flop and didn’t last very long. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/16 "2008-02-11T22:39:02Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] The former. It was his hobby – that is, it was his way of freaking out his mother. \*\* [/QUOTE] One of my favorite exchanges is with his psychiatrist (who he always dresses exactly like): > [@](#): > > Psychiatrist: Tell me, Harold, how many of these, eh, _suicides_ have you performed? > Harold: An accurate number would be difficult to gauge. > Psychiatrist: Well, just give me a rough estimate. > Harold: A rough estimate? I’d say fifteen. > Psychiatrist: Fifteen? > Harold: That’s a rough estimate. > Psychiatrist: Were they all done for your mother’s benefit? > Harold: No. No, I would not say “benefit.” ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/17 "2008-02-11T23:07:39Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] The former. It was his hobby – that is, it was his way of freaking out his mother. "Harold! She was your **last date!"** [/QUOTE] But how did he do the one where he lit himself on fire? Or where he shot himself in the head? ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/18 "2008-02-11T23:20:06Z")
I have to say that, although I find Cat Stevens’ music insipid, it works well in this film. Perhaps the film delivers the _gravitas_ the music lacks (despite Cat’s efforts), and the resulting balance works for me. **Harold** : You sure have a way with people. **Maude** : Well, they’re my species! **Maude the Nietzschean** : Vice, Virtue. It’s best not to be too moral. You cheat yourself out of too much _life_. Aim above morality. If you apply that to life, then you’re bound to live life fully. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/19 "2008-02-11T23:21:11Z")
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun] But how did he do the one where he lit himself on fire? Or where he shot himself in the head? [/QUOTE] You’re not supposed to care. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128/20 "2008-02-11T23:21:41Z")
I haven’t seen this movie in years. By coincidence it is #2 on our Netflix Queue and I just sent two movies off today. My wife and I are both looking forward to seeing again. Hopefully this thread is still active when we watch it. Jim [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harold-and-maude/437128.md?page=2)