Harold and Maude

Harold Chasen is a young man from a wealthy family who is preoccupied with death. He stages elaborate fake suicides that leave his distant mother unmoved, and he spends his free time driving a hearse to the funerals of strangers. At one of these services he meets Maude, a woman nearing eighty whose enthusiasm for life is as strong as his fixation on dying. Despite their differences in age and outlook, the two form a close bond, and her influence gradually draws Harold toward a different way of living. A black comedy about an unlikely friendship that deepens into something more.

Hal Ashby directed the film, his first feature, from a screenplay by Colin Higgins; Charles Mulvehill and Higgins produced. Ruth Gordon plays Maude and Bud Cort plays Harold, with Vivian Pickles as Mrs. Chasen, Cyril Cusack as Glaucus, Charles Tyner as Uncle Victor and Ellen Geer as Sunshine Doré among the twenty-four credited cast. The production had a budget of about one million dollars.

Critical response was strong: critics gave it an average of 8 out of 10 across 49 reviews. On IMDb it holds 7.8 out of 10 from around 86,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.6 out of 10 from roughly 1,200 votes, indicating a wide and consistently favourable audience. Ashby went on to direct The Last Detail, Shampoo, Coming Home, Being There and 8 Million Ways to Die.