... as I remember seeing it on TV in the 1970's when I was still in high school. In every way imaginable I saw myself as Henrietta -awkward, shy, clumsy, dismissed by everyone. Forty years later I still recognize that awkward person Elaine May is portraying. Yet Henrietta seems completely clueless that she is perceived this way, which was something I found hard to buy, but it does make her more endearing and make this film more about Henry's journey as he marries this totally helpless yet wealthy creature in order to get out from under his financial problems and discovers he has to take over every aspect of her life outside of her profession as botanist in order to preserve her wealth and his rarefied sense of order. You might say Henry dislikes his new wife so much because he initially sees himself as her - he says so at the beginning of the film when he finds out he has no money. He confides in his gentleman's gentleman that he has no talents or ambitions other than being rich. This is not the case, but this is how he sees himself. This really IS the case for Henrietta yet she does not see herself that way. So, in a really quirky way they are made for each other.
How did Henry know that he would be the beneficiary of Henrietta's estate if he should manage to either kill her or arrange "an accident" and get away with it? Someone with so much money and so many hangers-on as Henrietta would almost certainly have a will prior to their meeting. A set-up by Henrietta's crooked lawyer (also only interested in her money) and Henry's uncle (Henry is on the hook for a loan from him that will mean the forfeiture of all of his assets should he fail) made to make Henry look like the fortune hunter he is backfires and Henrietta changes her will and leaves everything to Henry, with the entire sad tail of Henry's poverty just endearing him even more to her!
Elaine May has always been an underrated talent, and as for Walter Matthau, what can I say? In 1968 he makes "The Odd Couple" and has me believing he's a the world's biggest working class slob, oblivious to his financial condition as long as poker night happens, and three years later he's got me believing he's the world's biggest snob interested only in savoring the finer things in life and dedicated "to traditions that were dead before you were born" - to put it in the words of Henry's (Matthau's) gentleman's gentleman.
If you have a chance, give it a look. It is full of subtle dry humor executed to perfection by the cast. Only after the cynical 70's began could such a film be made. Maybe if it had been made after Watergate the public would have been cynical enough to appreciate it at the box office.
How did Henry know that he would be the beneficiary of Henrietta's estate if he should manage to either kill her or arrange "an accident" and get away with it? Someone with so much money and so many hangers-on as Henrietta would almost certainly have a will prior to their meeting. A set-up by Henrietta's crooked lawyer (also only interested in her money) and Henry's uncle (Henry is on the hook for a loan from him that will mean the forfeiture of all of his assets should he fail) made to make Henry look like the fortune hunter he is backfires and Henrietta changes her will and leaves everything to Henry, with the entire sad tail of Henry's poverty just endearing him even more to her!
Elaine May has always been an underrated talent, and as for Walter Matthau, what can I say? In 1968 he makes "The Odd Couple" and has me believing he's a the world's biggest working class slob, oblivious to his financial condition as long as poker night happens, and three years later he's got me believing he's the world's biggest snob interested only in savoring the finer things in life and dedicated "to traditions that were dead before you were born" - to put it in the words of Henry's (Matthau's) gentleman's gentleman.
If you have a chance, give it a look. It is full of subtle dry humor executed to perfection by the cast. Only after the cynical 70's began could such a film be made. Maybe if it had been made after Watergate the public would have been cynical enough to appreciate it at the box office.