Harold and Maude (1971)

★ 7.6 1h 32m 1,195 votes IMDb

A deadpan young man obsessed with death meets an eccentric septuagenarian who teaches him to live life to the fullest.

Harold and Maude

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Cast

Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon as Maude Died 1985 · Quincy, Massachusetts, USA Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) was an American actress, screenwriter and playwright. Gordon began her career performing on Broadway at age nineteen. Known for her nasal voice...
Bud Cort
Bud Cort as Harold Died 2026 · Rye, New York, USA Walter Edward Cox, known professionally as Bud Cort (March 29, 1948 – February 11, 2026) was an American film and stage actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his portrayals of Harold in Ha...
Vivian Pickles
Vivian Pickles as Mrs. Chasen Age 94 · London, England, UK Vivian Pickles (born 21 October 1931) is a British actress. She is best known for her roles in Harold and Maude, Sunday Bloody Sunday (both 1971), and O Lucky Man! (1973)..
Cyril Cusack
Cyril Cusack as Glaucus Died 1993 · Durban, Natal, South Africa From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Cyril James Cusack (26 November 1910 – 7 October 1993) was an Irish actor, who appeared in more than 90 films. Description above from the Wikipedia article Cyr...
Charles Tyner
Charles Tyner as Uncle Victor Died 2017 · Danville, Virginia, USA Charles Tyner (June 8, 1923 – November 8, 2017) was an American film, television and stage character actor best known, principally, for his performances in the films Harold and Maude (1971), Emperor o...
Eric Christmas
Eric Christmas as Priest Died 2000 · London, England, UK Eric Christmas was a British stage and screen actor. Christmas was born in London, UK and later immigrated to Canada. He was well-known for his role as Principal Carter in the three Porky's films as...

Audience Reviews

CinemaSerf 7/10 Nov 04, 2022
So poor little rich kid "Harold" (Bud Cort) really does like a bit of attention seeking - constantly vying for the recognition of his mother by faking every more outlandish suicide attempts. Things is, she (Vivian Pickles) is pretty impervious to his antics and so he seeks something to alleviate his boredom elsewhere... He starts attending funerals. That's where he encounters the eccentric "Maude" (Ruth Gordon) who also has a penchant for the ceremonies - and for also pinching a car from the cemetery for a bit of a joyride afterwards. As his mother increases her activities in finding him a love match, "Harold" finds himself and his new friend spending more and more time together and he begins to learn that her live today policy is vibrant, exhilarating and contagious! Their bond grows ever stronger as the pair begin to rely more and more on each other, even to fall in love! There's a great dynamic between Cort and Gordon here. She brings out the best in her young acting companion with confident and engaging performances from both delivering a story that is funny, poignant and surreal - in almost equal measure. At times it's a touch on the wordy side, but Pickles is fun as the mother and the whole story is one of interesting characters and truth. It is short and sweet and right from the start we never get to hang around long before the pace picks up again. Great fun.
Filipe Manuel Neto 7/10 Jul 07, 2023
**Knowing how to live or knowing how to die are virtues, difficult and debatable themes that a film almost never has the courage to address.**

Harold is a young man, just arrived at adulthood, who has a morbid fascination with death: he drives hearses, goes to funerals for “fun”, rehearses his own suicide a thousand and one times. He will change under the influence of an elderly woman, whose desire to live every moment to the fullest leads her to very incorrect attitudes, such as “borrowing” other people's things without even bothering to ask for them. In a way, both have to learn from each other, and the film shows us this mutual learning process, and the special bond that is created between them.

Black comedies are never consensual, as you know, but this one is especially touching and charged with a positive spirit. The film tackles difficult, even hard themes, with a certain spirit of informality and lightness that, however, does not reduce or diminish them: what it means to die, how to live, how to enjoy life or know how to die with dignity, how to educate and understand a child, anyway. For this reason, and due to the dark comic load, it is not an easy film and will displease certain people either because of its humor or because of the themes it addresses.

The film has good production values, but still feels very cheap. The film is set in the US, but it's so inherently British that we forget about it and assume it's all set in some rural English corner. We have tasteful cinematography, low contrast and good lighting, we have good sets and costumes. I would particularly highlight the houses of Harold and Maude, because they couldn't be more different and, at the same time, more characterizing their personalities: an old-fashioned mansion turned to the past and a pleasant little house with cozy details. There's nothing very flashy, technically, and the only negative call to attention goes to the soundtrack, strident and overly flashy.

I couldn't close this text without praising the impeccable work of Bud Cort, an actor I've never seen before and who doesn't seem to have made much of a career in cinema, and the inspired performance of his counterpart, Ruth Gordon, a high-level veteran who played a huge variety of roles over the next few years.

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