A New Leaf (Episode 224) - Hot Date with Dan and Vicky

About this episode

Dan and Vicky discuss Elaine May's directorial debut A New Leaf and various recently seen films.

For her directorial debut, comedienne and writer Elaine May chose to adapt the short story The Green Heart by Jack Ritchie into A New Leaf - the story of a rich playboy who loses all his money and schemes to marry and murder a rich woman. Walter Matthau plays the entitled Henry Graham and May herself plays the ditzy but lovable Henrietta Lowell. The film went over budget and time, necessitating a couple extra million dollars and 40 extra shooting days. Paramount took the final edit away from May, winnowing her original 3 hour cut into the existing 90 minute theatrical cut. The films boasts a bevy of comedic character stars including Jack Weston, Doris Roberts, Renne Taylor and James Coco. Dan and Vicky discuss the oddball romantic dark comedy along with alot of recently seen including 2025's Silent Night Deadly Night, Hamnet, Fackham Hall, Nouvelle Vague, Jay Kelly, The Running Man and Equalizer 2. Our socials: hotdatepod.com FB: Hot Date Podcast Twitter: @HotDate726 Insta: hotdatepod

People in this episode

Hosts: Dan Domingues, Vicky Aguero

Topics covered

• film review
• dark comedy
• directorial debut
• romantic comedy
• Hollywood history

Keywords

• A New Leaf
• Elaine May
• Walter Matthau
• dark comedy
• film review

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: A New Leaf, The Green Heart, Silent Night Deadly Night, Hamnet, Fackham Hall, Nouvelle Vague, Jay Kelly, The Running Man, Equalizer 2

More episodes of Hot Date with Dan and Vicky

• The Wicked Lady (Episode 232) - Hot Date with Dan and Vicky · April 24, 2026 · 1h 18m
• Project Hail Mary (Episode 231) - Hot Date with Dan and Vicky · April 11, 2026 · 1h 29m
• Top Ten Favorite Indie Hits Costing Under A Million (Episode 230) - Hot Date with Dan and Vicky · April 4, 2026 · 1h 40m
• The Driver (Episode 229) - Hot Date with Dan and Vicky · March 16, 2026 · 1h 23m
• Kind Hearts and Coronets (Episode 228) - Hot Date with Dan and Vicky · February 23, 2026 · 1h 28m
• The Tomb of Ligeia (Episode 227) - Hot Date with Dan and Vicky · February 6, 2026 · 1h 21m