Script To Screen: “Harold and Maude”

The delightful 1971 movie Harold and Maude, written by Colin Higgins, is most noted for its co-stars Harold [Bud Cort] and Maude [Ruth Gordon]. This scene features Harold.

Setup: Harold has a date with Sunshine, but it’s not your typical date…

Here is the scene in the movie:

An absurd scene in a wonderfully absurd movie: Harold and Maude.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a Go Into The Story series where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For dozens more Script To Screen posts, go here.