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 with a memorable turn by actress Ellen Geer as Sunshine.

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

She goes over to the mantelpiece. SUNSHINE
(continuing)
Oh, what a wonderful collection
of knives. May I see them?Harold gives up trying. HAROLD
Certainly.He takes one off the wall. HAROLD
(continuing)
This one is particularly
interesting. It's a hari-kari
blade. SUNSHINE
Ohhh. What's hari-kari? HAROLD
An ancient Japanese ceremony. SUNSHINE
Like a tea ceremony? HAROLD
No. Like this. With gusto he plunges the knife into his belly. He drops
to his knees bleeding profusely. He continues the upper-
cut and sidecut gouging with appropriate Oriental screams.
He stops and tumbles forward - lifeless. Sunshine stands in awe. She slowly bends down. SUNSHINE
Oh, that was marvelous, Harold.
It had the ring of truth.
Harold... Who did you study with?
... Oh, I'm sorry. I don't want
to break into your private moment.
I know how exhausting true emotion
can be. I played Juliet at the
Sunshine Playhouse. Louie thought
it was my best performance. She goes into Juliet. SUNSHINE
(continuing)
What's here? A cup, closed in
my true love's hand? Poison, I
see, hath been his timeless end.
Oh churl! Drink all, and left
no friendly drop to help me after?
I will kiss thy lips. Harold opens his eyes. He can't believe this. SUNSHINE
(continuing)
Happily some poison yet doth
hang on them - to make me die
with a restorative . She kisses Harold, who immediately kneels up. SUNSHINE
(continuing)
Thy lips are warm! Harold, startled, knocks over an ashtray. SUNSHINE
(continuing)
Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief.
Oh happy dagger!... She takes stunned Harold's dagger, pressing the blade
back and forth in the handle to see how it operates. SUNSHINE
(continuing)
... Oh happy dagger! This is
thy sheath. She stabs herself between the breasts. SUNSHINE
(continuing)
There rest-- She staggers to the couch, clutching the dagger. SUNSHINE
(continuing)
- and let me die. She collapses and expires. Harold gets up. He has never seen anything like it.
He wanders around the couch as if he was looking at
an idiot. Mrs. Chasen enters with a tray full of drinks, sees
Sunshine dead on the couch, and drops them all with
a loud crash. She looks over at a bewildered Harold.
Summing up the situation, she flings out an accusing
arm. MRS. CHASEN
Harold! That was your last 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 weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For dozens more Script To Screen posts, go here.