Harold and Maude with Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort.
Best Films of 1971: Hal Ashby–Colin Higgins zeitgeist-capturing collaboration Harold and Maude among year’s top releases
Veteran actress-screenwriter-playwright Ruth Gordon, in show business since the 1910s, enjoyed a major big-screen career renaissance following her devilish Academy Award-winning turn in Roman Polanski’s 1968 horror thriller Rosemary’s Baby.
In Harold and Maude, Gordon, 75, had her first starring role in a motion picture. Her offbeat performance as the free-spirited Maude helped turn this anti-establishment comedy into one of the most notable – and most enjoyable – cult classics of the 1970s.
Bud Cort – who, the previous year, had starred in Robert Altman’s equally remarkable Brewster McCloud – plays Harold, the death-obsessed young man who, with Maude’s help, learns to appreciate life. With the perfect black-humorous touch, Hal Ashby directed Colin Higgins’ clever, poignant screenplay.
Several of the year’s other top titles were also “offbeat” productions: Ken Russell’s peculiar homage to Hollywood musicals of the 1930s, The Boy Friend; Stanley Kubrick’s violent psychological-political drama A Clockwork Orange; Dalton Trumbo’s harrowing antiwar drama Johnny Got His Gun; and John Schlesinger’s Sunday, Bloody Sunday, which revolves around a bisexual love triangle.
Best Film
The Boy Friend – dir. & Scr.: Ken Russell
A Clockwork Orange – dir. & Scr.: Stanley Kubrick
Duel – Dir.: Steven Spielberg; Scr.: Richard Matheson
Harold and Maude – Dir.: Hal Ashby; Scr.: Colin Higgins
Johnny Got His Gun – dir. & Scr.: Dalton Trumbo
The Last Picture Show – Dir.: Peter Bogdanovich; Scr.: Peter Bogdanovich & Larry McMurtry
Summer of ‘42 – Dir.: Robert Mulligan; Scr.: Herman Raucher
Sunday, Bloody Sunday – Dir.: John Schlesinger; Scr.: Penelope Gilliatt
The Emigrants / Utvandrarna – Dir.: Jan Troell; Scr.: Jan Troell & Bengt Forslund
Best Actor
Richard Attenborough – 10 Rillington Place
Dirk Bogarde – Death in Venice / Morte a Venezia
Timothy Bottoms – Johnny Got His Gun
Timothy Bottoms – The Last Picture Show
Bud Cort – Harold and Maude
Peter Finch – Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Roberto Gucciola – Sacco & Vanzetti / Sacco e Vanzetti
Michael Jayston – Nicholas and Alexandra
Malcolm McDowell – A Clockwork Orange
Max von Sydow – The Emigrants
Best Actress
Mia Farrow – See No Evil / Blind Terror
Ruth Gordon – Harold and Maude
Goldie Hawn – $ / Dollars
Glenda Jackson – The Music Lovers
Glenda Jackson – Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Anna Magnani – The Automobile / Tre donne – L’automobile
Mildred Natwick – Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate (TV movie)
Debbie Reynolds – What’s the Matter with Helen?
Liv Ullmann – The Emigrants
Best Supporting Actor
Eddie Axberg – The Emigrants
Cyrill Cusack – Sacco & Vanzetti
John Hurt – 10 Rillington Place
Pierre Lindstedt – The Emigrants
Best Supporting Actress
Ellen Geer – Harold and Maude
Georgiana Hale – The Boy Friend
Glenda Jackson – The Boy Friend
Cloris Leachman – The Last Picture Show
Lea Massari – Murmur of the Heart / Le Souffle au coeur
Vivian Pickles – Harold and Maude
Agneta Prytz – The Emigrants
Ulla Smidje – The Emigrants
Irene Worth – Nicholas and Alexandra
Monica Zetterlund – The Emigrants
Best Cinematography
The Boy Friend – David Watkin
A Clockwork Orange – John Alcott
Death in Venice – Pasqualino De Santis
Fiddler on the Roof – Oswald Morris
Harold and Maude – John A. Alonzo
The Last Picture Show – Robert Surtees
Nicholas and Alexandra – Frederick A. Young
Summer of ‘42 – Robert Surtees
Two English Girls / Deux anglaises et le continent – Nestor Almendros
What’s the Matter with Helen? – Lucien Ballard
Best Original Score
Nicholas and Alexandra – Richard Rodney Bennett
Summer of ‘42 – Michel Legrand
Two English Girls – Georges Delerue