May’s first film is a hilarious fantasy about an aging and endlessly pampered Manhattan aristocrat shocked to discover that he has burned through his inheritance. Improbable marriage is once again the stage for a comedy of manners as the supercilious misanthrope, played with a mannered grace by Walter Matthau, fixes on the unlikely scheme of finding a wealthy bride before he is evicted from his luxurious apartments. May herself delivers a pitch-perfect performance as the dotty botanist heiress whose love of flora and winsome naïveté leave her oblivious to Matthau’s designs. Although the studio forced May to remove a murder scene that was deemed too shocking, the intent of the excised crime still lingers in A New Leaf, casting a darker satiric shadow upon her wonderful, and at times quite affectionate, evocation of sequestered and eccentric lives.