Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude (1971) debuted to generally poor reviews, and worse box office. But in suburban Minneapolis, a humble second-run neighborhood theater called the Westgate found the film an audience...and helped turn it into one of the biggest cult hits of all time.
Host Rico Gagliano gets the story from Harold and Maude producer Charles Mulvehill—one of the few living members of the film's creative team—and an endearing cast of local characters who, back in 1972, found themselves part of a one-in-a-million phenomenon.
The second season of the MUBI Podcast titled “Only in Theaters” tells surprising stories of individual cinemas that had huge impacts on film history, and in some cases, history in general.
Listen to episode 3 below or wherever you get your podcasts:
To celebrate our new season of the podcast, we’re partnering with the American Cinematheque to present a screening of the new 4K restoration of Harold and Maude on Saturday July 16th at Los Angeles’s Los Feliz Theatre. Rico Gagliano and Amy Nicholson of the movie podcast “Unspooled” will attend for an in-person pre-screening discussion about the movie and this season. For more details, check out the American Cinematheque’s website here.