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Marginalized for her ‘immense ambition’, the genius of director Elaine May is finally being recognized
As a new retrospective opens, collaborators of the Mikey and Nicky film-maker explain how she blazed a trail for female directors in Hollywood In 1975, after more than two years of sifting through footage, Elaine May was still in the weeds editing her deeply personal gangster film, Mikey and Nicky , and Paramount Pictures and its CEO Barry Diller were losing patience. In a desperate move to retain control, the director sold the film out from under Paramount to Alyce Films, a phoney production company reportedly set up by May, the film’s star, Peter Falk, and a number of other co-conspirators. But the sale was halted, and May was ordered by a judge to deliver the film to Paramount, which she did, except for two essential reels which mysteriously went missing until the studio agreed to let her supervise the editing of the final cut. Set in the flophouse hotel rooms and diners of Philadelph
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As a new retrospective opens, collaborators of the Mikey and Nicky film-maker explain how she blazed a trail for female directors in Hollywood In 1975, after more than two years of sifting through footage, Elaine May was still in the weeds editing her deeply personal gangster film, Mikey and Nicky , and Paramount Pictures and its CEO Barry Diller were losing patience. In a desperate move to retain control, the director sold the film out from under Paramount to Alyce Films, a phoney production company reportedly set up by May, the film’s star, Peter Falk, and a number of other co-conspirators. But the sale was halted, and May was ordered by a judge to deliver the film to Paramount, which she did, except for two essential reels which mysteriously went missing until the studio agreed to let her supervise the editing of the final cut. Set in the flophouse hotel rooms and diners of Philadelph
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What happened
According to The Guardian’s source item, Marginalized for her ‘immense ambition’, the genius of director Elaine May is finally being recognized, As a new retrospective opens, collaborators of the Mikey and Nicky film-maker explain how she blazed a trail for female directors in Hollywood In 1975, after more than two years of sifting through footage, Elaine May was still in the weeds editing her deeply personal gangster film, Mikey and Nicky , and Paramount Pictures and its CEO Barry Diller were losing patience. In a desperate move to retain control, the director sold the film out from under Paramount to Alyce Films, a phoney production company reportedly set up by May, the film’s star, Peter Falk, and a number of other co-conspirators. But the sale was halted, and May was ordered by a judge to deliver the film to Paramount, which she did, except for two essential reels which mysteriously went missing until the studio agreed to let her supervise the editing of the final cut. Set in the flophouse hotel rooms and diners of Philadelph
Context
The development sits in VINI’s Technology file for readers following technology, science, product policy, markets, infrastructure, and the public consequences of innovation. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-06-25T09:00:10+00:00.
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Source
Primary source: Marginalized for her ‘immense ambition’, the genius of director Elaine May is finally being recognized via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.
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- Marginalized for her ‘immense ambition’, the genius of director Elaine May is finally being recognizedThe Guardian - 2026-06-25T09:00:10+00:00
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