The Graduate

The Graduate is a novel by Charles Webb, made into a 1967 film of the same name directed by Mike Nichols from a screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry.

Trivia

An interview with Hoffman revealed that he was uneasy about his window-pounding antics, as the owner of the church had been watching the filming disapprovingly. Apparently, Hoffman's Christ-like pose when banging on the pane was an attempt to minimize its rattling, rather than an intentional religious reference.

Related Topics:
Church - Christ

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In the Berkeley boarding house where Benjamin ends up living, the landlord is played by Norman Fell, who would later gain fame as "Mr. Roper" on the popular 1970s sitcom Three's Company. Richard Dreyfuss, still an unknown in 1967, is briefly shown as one of Fell's other tenants. Earlier in the film, Mike Farrell, later a star of TV's M*A*S*H, can be glimpsed as one of the hotel bellhops addressing Benjamin as "Mr. Gladstone".

Related Topics:
Berkeley - Norman Fell - 1970s - Sitcom - Three's Company - Richard Dreyfuss - Mike Farrell - M*A*S*H

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We never learn Mrs. Robinson's first name (or, indeed, the first names of any of Benjamin's and Elaine's parents) during the course of the film.

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Robert Redford tested for the part of Benjamin, but he and director Mike Nichols decided they needed someone who appeared more uncomfortable with his sexuality.

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Bancroft, whose character is a generation older than Hoffman's, was only six years his senior in real life.

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In the opening scene of Robert Altman's 1992 film The Player, a writer (Buck Henry) can be heard talking to Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) discussing making a sequel to The Graduate with the same actors reprising their roles. Presumably, Mrs. Robinson, now elderly, would be forced to move in with Benjamin and Elaine, who by now have an adult daughter.

Related Topics:
Robert Altman - The Player - Buck Henry - Tim Robbins

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