The Graduate (1967): The Real Reason It Almost Never Got Made

Every studio turned The Graduate down, and one executive told the producer exactly why: it's not funny. A showman who got rich on imported Hercules movies paid for it, Mike Nichols told Robert Redford he could not play a loser and cast a twenty-nine-year-old the producer's friends called funny-looking, and Anne Bancroft, thirty-five, played the mother of the girl he loved. Her first scene with Benjamin is still argued about, and the ending was invented on a plane. This is how it got made, told by the people who made it and by the film's own big moments. Every studio turned The Graduate down, and one executive told the producer exactly why: it simply was not funny. Mike Nichols faced immense pressure to cast anyone but his chosen lead, with executives calling his pick a funny-looking kid who could not carry the film. The production was a disaster in the eyes of the industry, yet it became a defining moment in movie history. The struggle to bring the script to screen involved rejecting major stars and inventing scenes on airplanes. By casting the relatively unknown Dustin Hoffman and defying the studio's demand for a conventional leading man, the team managed to capture a specific, awkward tone that critics initially detested. The Graduate remains a masterclass in persistence against conventional wisdom. Which 60s film do you think had a harder path to the screen? Tell us in the comments. 0:00 The Graduate 0:50 Nobody wanted it 1:43 Three men, one story, and plastics 2:59 Redford, the fishwife and the subway tokens 4:44 Mrs. Robinson 5:46 Her game 7:58 Three weeks, and Gene Hackman 8:51 The church 9:53 The last shot 11:02 Not funny: the preview and the critics 12:19 Charles Webb, the sequel, and 1993 Heard in this video: Lawrence Turman, Buck Henry and Dustin Hoffman (archive interviews on The Graduate); Lawrence Turman (Jog Road Productions, 2014; interview, 2000); Mike Nichols (TimesTalks, The New York Times; interview, 1998); Dustin Hoffman (CBC, 1968; Popcorn with Peter Travers, ABC News, 2013); William Daniels (Television Academy Foundation); Paul Simon (The Dick Cavett Show); the 1966 screen test of Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross; Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft at the 65th Academy Awards (1993). Sources include the AFI Catalog, Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, The Hollywood Reporter (1967), The New York Times (1967), Life (1968), The New Yorker (1968), Harper's (1969), Roger Ebert (1997, 2005), Time Out New York (Mike Nichols, 2012), the Directors Guild of America (2003), the Boston Globe and The Telegraph. Clips used for commentary and criticism. #TheGraduate #MrsRobinson #DustinHoffman #AnneBancroft #MikeNichols #MovieHistory #BehindTheScenes