Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me!

Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, 1967, directed by Mike Nichols. “Anne Bancroft burns with a black flame as Mrs. Robinson...“ -- John Simon “The film’s best scenes are the early ones in which Ben is seduced by the wife of his father’s partner (superbly played by Anne Bancroft...) Bancroft [is] a young man’s deliciously provocative sexual fantasy come to life... When she’s on, Ben might just as well roll over and play dead.... She has so much more self-awareness than he, and so many more real problems.... Anne Bancroft is really too interesting for Nichol’s sentimentalities about the generational gap....“ -- Stephen Farber and Estelle Changas, Film Quarterly, 1967. Read more about Bancroft’s performance at (Ad disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to the film, and I do not know what ads they will run with this clip.)