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Good evening and welcome to a really very interesting program tonight.
Something to make you laugh, something to make you feel very very concerned about Australia.
In all, very good viewing.
First of all we have The Graduate, the adaptation of the novel by Charles Webb and still available
by the way in Penguin Books.
And then later on tonight, one of the best films ever made in Australia, the film version
of Kenneth Cook's novel Wake in Fright.
So I hope you're going to spend all of Saturday night with us here on Channel 10.
I'm sure you're going to be well and truly richly rewarded.
Mike Nichols, one of the geniuses of the American theatre, a genius when it comes to satire,
and of course he made his movie director's debut with a film that I think we all appreciate,
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
The Graduate was his follower and indeed it's an interesting satire.
A satire at the expense, and I'm quoting the words of one critic on the film, a satire
at the expense of the raw vulgarity of the swimming pool rich.
I hope no one's offended by that remark but when you see the film you'll know what the
remark refers to.
The Graduate is a very witty film.
It's a very funny film and perhaps even a little sad in some respects.
The key to the film's success of course when it came out was not so much what it was about
but the fact that the music of Simon and Garfunkel was used so extensively through it.
The music helped to make the film popular.
But of course we have some interesting players in it as well.
In the first instance Dustin Hoffman.
It wasn't his movie debut by the way but it was the film of course that made him a top
star and it appears that Mike Nichols, when he did the screen test of Dustin Hoffman,
Dustin Hoffman got very confused, he'd lost his, forgot his lines, his nerves went and
seeing him like that made Mike Nichols realise he was just the actor for the part that he
wanted in The Graduate.
Secondly we have Anne Bancroft as Mrs Robinson.
That marvellous scene.
Do you remember it when she's on the phone to him trying to find out which room they're
going to have their meeting in?
It's a very funny scene.
You know Anne Bancroft plays the role that was originally offered to all people, Doris
Day.
Doris Day turned it down, I'm not surprised.
Thirdly Catherine Ross who still haven't quite made her name in movies but was well on her
way which Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was only a couple of years away from her when
she appeared in The Graduate.
Now among the players in the film I want you to take particular note of two that I like
very much.
They play Dustin Hoffman's parents, William Daniels and Elizabeth Wilson.
They are brilliant.
As a matter of fact I'd want to see The Graduate again tonight as much for William Daniels
and Elizabeth Wilson as anyone else in the picture.
I hope you enjoy The Graduate.
What a clever piece of work.
You know Charles Webb's novel was first published.
It was in his twenties, was published in 1960 and it got mixed reviews and didn't do particularly
well.
Oh it was quite successful but it wasn't any blockbuster.
He sold film rights to it for oh so many dollars and then he got another $5,000 when the film
was starting to prove so popular.
In fact he got about $25,000 out of the film and he said, I'll quote from Charles Webb
himself, I was afraid if I saw the movie I would have a nervous breakdown.
He said he had nothing to do with the picture.
He went to the set one day and said hello to everybody and I mean you contrast he got
something like $25,000 from the picture.
The producer got more than a million dollars out of the picture.
It was such a smash hit which seems rather a strange thing.
Then of course the paperback reissued, the reissued paperback of the novel The Graduate
was an enormous success and I believe it went into the million dollars then for Charles
Webb.
So a lot of people made a lot of money out of one small novel.
Anyhow as I said earlier The Graduate is still available in paperback in Penguin and
you should get that at City Books.
I know they've got it at City Books.
Well we shall return to The Graduate in a few moments time.
Well I hope you've enjoyed The Graduate.
You know Charles Webb actually has written other novels and I picked up one called Elsinore
at one of the Meyer Book sales a few years ago.
It's an interesting novel.
It's about a woman and a man, her husband and he sort of leaves her life and gets lost
in sort of the gay underground in America.
And there's another novel which intrigues me.
Has anyone read it because I would love to get hold of this because the title's so strange.
It's called The Abolitionist of Clark Gable Place.
The Abolitionist of Clark Gable Place.
That's another novel by Charles Webb.
And the most unusual thing if you do get hold of a copy of The Graduate, no point in the
whole novel is Mrs Robinson described which is rather strange isn't it because we seem
to have such a definite image of what Mrs Robinson is like.
Well I hope you've enjoyed it this evening and in a few minutes time I hope you'll be
joining me for an outstanding film made in Australia, Kenneth Cook's Wake in Fright with
Gary Bond, Donald Pleasance and Chips Rafferty giving one of his greatest performances.
Wake in Fright, a very special movie.
I'm looking forward to presenting it a few minutes from now.