Producer Lawrence Turman
on the decisions that crafted
a classic
WORDS IAN FREER
FIFTY YEARS OLD this year, The
Graduate changed the face of modern cinema.
The story of Benjamin Braddock (Dustin
Hoffman), a disillusioned college graduate who is
seduced by older woman Mrs Robinson (Anne
Bancroft), then falls for her daughter Elaine
(Katharine Ross), its influence ran from redefining
the notion of the Hollywood leading man to
pushing back the boundaries of on-screen
morality and crystallising the youthful cynicism of
the ’60s. It also solidified a raft of new talent, from
Hoffman to the already Oscar-nominated director
Mike Nichols. Yet only one man was there from
beginning to end. The Graduate was producer
Lawrence Turman’s stylish, slightly ironic baby.
Now 91, Turman talks Empire through the
decisions that defined a masterpiece...
THE GRADUATION
THE DEAL
On 30 October 1963, Turman, then 36, read
a New York Times review of Charles Webb’s novel
The Graduate. He immediately bought the book
and “responded to it viscerally”. Such was his
passion, Turman optioned the book with his own
money for $1,000 (“At that time in my life it was
a substantial amount for me, it grabbed me by the
throat”) and shopped it around the major studios.
“Nobody liked the book, nobody thought it was
funny,” he recalls. On a “hunch” Turman sent the
book to Mike Nichols, who was then about to
shoot Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf ?, and
made him a unique offer. “I told him, ‘I have no
financing but let’s do this,’” recalls Turman. “‘You
and I will be partners: whatever money comes in
we will split it down the middle. And we will share
creative control and decisions.’” Sensing a kindred
spirit, Nichols signed on. Some five years later, the
decision would bring Nichols an Academy Award
for Best Director.
The money eventually arrived from an
unlikely source. Producer Joseph E. Levine was,
in Turman’s words “a schlockmeister” who
bought Italian films such as Hercules Unchained,
plastered his name over the ads and made
a quick buck. Wanting the cachet the fast-rising
Nichols would bring, Levine offered Turman
a budget capped at $1 million (although it
eventually cost $3 million). “I teach this to
students — anybody’s money is good money,”
says Turman.
THE SCRIPT
If you look at the credits of The Graduate it
says “Screenplay By Calder Willingham And
Buck Henry”. The reality is that not of a word
of Willingham’s handiwork is in the finished
film (he only received a credit after WGA
arbitration). “I did 100 per cent of the script
work with Calder,” says Turman. “When we
finished, the script resembled the book but it was
vulgar. He added in all kinds of overt innuendo
to a book that was already strongly sexual for the
1960s. So I gave the script to Mike and said,
‘Here is the finished script, but I don’t like it. I’ll
be surprised if you do.’ Mike said, ‘Larry, if you
don’t like it, I don’t want to read it.’”
It was subsequently Nichols’ idea to hire
Buck Henry, a comedy actor and story editor,
