IMDb RATING
6.8/10
1.9K
YOUR RATING
A businessman blackmails his attractive young secretary into spending a weekend with him. Though he's a creep throughout, he gradually emerges as a sympathetic character.A businessman blackmails his attractive young secretary into spending a weekend with him. Though he's a creep throughout, he gradually emerges as a sympathetic character.A businessman blackmails his attractive young secretary into spending a weekend with him. Though he's a creep throughout, he gradually emerges as a sympathetic character.
George Hilsdon
- Ticket Collector Kings Cross
- (uncredited)
David Lodge
- Foreman Builder
- (uncredited)
John Tatham
- Man in Restaurant
- (uncredited)
Ron Taylor
- Guitarist
- (uncredited)
Featured reviews
Because there are only two characters in the whole movie we are given a wonderful taste of what the actors can do. Sellers tumultuous life and rare abilities shine through every scene. A must for any fan of Lolita or Being There.
10dver17
This happens to be one of the most underrated films of Peter Sellers' career. For some reason the critics and book writers have (in their majority) faced the film as a comedy (have they seen the film?), when it is clear it is a drama with just little sparkles of comedy...Peter Sellers and Sinead Cusack are wonderful in their roles and I have to admit I have seen the film more than 10 times in my life (I never have enough!). For the critisism the film faced, one can say that generally Peter Sellers was in the target of certain columnists who never fail to badmouth the successful and the famous (a bad comment always sells more). So, the film (and others of this era of Sellers' career)was an easy target to hit the star and not judge the film for its essence... The film also features wonderful music and it's a pity the soundtrack was never released...
This is at once one of Peter Sellers' least-known and more interesting vehicles; the film is virtually a two-hander with Sinead Cusack (daughter of actor Cyril and later Mrs. Jeremy Irons) as the young girl blackmailed by a middle-aged colleague (Sellers) into becoming his lover, because he knows of her boyfriend's involvement in a robbery.
While the film is considered a comedy, it doesn't sound like it from that synopsis; it's really a character-driven piece on a serious theme mid-life crisis which has been treated several times over the years, though rarely in such perceptively intimate detail (for which it was deemed tasteless at the time). The humorous element (if one can call it that) springs from the fact that Sellers' character who had been fantasizing about Cusack for months doesn't have the courage to do anything with her once they're together! Incidentally, Hoffman's innately cruel nature was so similar to the real Peter Sellers that one might be inclined to think that his dialogue was improvised but this wasn't the case!
With this in mind, the film can be seen as talky (though Ernest Gebler's script, adapted from his own novel, does contain a smattering of good lines), low-key and claustrophobic (the narrative strays only occasionally from Sellers' flat, and the two almost never interact with other people) not to mention repetitive and overstretched at 113 minutes! One particular sequence included an ambitious shot lasting for some 18 minutes, which certainly belied the rumors that Sellers had suffered brain damage during that infamous incident from the early 1960s in which he suffered no less than seven heart attacks in one day. The film's happy-ending-of-sorts, then, is highly improbable but I guess it works well enough in this context (given that Cusack's boyfriend is depicted as a one-dimensional character and, therefore, no match for the intellectual Sellers).
Gerry Turpin's cinematography of the bleak London settings is one of the film's main assets, while the tone of romantic melancholy inherent in Ron Grainer's score and his Don Black-penned theme song, "If There Ever Is A Next Time" (sung by Matt Monro) infuses the whole film and even serves as exposition for the main narrative during its deliberately vague early stages. By the way, director Rakoff had already handled the same material as a TV production starring Donald Pleasance; at his own admission, the film version was too slow because the pace seemed to be dictated by the lead actor and professed to having misgivings also about the choice of music. As for Sellers himself, he was so disappointed with the final result that the star offered to buy back the negative from the producer and shoot it again from scratch (the film, in fact, was such a resounding flop that it wasn't shown in New York until 1982)!
While the film is considered a comedy, it doesn't sound like it from that synopsis; it's really a character-driven piece on a serious theme mid-life crisis which has been treated several times over the years, though rarely in such perceptively intimate detail (for which it was deemed tasteless at the time). The humorous element (if one can call it that) springs from the fact that Sellers' character who had been fantasizing about Cusack for months doesn't have the courage to do anything with her once they're together! Incidentally, Hoffman's innately cruel nature was so similar to the real Peter Sellers that one might be inclined to think that his dialogue was improvised but this wasn't the case!
With this in mind, the film can be seen as talky (though Ernest Gebler's script, adapted from his own novel, does contain a smattering of good lines), low-key and claustrophobic (the narrative strays only occasionally from Sellers' flat, and the two almost never interact with other people) not to mention repetitive and overstretched at 113 minutes! One particular sequence included an ambitious shot lasting for some 18 minutes, which certainly belied the rumors that Sellers had suffered brain damage during that infamous incident from the early 1960s in which he suffered no less than seven heart attacks in one day. The film's happy-ending-of-sorts, then, is highly improbable but I guess it works well enough in this context (given that Cusack's boyfriend is depicted as a one-dimensional character and, therefore, no match for the intellectual Sellers).
Gerry Turpin's cinematography of the bleak London settings is one of the film's main assets, while the tone of romantic melancholy inherent in Ron Grainer's score and his Don Black-penned theme song, "If There Ever Is A Next Time" (sung by Matt Monro) infuses the whole film and even serves as exposition for the main narrative during its deliberately vague early stages. By the way, director Rakoff had already handled the same material as a TV production starring Donald Pleasance; at his own admission, the film version was too slow because the pace seemed to be dictated by the lead actor and professed to having misgivings also about the choice of music. As for Sellers himself, he was so disappointed with the final result that the star offered to buy back the negative from the producer and shoot it again from scratch (the film, in fact, was such a resounding flop that it wasn't shown in New York until 1982)!
Matt Monro sings the theme, "If There Ever Is A Next Time," written by Don Black. Enjoyed the movie - Peter Sellers is always good and the movie illustrates his bent for humor that's black and gentle at the same time - and the music might make you into a Matt Monro fan. A good test for your local video store.
If you are a fan of Peter Sellers, and you have not seen this film, then make sure you do so immediately. It is an absolute gem of a movie, with an emotional core rare in film. Barely seen or heard of, it has only been broadcast the once, during a Channel 4 season of Sellers' films in the late nineties, and even then at about two in the morning, which is a scandal. Sellers gives the most interesting performance of his career without his trademark silly voice or make-up and is all the better for it, playing Hoffman as a lonely, shadowy figure, yearning somewhat pathetically for Sinead Cusack's Miss Smith. Part of the film's success is possibly due to the fact that the two main characters spend almost the entire film alone, thus enabling them to build the relationship nicely, changing from seeming lechery on Hoffman's part and terror on Miss Smith's to an emotional bond between them. It keeps you guessing about their relationship right to the end, and Seller's displays real emotional power in the later scenes. A wonderfully melancholic film about unrequited love and a man's fear of time passing as well as a kind of variation on Beauty and the Beast. Highly recommended, with a superb score too. Don't miss it.
Did you know
- TriviaPeter Sellers hated the film, feeling that his character was too close to his own actual personality. After failing to buy the film negative, so that he could re-shoot the film, he went into a period of depression about it.
- GoofsWhen Janet Smith is in bed, her left pajama leg is fully extended, yet when she has gotten out of bed, it is pushed all the way up.
- Quotes
Benjamin Hoffman: I remember the day my father introduced me to snails. "Hello, snails," I said, "How are you?" "Tres bien, merci," they said. "We who are about to be eaten salute you."
- ConnectionsReferenced in Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Buzz Aldrin Show (1970)
- How long is Hoffman?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Гофман
- Filming locations
- Ruvigny Mansions, Embankment, Putney, London, SW15 1LE, UK(Benjamin Hoffman's apartment.)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 1h 53m(113 min)
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content