Daily Dialogue — November 28, 2011

ROOM CLERK (taking a key from behind the counter): Do you have any luggage, Mister — (looks at registration card) Gladstone?

BEN: Luggage? Yes. Yes. I do.

ROOM CLERK: Where is it?

BEN: What?

ROOM CLERK: Where is your luggage?

BEN: Well it’s in the car. It’s out in the car.

ROOM CLERK: Very good, sir. I’ll have a porter bring it in.

BEN: Oh no.

ROOM CLERK: Sir?

BEN: I mean I’d — I’d rather not go to the trouble of bringing it all in. I just have a toothbrush. I can get it myself. If that’s all right.

ROOM CLERK: Of course.

Ben reaches for the key.

ROOM CLERK: I’ll have a porter show you the room.

BEN: Oh. Well actually, I’d just as soon find it myself. I just have the toothbrush to carry up and I think I can manage it myself.

ROOM CLERK: Whatever you say, sir.

He hands Ben the key.

BEN: Thank you.

— Ben (Dustin Hoffman), Room Clerk (Buck Henry), The Graduate (1967), screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, based on a novel by Charles Webb

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is hotel check-ins, suggested by Teddy Pasternak who along with Matthew Colella suggested The Graduate.

Trivia: In Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft’s first encounter in the hotel room, Bancroft did not know that Hoffman was going to grab her breast. Hoffman decided offscreen to do it, because it reminded him of schoolboys trying to nonchalantly grab girls’ breasts in the hall by pretending to put their jackets on. When Hoffman did it onscreen, director Mike Nichols began laughing loudly offscreen. Hoffman began to laugh as well, so rather than stop the scene, he turned away from the camera and walked to the wall. Hoffman banged his head on the wall, trying to stop laughing, and Nichols thought it was so funny, he left it in.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This scene not only conveys Ben’s awkwardness about having an affair with Mrs. Robinson, he plays out the interaction with a Room Clerk played by Buck Henry, co-writer of the screenplay.

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