Hoffman (film)

Did You Know?

• The film was based on a 1967 televised play titled Call Me Daddy, which won an international Emmy.
• The play Call Me Daddy starred Donald Pleasence and Judy Cornwell.
• Ernest Gébler turned the story into a stage play, then the 1969 novel Shall I Eat You Now?

Plot

Janet tells her fiancé Tom she must visit her sick grandmother, but instead goes to the flat of Hoffman, a recently divorced executive from her firm. Hoffman claims to have evidence that could send Tom to jail and has blackmailed her into spending the week with him. Though he desires Janet, Hoffman remains bitter about women and bullies her psychologically without physical pressure. Janet eventually fights back and initiates sexual provocation, insulting Hoffman when he does not respond. Tom arrives after an anonymous call from Hoffman, and Janet leaves with him. Tom and his mother ask Janet to return to Hoffman to keep Tom out of jail. Dismayed by their selfishness, Janet returns and negotiates terms to become his permanent companion.

Production

Producer Ben Arbeid optioned the screen rights to the novel and hired Ernest Gébler to write the script for £21,000. Peter Sellers agreed to star, and Columbia initially planned to back the film but pulled out. The project then went to Bryan Forbes, head of production at Associated British Picture Corporation, which had been taken over by EMI. Forbes insisted that director Alvin Rakoff remain despite Sellers' reluctance, and Rakoff later said they got on well.

Forbes claimed Sellers made the film as a favour for a fee of £85,000, making him the highest-paid actor during Forbes' time at MGM, and that British Lion Films helped cover costs. Judy Cornwell, who had been in the television play, said Sellers wanted an unknown actress opposite him rather than her; she refused to stand by as backup casting, feeling Sellers was the wrong actor for Hoffman. The female lead went to Sinéad Cusack; Jane Asher had also been considered.

Production was announced in August 1969, one of the first films greenlit by Forbes. Shooting ran from 8 September to 24 November 1969, with seven weeks at Elstree Studios and a week on location at Thames Embankment and Wimbledon Common. Gébler was excluded from the set after criticising the producer and director. Rakoff said Sellers originally wanted to play the role comically with an Austrian accent but was persuaded to play it straight, then adopted a dark, slow approach that Rakoff tried unsuccessfully to speed up.

Release

Bryan Forbes later wrote that Sellers entered a manic-depressive period during filming and, after completion, demanded to buy back the negative and remake it. When that proved unfeasible, Sellers gave an interview before release calling the film a disaster, which Forbes said harmed everyone involved. Producer Ben Arbeid stated Sellers had ample opportunity to discuss the film before delivery and simply wanted to eliminate it, adding that Sellers was so convincing he tried to buy the prints and burn them because he recognised aspects of himself he thought hidden.

The film received an AA rating after trouble with censors. Released in July 1970, it was not a box-office success. Arbeid attributed poor distribution partly to a conflict between Forbes and EMI head Bernard Delfont, who called Hoffman and two other films "the real dodos belly-flopping out of Elstree." Sinéad Cusack later said the film did not work, noting it was originally a television play stretched into a film and that Sellers was unhappy. The film was not screened in New York until 1982. A Blu-ray release by Powerhouse Films came in January 2022.