Great movie, but ....

Rating: 8/10 (2 November 2017)

Great movie, but I will have to make some tiny, niggardly criticisms. Bancroft is wonderful in every facet of her role save one -- she does not seem remotely convincing as the mother of Katharine Ross's character, which probably explains why the two women share minimal time together (the only time I saw the movie was on TV, so I don't know what was edited or deleted). Less than a decade older than Ross, Bancroft's femme fatale, whose first name we never learn, is more like a raven-haired evil stepmother, who trifles with Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) but rejects him as thoroughly unsuitable for her own sweet daughter, Elaine. (She looks comically rabid in the film's ending scene at the church where a wedding is NOT held as planned.)
William Daniels is overbearing (as so many of his characters were) as Benjamin's father who sets in action the sequence of events leading to Mrs. Robinson's downfall by pressuring Ben to go out with Elaine, despite his son's unwillingness. Murray Hamilton, as Mr. Robinson, comes off as an almost hysterical wimp in the scene at Ben's Berkeley boarding house room, unfortunately.
The rather bizarre scene where a shirtless Benjamin is shaving, and his mother (an amazingly and unexpectedly sexy Elizabeth Wilson, usually known for her gorgon-like supporting and comedy roles) is standing, in a rather revealing nightgown, for lack of a better word, inside the open bathroom door querying him as to his nocturnal proclivities is priceless and may give a clue as to Benjamin's own quirky neuroses and problems with women.