"The Graduate": Masters' Work Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alfa Romeo

Benjamin's car is an Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce. Shiny red and new at the film's beginning, by movie's end it looks dirty and battered - probably from being driven over curbs, and up and down the California coast.

Answer: The Taft Hotel

The Taft Hotel's lobby and bar scenes were filmed at Los Angeles's Ambassador Hotel. From its inception in the 1920s and into the 1960s, the hotel served as a gathering spot for some of the elite of Hollywood and U.S. politics. Its Coconut Grove nightclub hosted several early Academy Awards, and every U.S. president from Herbert Hoover to Richard Nixon stayed there. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was also an Ambassador guest when visiting the U.S. in 1960. Robert Kennedy's June 5, 1968 assassination - he had just finished a speech after winning the California primary when he was gunned down in a kitchen pantry - began the Ambassador's slow demise.

The hotel closed to guests in 1989 and was ultimately torn down in 2006. Dozens of well-known films and television shows used parts of the Ambassador in filming, including "Forest Gump", "Apollo 13", "The Mask" and "Pretty Woman".

Answer: Yes. No. No. Yes.

Angry about being pressured by his parents and Mr. Robinson to take Elaine out, Benjamin is deliberately rude to her, ignoring her and driving recklessly. Their conversation as shown in the movie consists of:

"You're living at home now. Is that right?"
"Yes"

"Do you know what you're going to do?"
"No."

"Are you going to graduate school?"
"No."

"Do you always drive like this?"
"Yes."

Answer: This is Benjamin. He's a little worried about his future.

This comes from the first dialogue of the movie. Benjamin is in his bedroom, avoiding the party his parents are throwing for him, and they come upstairs to retrieve him. He tells his father that he wants to be alone; that he's worried about his future, which he wants to be "different". Clearly, he gets his wish!

Answer: Buck Henry

Buck Henry had been a regular on Steve Allen's 1961 television talk show but ultimately found his biggest successes as a writer and television performer. "The Graduate" was only his second screenplay. He went on to write such movies as "Catch-22", "What's Up Doc?" and "Heaven Can Wait" (which he also directed with the movie's star, Warren Beatty), and was a frequent host of television's "Saturday Night Live" during its first five seasons.

Answer: Richard Dreyfuss

Dreyfuss, who went on to memorable roles in "Jaws" and many other films, including his "Best Actor" role for 1977's "The Goodbye Girl", plays the student who says "I'll get the cops." when Benjamin's landlord investigates a disturbance in Benjamin's apartment.

The landlord is of course played by Norman Fell, who was later "Mr. Roper" in television's "Three's Company". Another uncredited actor is Mike Farrell, later to co-star with Alan Alda in television's "M*A*S*H". Farrell plays a bellhop, one of the many Taft Hotel employees to greet Benjamin as "Mr. Gladstone" when he and Elaine go there at the end of their date.

Answer: Benjamin had said that having an affair with Mrs. Robinson was like shaking hands.

Confronted by Mr. Robinson about his affair with Mrs. Robinson, Benjamin tries to diffuse the situation by saying "What happened between Mrs. Robinson and me was nothing. It didn't mean anything. We might just as well have been shaking hands." - not diplomacy at its finest.

Answer: Mrs. Robinson

When Benjamin tries to have a conversation with Mrs. Robinson, he suggests they talk about art and she's not interested. Later, she reveals that her college major was, in fact, art. Otherwise, the script is vague in many ways about the characters:
Ben went to college "back east" but nothing more specific.
Mr. Robinson was "a law student," but we don't know if he got a law degree or is a practicing attorney.
He and Mr. Braddock are "business partners" but we don't know what they do.
Mrs. Robinson is the only character in the film whose undergraduate academic major is mentioned specifically.

Answer: The Make Out King

Benjamin, hoping to stop Elaine from marrying Carl, visits his fraternity house at Berkeley to find out where Carl is, and has to endure several jokes about the "Make Out King" getting married "one step ahead of the shotgun" and to "save a piece for me - of the wedding cake."

Answer: Track

There are some references to this in the scenes from his graduation party. One guest sees him and says "How are you, track star?" Later, Mrs. Robinson lights a cigarette in his room and asks for an ashtray, then catches herself: "I forgot. The track star doesn't smoke."