Hoffman – 1970 | 113mins | Drama, Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Low-key comedic character study adapted by Ernest Gebler from his own novel and television play. The film stars a bittersweet Peter Sellers as the eponymous creepy letch, who, despite his strange behaviour, emerges as a sympathetic figure.

Hoffman (Peter Sellers), a middle-aged businessman has eyes for his attractive young secretary, Janet Smith (Sinead Cusack). Smith is engaged to marry Tom Mitchell (Jeremy Bulloch), but when Hoffman learns that Mitchell has a criminal past, he makes a startling proposal to Smith — he’ll turn her fiancé in to the police unless she agrees to spend a week of domesticity with him. Miss Smith sees little choice but to concede to blackmail, and after leaving her fiancé at the railway station, arrives at Hoffman’s door imagining the worst. However, to her surprise, Miss Smith gradually unmasks Hoffman’s persona and the secrets of his previous marriage, and her unease dwindles as she realises what a forlorn figure he. She discovers Hoffman is a desperately lonely man who wants to be loved, and he demands almost nothing of her but companionship.