Anne Bancroft Movies
A dark-haired, earthy beauty and a versatile actress, Anne Bancroft has actually had two film careers. The first, which took place during the 1950s, was generally undistinguished and featured her in films that usually failed to fully utilize her talents. The second, which began in the early '60s, established her as an actress of great acclaim in films like The Miracle Worker and granted her screen immortality with roles such as that of the iconic Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate.A first generation Italian-American hailing from the Bronx, Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano) was four years old when she began taking acting and dancing lessons. Billing herself as Anne Marno, she began appearing on television in 1950. Two years later she signed a contract with Fox and launched a six-year career in second-string Westerns and crime dramas that began with Don't Bother to Knock in 1952. By 1958, Bancroft had enough of Hollywood and turned her attentions to Broadway, where she spent the next five years. She proved her mettle as a serious dramatic actress by winning a Tony for Two for the Seesaw in 1958. Two years later, she won her second Tony and a New York Drama Critics Award for her portrayal of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker. Armed with these triumphs, Bancroft returned to Hollywood to appear in the movie version of The Miracle Worker (1962), reprising her role opposite Patty Duke who played Helen Keller. Her performance earned her an Oscar for Best Actress; unable to attend the ceremony because she was performing on Broadway in Mother Courage, she was presented with the award by Joan Crawford a week later on the Broadway stage.
Bancroft followed this victory with a string of emotional dramas that included The Pumpkin Eater, which was released in 1964, the same year she married filmmaker/comedian Mel Brooks. Just when it would look like she would be typecast in such dramas, Bancroft showed up in Mike Nichols' seminal comedy The Graduate, playing Mrs. Robinson, the ultimate "older woman," to Dustin Hoffman's confused Benjamin Braddock. Her role in the landmark film won her an Oscar nomination, to say nothing of a permanent dose of notoriety. Although Bancroft seemed destined for a stellar career and she remained one of the more well-respected actresses in Hollywood, a long string of so-so films kept her from reaching major stardom. Still, Bancroft turned in a number of memorable performances in films such as The Turning Point (1977), The Elephant Man (1980), To Be or Not to Be (her 1983 collaboration with husband Brooks), Agnes of God (1985), 84 Charing Cross Road (1986), and Torch Song Trilogy (1988). In 1980, Bancroft made her debut as a director/screenwriter in the darkly comic Dom DeLuise vehicle Fatso.
Throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium, Bancroft continued to be visible onscreen, appearing in films like How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Home for the Holidays (1995), and Keeping the Faith (2000). Sadly, she became stricken with uterine cancer and succumbed to the disease in 2005. Her last performance would come postumously with a voice-role in the animated adventure Delgo. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Sidney Pollack marked his feature film directing debut with this taut suspense drama, based upon an actual incident reported in Time Magazine. Sidney Poitier stars as Alan Nuell, a student volunteer at a medical clinic in Seattle who answers the phone to find Inge Dyson (Anne Bancroft) on the other end. Inge, depressed about her life, has just taken an overdose of sleeping pills. With Inge slowly dying, Alan tries to keep her talking on the phone while the police try to trace the call and save her life. Inge tells Alan that she has decided to end it all because her husband has discovered that he is not the father of her son. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Poitier, Anne Bancroft, (more)
- 1964
Anne Bancroft stars as a restless, twice-married British woman with six children, whose third husband is a fledgling screenwriter (Peter Finch). When success spins Finch's head around, he begins to dally with women other than his wife. Meanwhile, Bancroft is forced to stay home and play "domestic goddess", a role for which she is utterly unsuited. After suffering a nervous breakdown, Bancroft wanders the streets of London in a vain search for a sympathetic ear. She eventually comes to grips with the situation at hand--but as in most of playwright Harold Pinter's works, the characters of The Pumpkin Eater are just as unfulfilled in the last scene as they were in the first. Anne Bancroft won a Cannes Film Festival award for her performance in this film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, (more)
Based on William Gibson's Broadway play and retaining its acclaimed cast, Arthur Penn's The Miracle Worker tells the true story of Helen Keller (Patty Duke), an Alabama girl struck blind and deaf as a baby after an elevated fever. Enter Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft), a partially-blind woman assigned the task of teaching Helen sign language. After first separating Helen from her over-protective parents (Victor Jory and Inga Swenson), Annie begins the arduous process of teaching the girl. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, (more)
- 1957
Another of director Allan Dwan's underrated but well-crafted westerns of the 1950s, The Restless Breed stars Scott Brady as a young gunslinger who lives for revenge. When Brady's father is killed by gun runners, he pursues the villains across the Mexican border. Gang leader Jim Davis, beyond the reach of American law, is confident that his henchman can get rid of Brady in short order, but he's wrong. As his hired guns drop like flies, Davis is forced to accept Brady's challenge to a showdown. Anne Bancroft is intriguingly if incongruously cast as an Indian girl who falls in love with Brady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Brady, Anne Bancroft, (more)
- 1957
In this episode of the Playhouse 90 anthology series, a young girl finds herself pursued by an unemployed actor who is being paid to kill her. Anne Bancroft stars. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Anne Bancroft was several years away from her 1962 Oscar win when she starred in the compact murder mystery The Girl in Black Stockings. The scene is a posh Utah resort hotel, where several beautiful women are mysteriously killed. Suspects include lawyer David Hewson (Lex Barker), his secretary Beth Dixon (Anne Bancroft), nasty hotel owner Edmund Parry (Ron Randell), and Parry's sister (Marie Windsor). Among the victims is Mamie Van Doren. The Girl in Black Stockings was adapted from a short story by Peter Godfrey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lex Barker, Anne Bancroft, (more)
- 1956
Commercial artist James Vanning (Aldo Ray) and his friend, Dr. Edward Gurston (Frank Albertson), are on a hunting and fishing trip in Wyoming when they stop to help two men whose car has crashed. The pair, John (Brian Keith) and Red (Rudy Bond), turn out to be escaped bank robbers, on the run with 350,000 dollars in stolen cash after a clean getaway, and they don't plan on leaving any witnesses -- Gurston is shot dead by Red, using Vanning's hunting rifle, but Vanning survives by accident, knocked cold but alive. He awakens to discover the stolen money, accidentally left behind, and runs with it from the returning killers -- he gets away but loses the bag in the blizzard that hits. He manages to make it to the nearest town, but not before the doctor's body is found, with a bullet in it from Vanning's rifle. Now the prime suspect in the murder, Vanning takes it on the lam, hiding out for months -- unbeknowst to him, however, he's been under observation for most of that time by Ben Fraser (James Gregory), an investigator from the insurance company whose policy covered the bank that was robbed; and has been found by John and Red -- and all of them think that Vanning can lead them to the missing money. But John and Red are perfectly prepared to torture and even maim Vanning to get the money, and they get their chance when he lets his guard down one night to talk to Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft), a young model he meets in a bar. He manages to get away from his captors after a fierce struggle and makes his way to her place; after convincing her that it's not the police he's running from (which is not entirely true), they take off together, with Fraser and the two hoods only a half-step behind, headed to Wyoming and the spring thaw so he can hunt for the bag and the missing money and prove his innocence. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, (more)
- 1956
Walk the Proud Land is the true story of Indian agent John Philip Clum, as set down on paper by Clum's son. The film begins in 1874, as Clum, an Eastern government representative, arrives in San Carlos, Arizona. It is Clum's intention to uphold the peace between the settlers and the Apaches, and to encourage a form of self-government among the Indians. Realizing that he can never hope for cooperation from the Apaches so long as renegade warrior Geronimo (Jay Silverheels) is at large, Clum determines to negotiate the surrender of Geronimo -- and he intends to do it alone. Anne Bancroft co-stars as an Apache widow who falls in love with the married Clum. Though rather skimpy in the action department, Walk the Proud Land scores with strong characterizations and well-crafted scriptwork. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audie Murphy, Anne Bancroft, (more)
Victor Mature is in rare form in this otherwise uneven cavalry Western about a trapper who prevents a Little Big Horn-type disaster. Having been robbed of a year's worth of skins by marauding Indians, Jed Cooper (Mature), Gus Hideout (James Whitmore), and Mungo (Pat Hogan) sign on at a nearby fort. Jed, however, falls in love with Corinna (Anne Bancroft), the refined wife of the commanding officer, Colonel Marston (Robert Preston), and when the latter begins to plan an all-out attack on an unruly Indian tribe, he attempts to prevent what, in all likelihood, will be a mass slaughter. Based on a novel by Richard Emery Roberts, The Last Frontier was re-released to television as Savage Wilderness and came complete with a rousing title song performed by Rusty Draper. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Mature, Guy Madison, (more)
- 1955
New York Confidential is based on the Jack Lait-Lee Mortimer bestseller of the same name. Richard Conte plays Nick Magellan, a "torpedo" for Manhattan crime boss Charlie Lupo (Broderick Crawford). Pleased with Magellan's work, Charlie promotes him to the topmost rungs of the Syndicate. He regrets this act of largesse when the powers-that-be demand that Lupo be rubbed out. . .by good old Magellan. The most fascinating aspect of New York Confidential is that there isn't a sympathetic character in the bunch; even Anne Bancroft as Lupo's maladjusted daughter is a bit on the obnoxious side. The original Lait-Mortimer book was later adapted into a 1958 TV series, starring Lee Tracy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, (more)
- 1955
A ruthless crime lord saves his sister from social embarrassment by working diligently to get the gangster who fathered her unborn baby off death row and out of prison so he can do the decent thing and marry the girl. The freed gangster is not thrilled with his new bride, but stays loyal until the woman miscarries. He then returns to crime and begins messing with other women, something that outrages his wife's nefarious brother and leads him to frame the cocky youth and get him sent back to prison and certain death. Just before he is to die, the youth tells his story to a sympathetic reporter, who decides to go after the real troublemaker. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Anne Bancroft, (more)
- 1955
Third-billed Lee Marvin dominates the proceedings in A Life in the Balance. Marvin plays a psycho killer, whose trail is dogged by inquistive young Jose Perez. Jose's father, musician Ricardo Montalban, has been accused of a series of murders. The boy is convinced (correctly, it turns out) that Marvin is the guilty party, and trails the man in hopes of bringing him to justice. No dummy he, Perez leaves a trail for the authorities to follow--a series of smashed-up police call boxes (a similar plot device was deployed for comic purposes by Harold Lloyd in Professor Beware). A Life in the Balance was filmed on location in Mexico City, with a great deal of screen time devoted to a colorful carnival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ricardo Montalban, Anne Bancroft, (more)
Demetrius and the Gladiators was the sequel to The Robe, and though they were released several months apart, the films were shot at the same time. Based on characters originally conceived by Lloyd C. Douglas, the film stars Victor Mature as the title character, an ex-slave who embraced Christianity after being present at the Crucifixion. Thrown in jail for defending an elderly merchant from a sadistic Roman legionnaire, Demetrius is forced to attend gladiator school and fight in the arena for the amusement of the mad, debauched emperor Caligula (Jay Robinson, likewise repeating his performance in The Robe). The well-proportioned Demetrius attracts the attention of Messalina (Susan Hayward), the nymphomaniac wife of Caligula's would-be successor Claudius (Barry Jones). Briefly losing faith in Christ, Demetrius is saved from himself by the apostle Peter (Michael Rennie). Because of contractual complications, Demetrius and the Gladiators was released to television seven years before The Robe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Mature, Susan Hayward, (more)
- 1954
Based on a true story from the Civil War, this drama follows a band of Confederate POWS who escape from a New England prison head for Canada and begin planning to distract Union forces by looting and pillaging a Vermont town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, (more)
- 1954
Whenever Mel Brooks wanted to get a rise out of wife Anne Bancroft during their joint talk-show appearances of the 1970s, Brooks would bring up the subject of Gorilla at Large. Easily the low point of Ms. Bancroft's movie career, the film is good for a few chuckles if one's in the proper mood. The story is set in an amusement park, where the star attractions include trapeze artist Cameron Mitchell and a huge, vicious gorilla. When a series of murders take place, Mitchell is one of the prime suspects; another is Bancroft's husband Raymond Burr, who owns the big ape. The revelation of the actual killer is mildly surprising, not to mention thoroughly unbelievable. Gorilla at Large was filmed in 3D, resulting in a reasonably exciting "thrill" sequence atop a roller coaster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cameron Mitchell, Anne Bancroft, (more)
- 1953
Treasure of the Golden Condor is a Technicolor remake of 1942's Son of Fury; both films were based on the same novel by Edison Marshall. Cornel Wilde stars in the old Tyrone Power role as Jean-Paul, a Frenchman cheated of his birthright by his duplicitous uncle (George Macready). Retreating to South America with lovable reprobate MacDougal (Finlay Currie), Jean-Paul searches for buried treasure in the jungles of Guatemala. He also romances MacDougal's comely daughter Clara (Constance Smith). Eventually, Jean-Paul must bid Clara goodbye and return to France, there to settle accounts with his uncle. Clara prays for the day that Jean-Paul will come back for her and as the closing music swells . . . . ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cornel Wilde, Constance Smith, (more)
- 1953
Tonight we Sing is the life story of legendary impresario Sol Hurok, impersonated herein by David Wayne. A lover of the arts, young immigrant Hurok despairs when he realizes he has no musical or artistic talents. Thus it is that, despite great personal and financial sacrifice, Hurok devotes his life to discovering and nurturing other performers and bringing them to Broadway. Among his more celebrated protégés are Russian opera-singer Feodor Chaliapin (Ezio Pinza) and violinist Eugene Ysaye (Isaac Stern). Other notables making guest appearances are singer Jan Peerce and Roberta Peters and ballerina Tamara Toumanova. Anne Bancroft co-stars as Hurok's gentle, patient wife Emma. Based on the autobiography by Sol Horuk (co-written with Ruth Goode), Tonight We Sing was produced for 20th Century-Fox by George Jessel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Wayne, Ezio Pinza, (more)
- 1953
Despite the lighthearted promotional campaign mounted by 20th Century-Fox when the film was first released, The Kid from Left Field is not a comedy. The title character is young Christy Mathewson Cooper (Billy Chapin), the son of former big-league ballplayer Larry Cooper (Dan Dailey), who is now reduced to hawking peanuts at the ballpark. Securing a job as a batboy with a team called the Bisons, Christy amazes the players and management by giving them tips on how to win games. What no one knows is that Christy is passing along information provided by his father. Impressed by Christy's apparent expertise, third baseman Pete Haines (Lloyd Bridges) tells team secretary Marion Foley (Anne Bancroft) about the boy. She, in turn, tells Bisons owner Whacker (Ray Collins), a "Bill Veeck" type ever on the alert for a new publicity gimmick. Whacker promptly appoints the pint-sized Christy as manager of the team, replacing the ill-tempered Billy Lorant (a truly venomous performance by Richard Egan). Larry is about to spill the beans concerning Christy's baseball knowledgeability, but he decides not to, considering himself a burnt-out has-been. And that's all that can be revealed without giving away the ending. Its whimsical premise notwithstanding, Kid from Left Field is treated as a straight drama, with several near-noir long shots of the shadow-drenched ballpark. The film was remade for television in 1978 as a vehicle for Gary Coleman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, (more)
Sex symbol Marilyn Monroe went dramatic in 1952's Don't Bother to Knock. Monroe plays Nell Forbes, a beautiful but suicidal young woman, recently released from a mental institution. She doesn't mention this on her resumé when she takes a baby-sitting job in a posh hotel. Jed Towers (Richard Widmark), a hotel guest, tries to make time with Nell after his own girlfriend, played by Anne Bancroft, has told him to take a hike. As Nell and Jed neck on the couch, the little girl whom Nell is tending (Donna Corcoran) surprises the spooning couple. This drives the psychotic Nell over the edge, forcing Jed to try to keep the baby-sitter from killing both herself and the child. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Widmark, Marilyn Monroe, (more)
