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175 comments in total

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85 out of 92 people found the following review useful:
Becoming A Mensch, 21 January 2005

Author: David (davidals@msn.com) from Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Ohhh - after my 4th or 5th viewing, I think this may be one of the most remarkable blends of comedy and drama to have ever been filmed - THE APARTMENT - in subtle ways - rises well above the conventions of any genre. It was my introduction to the great Billy Wilder, and my fondness for Jack Lemmon (a remarkable and sorely missed actor) begins here as well.

*SOME SPOILERS*

The cold take on the sex-and-money ethos to be found in many corporate environments hasn't dated one bit; it could be argued that THE APARTMENT stands a bit ahead of its' time in the depiction of (what would appear to be) educated employees treated like (and feeling like) tools to be used in generation of someone else's income. Lemmon's character never forgets that he's disposable, even if the optimist in him hopes that something better may be found in his superiors. Deep down he knows this to be a pipe dream - the sexual adventurism of those same superiors betrays their utter lack of ethics. Of course, Lemmon's character isn't entirely above it all; he's been more than willing to hire out his own apartment as a place for his colleagues' peccadilloes, in exchange for career advancement, which of course - as Wilder early on links amoral sexual conduct and professional/corporate/financial misconduct in a greater social critique - gets him into trouble.

The dialogue is - as is always true with Wilder - very finely crafted, yet seems natural - this film is a remarkable display of the kind of reactions any of us would offer in similar situations. Interestingly, our two protagonists are also wonderfully imperfect as human beings - Lemmon and MacLaine bear some responsibility for the very serious situations they've gotten themselves into; they manage to realize this ("Be a mensch!" Lemmon's doctor neighbor exclaims) just in time to set things right. MacLaine in particular delivers a remarkable, complex performance - sweet and smart in her earliest scenes, bleak and emotionally ravaged in her climactic scene with MacMurray, naive elsewhere, sharp but hopeful at the end. The cinematography captures the entire cast beautifully - with minimal movement, abundant long takes, and a sleek lack of visual clutter, all of the principals are free to reveal their own best and worst impulses, within an environment that is stripped of artifice. The end result is a film filled with great moments one can easily identify with.

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73 out of 76 people found the following review useful:
That's the way it crumbles..., 24 March 2002

Author: gaityr from United Kingdom

What a wonderful way to spend an evening--dinner, Christmas and New Year's with CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon) and 'friends', accompanied by much champagne and laughter, and spaghetti and meatballs lovingly prepared by the host himself. There's even a game of gin rummy to get into that Baxter and Fran can't ever seem to finish--here's hoping it never does!

THE APARTMENT is one of those truly classic classic movies--for one thing, it has an absolutely top-notch cast, featuring Jack Lemmon (at his wryly humourous best); Shirley MacLaine (a glowing screen presence); Fred MacMurray (smarm personified); and a younger Ray Walston (still wisecracking, still hilarious). They also benefit from a clever, perceptive and timelessly relevant script by Billy Wilder, under his capable direction. Though there are plenty of brilliant one-liners, the best of the dialogue feels true and real, which adds to the feeling that you've known Baxter et al for years. I loved the score to the movie as well, artfully attributed to the Rickshaw Boys and used to great effect.

There are so many good moments scattered throughout the film (I can't even begin to enumerate them all here!). A lot of them are little touches that must have been added by the actors themselves (Jack Lemmon humming as he prepares the meatball sauce is just *so* funny!). I love the madness of the Christmas party scene, and when Baxter's doctor-neighbour takes charge of the situation with Fran, slapping her awake and marching her around the living room. I also love it when Baxter first starts playing gin rummy with Fran, and she reveals how she has a talent for falling for the wrong guy all the time. Best of all, Lemmon makes such a believable, sweet pushover that you often want to shake him and hug him at the same time--the things he would do for Fran! It makes his final scene with MacMurray that much more satisfying for the audience.

If you see this gem of a movie on a video store shelf, or (even better) playing in the cinema, don't let it pass you by. Join Baxter, Fran, Mr. Sheldrake and everyone else, and have a great time!

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65 out of 70 people found the following review useful:
A rare gem, this is a blessedly adult comedy with great performances, great writing and the kind of depth hardly ever seen in the more vapid, formulaic romantic comedies of today., 15 October 2004

Author: cwelty1 from Orlando, FL

Written by the great filmmaker Billy Wilder, this is a serious, sardonic comedy for people who've known what's its like to feel the pressure of compromising your principles or your self- respect for the sake of getting ahead in life. And there are very few over the age of consent who haven't had to at one time or another. This isn't the laugh out loud comedy of Jim Carrey or the Farrelly brothers, but a subtle, nuanced comedy about two people who have both been jaded in love and yet continue to hope again and again that it will someday work out for them -- mainly because despite the unlikeable things they do, they are both basically decent, nice people. Flawed and even weak at times, but good people. This is a movie that doesn't just make it you laugh, it makes you think. A rare find indeed.

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50 out of 59 people found the following review useful:
Some Like it Dark - Wilder and Dark Comedy, 30 July 2004

Author: (jtmudge) from Santa Cruz, CA

Billy Wilder knew how to make a great movie. Of course it helps to have one of the greatest all-time actors, Jack Lemon, play in your movies, but Lemon aside, Wilder was a genius. His gift for the comedic moment showed brilliantly on screen and reached deep inside the audience.

The Apartment, the last of the great Black and White films, showed a bit darker side to comedy than some of his other romps such as the hilarious Some Like It Hot. Some Like It Hot is just as funny today as it was in 1959. It is pure fun. At no point in the film are we approached with anything that we would take seriously. Let's face it, most of us are not running from the mob disguised as a member from the opposite sex.

The Apartment, however, brings up much more human themes and issues. Wilder is an expert and at no time does he leave you worried that it will turn out badly. This is, after all, a comedy. One mistake in the script and the movie could quickly become a deep film about suicide, loneliness, and peer pressure, but Wilder balances the subjects on the edge of a knife and allows us to smile at what could otherwise be a very depressing movie.

Wilder and his films like The Apartment are very similar to Shakespeare's comedies. It can be said that the difference between a Shakespeare comedy and tragedy is often not the story, but the ending. In a comedy, everyone is married; in a tragedy, everyone dies. the same is true with The Apartment, it all hinges on the outcomes. If Kubelik dies or Baxter is left alone, the movie would be a tragedy. But since they prevail in the end, the movie comes off as a great comedic success, albeit a bit dark.

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31 out of 33 people found the following review useful:
Likewise, it's a love-fest Lemmon-wise, 28 June 2001

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

One of the finest examples of smart, satiric comedy-drama ever created for the screen. Jack Lemmon (in amazing comic form) plays a working stiff in Corporate America--via New York City--whose bachelor apartment inadvertently becomes a love-nest for amorous, married executives. The film is extremely modern for 1960 and features a non-stop barrage of funny, clever talk. Lemmon is a mad genius at frenzied (yet sympathetic) characterization, and "The Apartment" catches him at his professional peak in the movies. Working alongside huggable neurotic Shirley MacLaine (also at her peak) and shady Fred MacMurray (parlaying his slimeball role with curt persuasion), Lemmon creates a new kind of acting: screwball realism. **** from ****

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32 out of 36 people found the following review useful:
One of my favorite movies, 23 April 2002

Author: john zapata (johnpaulzpt@yahoo.com) from los angeles, CA

After the first time I saw The Apartment, I admired it so much and placed it in my favorite movies list. After watching it a second time on widescreen and digitally remastered DVD, my love for it just deepened. I was once again touched by Shirley MacLaine's portrayal of Miss Kubelik, a lovely but unlucky in love woman. I also laughed again at Jack Lemmon's perfect delivery of one-liners and other mannerisms.

Billy Wilder made The Apartment right after the huge success of his last film, Some Like It Hot, also with Jack Lemmon. The Apartment is not as funny, but it is more accomplished and deeper in meaning. Watching it in widescreen made me appreciate more the complexity of the story. Widescreen shots of C.C. Baxter's (Lemmon) apartment shows emptiness and loneliness. The shot of Baxter's office, which has employees in desks that seem to extend into eternity, shows that Baxter is just a faceless man in a populated world.

C.C. Baxter is an ambitious employee in an insurance company. He tries to work himself to a promotion by allowing his philandering bosses to use his apartment as a perfect hideaway. As an exchange for the use of his apartment, his bosses put him in the top ten of the efficiency reports. After getting a promotion and successfully asking the elevator girl Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) on a date, everything was going well for Baxter. Until he finds out that Miss Kubelik is the mistress of his big boss J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray).

Miss Kubelik and Sheldrake had a summer affair and Sheldrake wants Kubelik back admitting that he still loves her. Showing vulnerability, she agrees to get back together and ends up using Baxter's apartment twice a week. Naturally there will be problems. Sheldrake could not break up his marriage, and Kubelik does not like how the relationship is going but couldn't help being in love with him. Kubelik summed it up when she said `when you're in love with a married man, you shouldn't wear mascara.'

For Baxter, things couldn't be more complex. He wants to keep getting promotions but he might lose Kubelik in the process. He adores Kubelik but he doesn't want to be unemployed. Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's script couldn't have been better written. It ranks up there with the likes of great scripts of Casablanca and Citizen Kane. They filled it with small intricate details and such funny lines. The Apartment is very ingenious and inspirational. When I wasn't laughing, I was smiling.

Billy Wilder perfected the style of satirical filmmaking. In The Apartment, he touches a lot of subjects. The movie deals with adultery, suicide, loneliness, and corporate cutthroats. The movie won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but surprisingly, no acting Oscars. I have seen many romantic comedies, and while many are good, most of them do not have the same heart and warmth as The Apartment. It is in my list of top ten favorite movies because it entertained me, inspired me, and showed me how to live… human-wise.

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31 out of 36 people found the following review useful:
"I've Decided to Take My Doctor's Advice, I'm going to become a mensch.", 14 June 2006

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

In the recent biography of Billy Wilder by Ed Sikov, it is mentioned that for the first time Wilder used as his protagonist a lovable loser. Think about it. In a whole lot of his previous films the main lead in Ace in the Hole, Double Indemnity, Stalag 17 are the people who are the takers as Shirley MacLaine describes Fred MacMurray here.

In The Apartment, it's the schnook that's took who the story focuses on. Jack Lemmon creates one of his immortal characters in C.C. Baxter, a minor cog in the machinery of the insurance company he works for.

Lemmon has maybe found a way to move up the corporate ladder, but it's driving him nuts. He lives on West 67 Street in Manhattan, a most convenient location for kanoodling. Only it isn't him that kanoodles. One time he allowed one of the middle level managers to use his apartment for a little nookie. One guy tells another and so on and so on and pretty soon Lemmon can't call his place his own.

In walks big boss Fred MacMurray to seemingly save the situation. But it turns out he only wants exclusive use for himself and he actually does vault Baxter several steps up the corporate ladder. And unfortunately MacMurray is currently kanoodling with elevator operator Shirley MacLaine who Lemmon has a thing for.

The Apartment was years ahead of its time in that it was one of the first major films to deal with sexual harassment. The whole group of middle executives Ray Walston, David Lewis, Willard Waterman, David White and the big cheese Fred MacMurray just look on that insurance company as one gigantic harem. As typical for 1960 note there are no women in any managerial positions at all.

Fred MacMurray almost didn't play Mr. Sheldrake. Paul Douglas was cast originally, but died suddenly just before shooting on The Apartment commenced. MacMurray stepped in and got great critical reviews for another effort with Billy Wilder as a heavy. MacMurray was also starting at this time a long run in the family comedy My Three Sons on television. There would be no more bad guys in his future.

Billy Wilder held out in casting for Jack Kruschen as Doctor Dreyfus the next door neighbor who is available to save Shirley MacLaine's life. The folks at United Artists were ready to sign Groucho Marx for the part. Wilder's faith in Kruschen was justified, he got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Peter Ustinov for Spartacus.

Lemmon and MacLaine were also nominated for the leads, but failed to win. But The Apartment was chosen Best Film of 1960 and Billy Wilder was Best Director.

Also look out for a biting performance by Edie Adams who really makes her role count as MacMurray's secretary and former flame. During a Christmas party she tips off MacLaine to MacMurray's philandering ways and then later on brings the house of cards all around Fred.

The Apartment is so timeless in so many ways although women in the workplace have made great strides in the last 46 years. One thing though that does show how dated it is. It's mentioned that Lemmon pays $94.00 a month, presumably rent controlled, for a one bedroom apartment in the West Sixties in Manhattan.

Now that is dated.

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28 out of 33 people found the following review useful:
Another Wilder classic, 14 August 1999

Author: Primtime from Langley

Jack Lemmon is the man.

The Apartment really surprised me. The Best Picture winner starts off right in the middle of the action, but yet the first hour seems long and overrun. Too much time seems spent in trying to develop the characters (and oh so many of them) and not enough time is spent on just seeing what will happen. Just when I was about to lose faith, the film picks it up like I have never seen before. The whole sub-plot of the four guys wanting to use Lemmon's apartment for their evening tyrsts is dropped and Wilder smartly concentrates on Lemmon, MacLaine and MacMurray and the film creates true magic.

The Apartment is more of a drama than a comedy and balances the two elements perfectly. Just after one of the more dramatic moments of the film, we see Lemmon straining his pasta with a tennis racquet. The use of the doctor and his wife in supporting roles are completely there for comedy and yet add so much to the film. The ending also rates up there with the best of all time using an old device that doesn't seem at all cliched in this film. Some say that "Some like it hot" was Wilder's best, but now I have to disagree. The Apartment is better and surely would have made my top ten had the first hour not been so predictable.

How Jack Lemmon didn't win Best Actor is beyond me. His is a great performance, getting to act on more than one scale. MacMurray, another Wilder favourite is perfectly cast in the role of a family-wrecker. I wish they would have put a scene in which his wife confronts him with "The News". MacLaine glows on the screen even when she is sick and in bed.

I fully recommend this film to all, it being Wilder's best makes it a must see.

8/10 stars.

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26 out of 31 people found the following review useful:
The definitive movie for the comedy/drama genre, 13 January 1999
Author: DukeofPearl from Los Angeles

Billy Wilder's "The Apartment" is a film which can produce some of the biggest laughs and at the same time... can bring many viewers to tears, Billy Wilder's quaint little tale about everyday people who get tangled up in love, jealousy and infidelity boasts a top-notch cast led by the trio of Lemmon, MacLaine and MacMurray who are tremendous. The plot revolves around C.C. (Lemmon) who unknowingly makes the unethical attempt of climbing the corporate ladder by 'loaning' his apartment to members from his management chain to entertain their 'women on the side'. Given the change of circumstances, this premise certainly could even hit home in the current office environment. Although the office party and secretarial gossip scenes could be viewed as dated, the power and attitude of the corporate executive, Mr. Sheldrake (MacMurray) is certainly symbolic. The character of Fran (MacLaine) for today's standards of course seems too submissive and vulnerable but the reward of her finding true, admirable, unconditional companionship is quite enriching and fulfilling to any who see this memorable film.

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25 out of 36 people found the following review useful:
corporate sex ladder, 7 September 2004

Author: mgrindberg from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

A struggling office worker in a giant insurance company lends his apartment to higher ups in order to get a promotion. Set during the Holidays, the theme of infidelity turned a lot of viewers off. The Holiday setting however is what provides a lot of the film's best scenes, as in the fantastic office Christmas party where the secretaries are doing a CanCan on the table and couples are making out in the corner. The one-two punch of Jack Lemmon's classic performance and that of Fred MacMurray is fabulous, and the triangle of sorts that forms with Shirley McClaine makes this much more than the comedy that it is known for.

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