The Apartment (1960)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Billy Wilder (written by) and
I.A.L. Diamond (written by)

Release Date:

16 September 1960 (France)

Genre:

Romance | Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

A Billy "Some Like It Hot" Wilder Production

Plot:

A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.

Plot Keywords:

Apartment | Executive | Insurance | Elevator | Divorce

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Jack Lemmon	...	C.C. Baxter
Shirley MacLaine	...	Fran Kubelik
Fred MacMurray	...	Jeff D. Sheldrake
Ray Walston	...	Joe Dobisch
Jack Kruschen	...	Dr. Dreyfuss
David Lewis	...	Al Kirkeby
Hope Holiday	...	Mrs. Margie MacDougall
Joan Shawlee	...	Sylvia
Naomi Stevens	...	Mrs. Mildred Dreyfuss
Johnny Seven	...	Karl Matuschka
Joyce Jameson	...	The Blonde
Willard Waterman	...	Mr. Vanderhoff
David White	...	Mr. Eichelberger
Edie Adams	...	Miss Olsen

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Brazil:Livre | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (1994) | Canada:G (Quebec) (2000) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #19647) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

205 Columbus Avenue, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Trivia:

Billy Wilder also used the character name Sheldrake in Sunset Blvd. (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), and Kiss Me, Stupid (1964).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The layout of Baxter's apartment makes no sense, especially in the context of Dr. Dreyfus's apartment. Dreyfus lives next to Baxter, which means their walls should be adjoining the full length of both flats. But from inside Baxter's living room one can see windows in both his kitchen and bedroom facing directly where the Dreyfus apartment should be (and there would likely be a window in the bathroom between the kitchen and bedroom). Dreyfus's apartment would have to veer immediately off to the extreme right when you enter it and be no more than a couple of inches wide in order to allow the kind of set-up seen in Baxter's apartment - clearly unrealistic, if not downright impossible.

Quotes:

[first lines]
C.C. Baxter: [narrating] On November 1st, 1959, the population of New York City was 8,042,783. If you laid all these people end to end, figuring an average height of five feet six and a half inches, they would reach from Times Square to the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. I know facts like this because I work for an insurance company - Consolidated Life of New York. We're one of the top five companies in the country. Our home office has 31,259 employees, which is more than the entire population of uhh...

Movie Connections:

References Grand Hotel (1932)

Soundtrack:

Capriccio Italien, Op. 45

Becoming A Mensch

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.