The Apartment

Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Comedy Classics of All Time.
Review: Turner Classics runs this movie at least 2 or 3 times a year, and I never miss it when it's aired. This Billy Wilder film is a superb romantic comedy that's as entertaining today as it was back in its release year of 1960. Yes, it's in black and white when it could easily have been shot in color but, trust me, within the first few moments of The Apartment, not only will you forget that fact, but you will also come to realize how well the lack of color fits the picture. The story and characters provide enough color all on their own.

Jack Lemon plays C.C. Baxter, an itty bitty fish in a giant corporate pond. When you see the overwhelmingly huge room of anonymous employees he works in, it's easily understood why he's giving out his key to his various married bosses so they can carry out illicit affairs with the secretaries in his apartment so he can climb the ladder himself.

The trouble? C.C. is mad for Miss Kubulik, the elevator operator that none of the men in the building can seem to get to. C.C. thinks she's just a good, smart girl, but finds out that she's been having an affair with the biggest boss in the firm after she overdoses on sleeping pills in his apartment and nearly succeeds in doing herself in. What follows is a wonderfully funny and touchingly original story about two people who are not just fallible humans who get themselves into loads of trouble, but are likable, even admirable, in spite of it all.

Jack Lemon was taylor made for the role of C.C. Baxter. You get angry at him sometimes because you think he deserves all the inconveniences his bosses put him through. On the other hand he is so sweet and funny, you just know he's a good guy who is simply making a mistake that he'll learn from. Shirley McClain is dead-on in one of the best roles of her career as the sweet, romantic, and smart but vulnerable Miss Kubulik, and you can't help wishing her and C.C. all the happiness in the world. What surprised me is Fred MacMurray who is usually cast as a nice guy portraying such a nasty cold boss who hurts Miss Kubulik and every other woman he's taken on with no seeming conscience.

The Apartment is good for several laughs and, unlike so many of today's easily discarded movies, you come to genuinely care about it's very well drawn out characters. The musical score is a pleasure to listen to throughout as well, and the cinematography is flawlessly executed. It's also a great romantic comedy for both sexes, stressing that some things are more important than satisfying the hunger for power. I really can't find a thing wrong with it!

Rating:
Summary: Maybe even better than Wilder's SOME LIKE IT HOT
Review: After enjoying the screwball hijinks of Billy Wilder's classic SOME LIKE IT HOT, I went into his Oscar-winning THE APARTMENT expecting something similar. I was delighted when I realized that this movie turned out to be perhaps an even better film than SOME LIKE IT HOT. If that 1959 film was a slice of comic heaven, THE APARTMENT aims for something a little deeper. At times, it feels less like a comedy, more like a poignant drama, and Wilder and co-screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond are able to shift moods with consummate ease.

It helps that the performances are all highly effective, and sometimes, in the case of those of Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, kinda touching. This was the first role for MacLaine that really showed off her range, since her character, elevator door-woman Fran Kubelik, runs the gamut of emotions from cheeriness to self-pity. MacLaine pulls them all off handsomely, and I liked watching her throughout. As for Lemmon---well, I must say that some of his physical and speech mannerisms distracted me on occasion (esp. during one scene in which he tries to deal with his bosses by phone over scheduling conflicts regarding his apartment---his physical gestures seeming a little too overdone for my taste), but at least he gets the gist of C.C. Baxter spot-on, and we truly feel for this lonely man whose eagerness to please (and move up in the business ladder) gets him into emotional (and some physical) trouble. I don't think I've ever seen him carry a movie all by himself the way he does here, and this must surely rank as one of his best performances. (I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the performance of Jack Kruschen as Baxter's next-door neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss, who is an uncanny delight whenever he appears onscreen.)

I found the premise itself delightfully imaginative. A man who rents his apartment to bosses so they can cheat on their wives with secretaries: I'd have to rack my brain to think of another movie that used such an original idea for a movie. Of course, a good premise doesn't necessarily add up to anything if the execution isn't there, and in the case of THE APARTMENT, the execution is near-flawless. Wilder and Diamond uses the premise to slyly and savagely satirize corrupt office politics---because of his willingness to give up his apartment for his bosses, Baxter shoots right up the corporate ladder in a matter of days (instead of months or years), and it is only towards the end that he realizes how sour his rise really is. As for the central relationship between Baxter and Kubelik, Wilder manages to mine more touching drama than laugh-out-loud comedy out of it---and the drama always manages to be involving and wonderfully perceptive about human nature. And the dialogue is, of course, wonderfully witty and revealing---though once again the film's final line of dialogue is the script's highpoint.

All of these elements make THE APARTMENT a truly great film. Its Academy Award for Best Picture was richly deserved in 1960, and its status as one of the great American films (No. 93 on the AFI's "100 Years...100 Movies" list) is a testament to its lasting power as both funny, satirical comedy and touching, uncompromising human drama.

Rating:
Summary: The best philandering film of all time....
Review: I could have seen this film when it was a first run, but I didn't. It's amazing to me that it won the Oscar; it's an unusual film to be in that company. Yes, it was in black and white because Billy Wilder somehow preferred that -- see "Some Like it Hot". Directors of German heritage STILL prefer black and white. I guess I was amazed at how much this film reminded me of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and even "The Odd Couple." Jack plays a character that has some of that Felix Ungar hypochondriac flavor to him. Jack sorta specialized in playing characters that were somehow victims of the establishment.

Anyhow, for a first viewing 44 years after the fact it was enjoyable. The three main actors were all in their prime. But it really is for those who enjoy Billy Wilder's unique and personal approach to "humor".

But "Lawrence of Arabia" and "West Side Story" were the winners around this same time. In that company The Apartment seems out of place. I know this is a minority view....