The ApartmentWinner* of five 1960 Academy AwardsÂ(r), including Best Picture, The Apartment is legendary writer/director Billy Wilder at his scathing, satirical best, and one of “the finest comedies Hollywood has turned out” (Newsweek). C.C. “Bud” Baxter (Jack Lemmon) knows the way to success in business…it’s through the door of his apartment! By providing a perfect hideaway for philandering bosses, the ambitious young employee reaps a series of undeserved promotions. But when Bud lends the key to big boss J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), he not only advances his career, but his own love life as well. For Sheldrake’s mistress is the lovely Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), elevator girl and angel of Bud’s dreams. Convinced that he is the only man for Fran, Bud must makethe most important executive decision of his career: lose the girl…or his job. *1960: Director, Story and Screenplay, Editing, Art Direction (B&W)Romance at its most anti-romantic–that is the Billy Wilder stamp of genius, and this Best Picture Academy Award winner from 1960 is no exception. Set in a decidedly unsavory world of corporate climbing and philandering, the great filmmaker’s trenchant, witty satire-melodrama takes the office politics of a corporation and plays them out in the apartment of lonely clerk C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon). By lending out his digs to the higher-ups for nightly extramarital flings with their secretaries, Baxter has managed to ascend the business ladder faster than even he imagined. The story turns even uglier, though, when Baxter’s crush on the building’s melancholy elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine) runs up against her long-standing affair with the big boss (a superbly smarmy Fred MacMurray). The situation comes to a head when she tries to commit suicide in Baxter’s apartment. Not the happiest or cleanest of scenarios, and one that earned the famously caustic and cynically humored Wilder his share of outraged responses, but looking at it now, it is a funny, startlingly clear-eyed vision of urban emptiness and is unfailingly understanding of the crazy decisions our hearts sometimes make. Lemmon and MacLaine are ideally matched, and while everyone cites Wilder’s Some Like It Hot closing line “Nobody’s perfect” as his best, MacLaine’s no-nonsense final words–”Shut up and deal”–are every bit as memorable. Wilder won three Oscars for The Apartment, for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay (cowritten with longtime collaborator I.A.L. Diamond). –Robert Abele 
Rating:  List Price: $ 14.98 Price: $ 6.98 |
(out of 153 reviews)
Review by Stephen Reginald for The Apartment
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The Apartment is an insightful movie made by one of cinema’s most talented directors. The plot is fairly simple, but C.C. Baxter’s (Jack Lemmon) is anything but. By innocently lending out his apartment to a coworker, Baxter’s residence becomes the love nest for his philandering colleagues. Along the way, Baxter develops a friendship with Fran Kubelik (Shirley Maclaine), one of several attractive female elevator operators. Baxter is rewarded for his generosity by getting promoted by Jeff D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). Little does he realize that Fran is Sheldrake’s latest plaything. The Apartment has all that you expect from the best of Wilder: great performances, witty dialogue, and a plot that holds to this day, even if most of the depiction of the corporate office environment has changed dramatically (When was the last time you saw an elevator operator?). The three stars provide great characterizations, with MacMurray the real surprise here playing against type. This film is also notable for solidifying the Wilder/Lemmon team. With The Apartment, Lemmon was no longer playing second male leads or supporting roles. A worthwhile film that is still enjoyable today, but the DVD version leaves much to be desired. The picture quality is good, but the looping (the sound synchronization) is off and very distracting. Don’t know the reason for this, but considering this film’s place in cinema history, I would have thought it would have gotten the A treatment. The DVD is a disappointment.
Review by L. Shirley for The Apartment
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This review refers to the DVD edtion(MGM) of “The Apartment”
This 1960 winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1960,touched our hearts and made us smile 43 years ago and still does today. It has not lost one bit of it’s charm and continues to add new fans all the time. It’s a treasure chest of great cinema moments, and a must own for collectors of classics, Billy Wilder or Jack Lemmon films.
Lemmon’s immense talent shines through as C.C. Baxter, one of thousands of office workers in a huge company who is quickly working his way to the top floor and the executive washroom. He’s got what it takes to get ahead…he’s a dedicated employee, and a hard worker, he’s got they key to success…and it opens the door to his apartment! It seems the powers that be on the upper floors have discovered this single guy’s bachelor pad and have badgered Baxter into letting them use it for their little extracurricular activities.
Things get complicated for C.C. though, when the big boss wants in on the action. He wants the apartment for his own use and now C.C. has a chance to go all the way to the top floor.But the rewards are bittersweet..Mr. Sheldrake’s girl turns out to be the very sweet elevator operator Miss Fran Kubelik. The very girl that C.C. adores himself.
The moments as we watch C.C. agonize over this dilemma are touchingly funny,and poignant. Lemmon is brillant in his portrayal as he is able to bring all these emotions to the screen.The rest of the cast is excellent as well. Shirley MacLaine(Fran) will touch your heart, Fred MacMurray(Sheldrake) is marvelous at his turn as the philandering exec(you’ll see him in a very different light from his “My Three Sons” role), and also look for such great notables as Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, Joan Shawlee,Hope Holiday and the wonderful Edie Adams. Oscar also honored legendary director Billy Wlider for his work as director and another for screenplay along with I.A.L. Diamond. The music by Adolph Deutsch is as sweet as the story and will stay with you for quite some time after the view.
Overall the DVD was quite good. This 43 year old film looked pretty good. It could use a little improvement. There were times when it showed it’s age, but the black and white images were clear and bright for the most part.The sound is in Dolby Dig MONO!….”Some Like It Hot” made only 1 year prior to this one, has been enhanced with Dol Dig 5.1(on both DVD editions) and sounds great.The Special Edition of “SLIH”, even gives you the choice of watching it in the 5.1 or the original mono. This is a film that deserves at least the same attention. It may be veiwed in French and Spanish and has subtitles in those langauges as well. But..there are no subtitles or captions in English for hearing impaired viewers to enjoy this great classic and that is a shame. This is a film that should be enjoyed by all! MGM..maybe it’s time for a new edition of this treasure.
“That’s the way it crumbles….cookie-wise”(Shirley MacLaine to Fred MacMurray)…..enjoy…Laurie
also recommended:
reading:Inside Oscar, 10th Anniversary Edition
viewing:Some Like It Hot
Review by Thomas Magnum for The Apartment
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The Apartment is Billy Wilder’s satirical look at office politics and the Man In The Grey Flannel Suit. Jack Lemmon stars as C.C. Baxter, a lowly office clerk in a huge corporation who is just another faceless working bee in an endless row of desks. When Baxter starts lending his apartment to executives in his firm so they can take their mistresses there, he finds himself moving up the corporate ladder. Although the constant loaning of his apartment starts to be an inconvenience, he keeps doing it as makes sense business wise. In meantime, he meets Fran, an elevator operator in his building, who is involved in affair with the big man in corporation, J.D. Sheldrake, played by Fred MacMurray. Mr. MacMurray is outstanding playing against type as the lascivious lowlife boss and philanderer (although is played another unscrupulous character quite well in The Caine Mutiny). Ms. MacLaine is excellent as the morose Fran who brings the situation between Baxter, Sheldrake and herself to head when she tries to commit suicide. Baxter must decide between his integrity and his career. Mr. Wilder masterfully fills the film with laughs and heart and his look at corporate politics is sharp and incisive. For his efforts, he yet again had a triple win at the Oscars, taking the 1960 Best Director, Screenwriting & Picture awards. The Apartment was also the last black & white film to win the Best Picture Oscar until Schindler’s List (which has some elements of color) won in 1993.
Review by for The Apartment
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This is not only one of the best romantic comedies ever made, it’s one of the best films ever made, period. The screenplay structure is airtight and impeccable (expect nothing less from Billy Wilder), but the most interesting thing to me about it is that, even though the movie works as an essentially dialogue driven film, Wilder never neglects his duties as a visual artist. Every composition in this film is as beautiful as the dialogue is punchy. So much so that to watch this film without the letterbox would be a crime. Billy Wilder is a cinematic genius and The Apartment works as yet another piece of proof to that fact.
Review by Robert Moore for The Apartment
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Most people consider Billy Wilder’s best film to be SOME LIKE IT HOT, but while I love that movie, THE APARTMENT has not only been my favorite Billy Wilder film ever, but one of my favorite movies, period. Few movies have managed to blend together so many tragic, humorous, and romantic elements so completely and so well.Over the years I had managed to see THE APARTMENT five or six times. Each time I had seen it either as a TV broadcast film or on VHS. Therefore, I had never seen it in widescreen format. Seeing it for the first time in its widescreen version brought the film home with greater power than ever. What a great movie!The acting in this movie is utterly beyond reproach. In my opinion, this was Jack Lemmon’s finest role. It is impossible to imagine anyone else playing C. C. Baxter. Cast anyone else in that role, and you have a lesser film. Although Fred MacMurray today is primarily remembered for his role on MY THREE SONS, he was also a highly capable villain, and he was never nastier than he was here. Shirley MacLaine was never more adorable than as Fran Kubelik. Unbelievably, she lost the Oscar that year to Elizabeth Taylor (for BUTTERFIELD 8. Although no one today would compare either Taylor’s performance to MacLaine’s in THE APARTMENT, at the time of the voting Taylor was seriously ill and appeared to be in danger of dying. Unfortunately, from time to time Oscars are awarded less on merit of performance, but for other reasons. For instance, in 1940, Jimmy Stewart won the Oscar for THE PHILADELPHIA STORY primarily because voters felt bad that he hadn’t won the previous year for MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. But Stewart’s winning meant that one of the greatest performances in the history of American cinema, Henry Fonda’s portrayal of Tom Joad in THE GRAPES OF WRATH, was not recognized with an Oscar. (Far from being cutthroat competitors, Fonda and Stewart were best friends.) In the spring of 1961, Elizabeth Taylor’s health apparently was a greater factor than Shirley MacLaine’s much stronger performance.Having seen this movie several times, what strikes me is how many memorable though apparently everyday moments remain vivid over time: Jack Lemmon using a tennis racket as a spaghetti strainer; the way that Lemmon quickly rifles through cards on his desk; the game of cards that Baxter and Kubelik play in his apartment while she recovers; the toothpicks and olives arranged in a circle in a bar; the quirks and mannerisms of each of Baxter’s immediate superiors; Lemmon starting to shave only to realize that he had earlier removed and hidden the blades in his razor.I don’t buy many DVDs or videos, but I bought this one the second that I saw that it was available in widescreen.