The Apartment (1960)

"I said I had no family. I didn't say I had an empty apartment."

Director

Billy Wilder

Cast
Jack Lemmon - C.C. 'Bud' Baxter
Shirley MacLaine - Fran Kubelik
Fred MacMurray - Jeff Sheldrake
Jack Kruschen - Dr. David Dreyfuss
Naomi Stevens - Mrs. Mildred Dreyfuss

Ray Walston - Joe Dobisch

David Lewis - Al Kirkeby
David White - Mr. Eichelberger

Edie Adams - Miss Olsen
Willard Waterman - Mr. Vanderhoff

(Spoilers ahead)

I've wanted to watch director Billy Wilder's comedy "The Apartment" (1960) for a long time. I've checked it out from my local public library three times only to "never got around to it" the first two times. I forced myself the third time to put it on despite my mood to watch something else. 

When it comes to movies, desires and moods can conflict. Maybe they should call that "watching 'The Apartment' syndrome." That's what I'll call it, anyhow. 

The movie being a Billy Wilder film, as well as its classic line-up of actors (Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray) are what pulled me in.

When it comes to Jack Lemmon, he's simply a favorite comedian of mine. I'll watch anything with Lemmon in it, and I have. Of course, when he's paired with Walter Matthau, it's even better.

Lemmon also mixes well with Billy Wilder. He's directed Lemmon's most notable films - "Some Like It Hot" (1959), "Irma La Douce" (1963), and "Avanti!" (1972). He also directed Lemmon and Matthau in their first film together, "The Fortune Cookie" (1966) along with "The Front Page" (1974), which is a favorite comedy of mine, and "Buddy, Buddy" (1981) - Wilder's last movie. I've previously reviewed the latter. 

Anyways, in "The Apartment," Lemmon stars as C.C. "Bud" Baxter, an office wage earner at an insurance company in New York City. 

Baxter, who's single and lives alone, moves up the ladder in his little corner of the corporate world by lending his Upper West Side apartment at 51 W. 67th St. to his company managers and their mistresses, whomever they happen to be at the time, for some unsavory extramarital foolin' around. 

Baxter sacrifices his reputation as his neighbors and landlord think he's quite the playboy. They often see all these different women coming in and out of his apartment. To them, he's a shameful sort as they have no idea what he's really doing. Of course, if they did, that wouldn't improve their impression of him.

Still, he makes sure his apartment availability schedule doesn't conflict among his four supervisors. As long as he plays ball, they each give Baxter raving performance reviews to personnel director, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). 

Once Sheldrake takes notice of Baxter, and promises him a grand promotion, he also requests the use of his apartment that very night to have an affair. This will seal the promotional deal. He even goes so far as to request Baxter's spare key so he can access the apartment at will.

To compensate for the short notice, he gives Baxter two theater tickets for that same night.

Baxter, meanwhile, has a crush on the office building elevator operator, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). So, he uses the opportunity to ask her out to the theater. 

She graciously accepts the invitation. Little does Baxter know that she's Sheldrake's mistress and is meeting him that night. Still, she agrees to meet Baxter after her (ahem) appointment. 

While Baxter is waiting for her at the theater, he doesn't realize Fran is back at his apartment with Sheldrake. Needless to say, she stands Baxter up at the theater.

Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in "The Apartment."

Later, during an office Christmas party, Sheldrake's secretary, Miss Olsen (Edie Adams) tells Fran that she's not the first nor even the second girl Sheldrake has fooled around with. She admits that he's even had a fling with her before. 

When Fran meets up with him again at Baxter's place, she confronts him about this information Miss Olsen let out of the bag. 

She wants to break up with Sheldrake who promises to divorce his wife in order to dissuade her from calling things off. 

Sheldrake throws out empty assurances that he loves her before heading back to his unsuspecting wife and children.

It's not long before Baxter realizes his boss is having an adulterous fling with his crush, Fran. Heartbroken and feeling defeated, he meets a random gal at a bar and takes her back to his place. 

When the two walk in, he finds Fran passed out on his bed as she overdosed on some sleeping pills she found in his medicine cabinet. 

He quickly gets his neighbor, Dr. David Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen) to revive her. 

Of course, Dr. Dreyfuss thinks this is all Baxter's doing and though he does help, he scolds Baxter for what he believes is a morally depraved philandering lifestyle. 

Fran spends a couple days at Baxter's apartment, recovering from her suicide attempt. During this time, they develop a friendship (in a good way, I mean) as she opens up about her affair with Sheldrake and her overall failed pursuits at romance. 

While Baxter prepares a nice meal for her one night, one of his managers drops by unannounced to try and get the apartment for the night.

Baxter, however, persuades him and his gal pal to hit the road. 

Before he leaves, he sees Fran and recognizes her right away.

So, in retaliation he tells his colleagues about Fran being at the apartment with Baxter. Word of Fran's whereabouts gets to her brother-in-law, Karl (Johnny Seven). As he and his family have been looking for Fran, he drops by the apartment and scowls at Baxter as a less-than-savory character. In fact, he decks him pretty hard. 

Sheldrake, meanwhile, finds out Miss Olsen got to Fran regarding his affairs. So, he fires her. But Miss Olsen gets the final blow when she tips off Sheldrake's wife about his cheating. This leads to his wife kicking the two-timing bum out of the house. Being the selfish jackass that he is, Sheldrake sees this as an opportunity to get to Fran with less obstacles in his way.

Baxter tells Sheldrake about Fran's attempted suicide, but he doesn't really seem to go out of his way to assist. He expects Baxter to cover for him.

Baxter finally comes to the conclusion that his integrity, reputation, and personal interest as well as Fran's are much more important than the unsavory desires of the untrustworthy horn dog higher-ups at the insurance company. And he lets them know it, including Sheldrake. 

As far as Billy Wilder's comedies go, this is one with a more dramatic side. Wilder knows how to treat the mood and atmosphere of his comedies the right way. I admit, though, that I've seen a small handful of his movies. Even so, I still get that impression. 

The comedy here is in the situation rather than in the dialogue. If you watch his comedy "The Front Page" after watching "The Apartment," the difference in comedic style is very apparent. With "The Front Page," the comedy is in the situation along with the circumstances, characters, plot and dialogue. 

"The Apartment" is a perfect balance of comedy, sadness, and romance. I won't get preachy on the subject of adultery which is presented with a hint of avantgardism. It's not the typical setting for a love story for the time. I wouldn't say it glamorizes adulterous relationships based on the outcomes of everything that's going on. In other words, the audience doesn't need to be slapped in the face with the fact such activities are wrong. Rather, we let the story do its work, consequences and all. When we see Sheldrake secretly taking a call from Baxter in regard to Fran on Christmas morning while his sons and wife open their presents, the morality and gravity speaks for itself. The audience is given the respect to draw the right conclusion without being lectured. Wilder is a sensible director and knows his audience is just as sensible.

The drama isn't completely with Baxter initially having to deal with the setback of thinking about the girl he admires in the arms of his conceited, immoral boss. 

It also exists in how empty everyone is. All these business type characters tout love when they're really all a bunch of entitled assholes. What's really unfortunate at first about Baxter is that he's a pushover. Though he's not quite an ass like his bosses, he's still just as selfish as he's willing to let men destroy themselves and their families by giving them the space to do that in. The only difference is that Baxter has a more likeable personality. The movie gives the audience feelings of sympathy, disdain, and hope. 

Once Baxter gets his principles straight, then he starts to win at the end. He becomes respectable when he gives up his position at work for at least some amount of honor.

Like his other films, Wilder uses a lot of widescreen shots which gives the actors space and atmosphere to support their emotions - tension, frustration, tightness, love and tragedy. 

Lemmon makes a perfect everyman. He's unassuming but the audience is drawn to him. He's sympathetic but not a complete mouse.  

Most of the story takes place around Christmas, when pain stings more severely. It's the most wonderful time of the year, after all. This definitely plays more on the audience's emotions. 

Two Charlie Chaplin movies came to mind while I watched this - "The Gold Rush" (1925) as well as Chaplin's 1952 dramatic comedy "Limelight." 

In "The Gold Rush" Chaplin plays "the little fellow" who, in the final act, is stood up at a New Year's party by Georgia (Georgia Hale), the girl he falls in love with earlier in the movie. Instead, she spends New Years with the jerk who claims to love her but is really brutish and self-seeking. It plays out a bit similarly in "The Apartment."

And like the movie "Limelight," Baxter's care for Fran after she attempts suicide is similar to Chaplin's character, Calvero, taking care of Terry (Claire Bloom) in his apartment after her suicide attempt. Both films use this as a major plot point of the film. 

"The Apartment" is a sort of lost time, or lost weekend, type of romance. It has a bit of poignancy, comedy, and romance that overcomes selfishness. That's certainly due to Lemmon's brilliant ability to evoke such emotions, and Wilder's keen sensability.