The Apartment
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Movie Reviews of The Apartment
Movie Review: Touching award winning romantic comedy
Summary: 5 Stars
Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine collaborate beautifully together in Billy Wilders wonderfully written and directed The Apartment. Lemmon, in a role that laid the groundwork for his future portrayal of Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, plays C.C. Baxter an accountant and tiny cog in the huge corporate wheels of a mammoth insurance company. Lemmon discovers that his key to advancement within the corporate hierarchy involves his lending out his apartment for illicit trysts by philandering corporate executives.
Insensitve Director of personnel Mr Sheldrake played by Fred MacMurray gets wind of Lemmons arrangment and takes him to task. He is actually angling toward borrowing the apartment for a rendez-vous with attractive elevator operator Fran Kubelik played by MacLaine, with whom he has been having an affair. Things get dicey because Lemmon has developed a crush on MacLaine and is devastated when he learns the truth.
In an aborted meeting at Lemmons apartment, MacLaine depressed over MacMurrays reluctance to divorce his wife, swallows a bottle full of sleeping pills. Lemmon discovers her and with the aid of his neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss played nicely by Jack Kruschen nurse her back to health. Lemmon again playing the lonely sensitive do gooder, a role he handles so well, eventually wins the heart of MacLaine.
The acting performances shine under Wilders direction who also manages to convey the enormity of the insurance corporation in his well conceived sets. Roles played by Ray Walston and David Lewis as lecherous corporate execs were very well executed
Movie Review: An apartment is just a rung....
Summary: 5 Stars
Some things have not changed much in the world of office politics and all things sexual since this movie was released some 40 plus years ago. Oh sure, today's tactical pursuit of illicit workplace liasons have adapted to the advent of pagers, cell phones, the Internet, not to mention a ginger dance around the legal land mines of sexual harrasment lawsuits, but viewing the cosmopolitan office scene of times gone by as defined by "The Apartment" is a worthy study in love and lust amid the corporate arena. C.C.Baxter, (Jack Lemmon) climbs the corporate ladder by making his apartment available to key personnel within his company for quickie liasons. Somewhat naive about the ways of the world, he develops a romantic attraction for the nubile elevator operator, Miss Kubelik, (Shirley MacLaine). She is however, preoccupied with the ongoing affair she is secretly involved in with the married big boss J.D.Sheldrake, (Fred MacMurray) who demands the key to Baxter's apartment from time to time in return for corporate favors. Why this wonderfully written and superbly acted film is sometimes defined as comedy escapes me. Sure this movie has many great moments of biting satire but at its heart is pathos on parade. Christmas and New Year's Eve never seemed so empty and pointless. Climbing the corporate ladder can carry a hefty personal price but I suppose that lesson is to be experienced by each generation of young lions who would covet the corner office. "The Apartment" is a great study in personal compromise most worthy of two hours of your time.Movie Review: CORPORATE AMERICAN REVEALED
Summary: 5 Stars
Billy Wilder and IAL Daimond have always been known for their cynical touch but The Apartment shows that they had an eye for telling it like it is.
While it was released in 1960, it still applies to corporate America today. It's not how good you are but the games you play that get you advanced.
Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine became stars from this film. Jack plays Bud Baxter, an average guy who aspires to more including the hot elevator operator, Miss Kublik (Maclaine).
When Baxter loans his apartment to help out a co worker, company executives quickly jump on the band wagon to host their trysts. Finally, he makes a deal with the devil (the lecherous head of personnel).
Fred MacMurray played Sheldrake (before he became squeaky clean in a series of Disney films and My Three Sons). Sheldrake offers Baxter a promotion, for exclusive use of his apartment. What Baxter doesn't know, is that Sheldrake is seeing Fran Kublik.
All changes on New Years Eve when Sheldrake dumps Fran and she decided to end it all.
Great character actor Jack Kruschen plays the doctor neighbor who thinks all the partying going on in Baxter's apartment is being done by Baxter.
Anyone who works in big business, will still see the similiarity today.
For trivia fans, this is the first Best Picture winner to be converted to a Tony winning Best Musical (Promises, Promises).
And yes Lemmon, Maclaine and Kruchen all received Oscar nominations.
Movie Review: Classic Wilder-but not classic treatment for the DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Movie Review: Stay At The Apartment
Summary: 5 Stars
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.