The Apartment




And then one day I saw a footprint in the sand and there you were.

Movies that aspire to be of this variety come and go, but few stick with you like this one.

C.C. "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is just another cog in a large insurance company based in New York. However, he's been working his way up the corporate ladder rather quickly as of late, due to his willingness to let his superiors' and their various girls use his apartment without their wives knowing. While essentially a very nice guy, Baxter is also a "yes" man, hence his problem. When he discovers that the upbeat elevator girl he fancies, Fran (Shirley MacLaine), has been using his apartment with his boss Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), things get a bit more complicated.

The Apartment isn't necessarily just a romantic comedy; Billy Wilder's darker view is firmly in place, but it's a tender kind of dark. The Apartment is also startlingly timeless. Aside from a few minor cosmetic touches, this could easily work as a movie released today. Serious issues like adultery, shady office politics, and suicide are hardly given the blind eye here. Of course the way people hurt and cope hasn't and won't ever change.

Shot in black and white (providing some stark character), The Apartment follows Baxter as he tries to appease his ever demanding superiors and as he tries to get Fran's attention. That's not an easy thing to do as she's already smitten with Mr. Sheldrake, a sleazy executive who's always ready with a quick promise or lie, whichever works best. It's an often-heartbreaking trip towards an end that is by no means guaranteed to be happy. But the script still finds plenty of room to be funny in, thanks in no small part to Billy Wilder's brilliant writing and his topnotch cast. The Apartment can be considered a near flawless success on every front it puts up: drama, romance, and comedy. The romance is especially affecting because everyone wants to see Baxter and Fran get together so badly. It's as hard to put why The Apartment works so well into words as it is easy to understand just that by watching.

Jack Lemmon wasn't very well known in 1960, but this would cement the kind of personality he would become famous for. Baxter is an average, decent, self-deprecating guy in a tough spot. His humor is so wry and understated yet so perfect, as he's always finding ways to make his situation funny even while not letting us forget just how despondent things are. That's a mark of a great actor. But really it's Shirley MacLaine who all but steals the show. When we first meet Fran she's a cheerful girl, and completely different--in a completely appealing sort of way. As things progress we discover that she's not quite the goody two shoes previously thought. As she seems to perpetually mourn her sad state of affairs (literally), she takes to staring emotionlessly, as it seems, at Baxter's most friendly attempts. You just want so bad to give her a hug and make her go back to the way she was. Her performance is just that powerful, and huggable is definitely the fitting adjective. And then there's Fred MacMurray. He's at his smarmy best playing against his usual good guy persona. He makes for a convincing heel man, to say the least. All of these actors put in some of the best work of their respective careers.

This is one of those movies that may not be altogether perfect in practice, but it has a considerable tendency to grow on you. That may be because The Apartment has a loving sort of touch that is exceedingly rare in any film, old or new.



-The Gnome