1960--The Apartment, Billy Wilder

1960--The Apartment, Billy Wilder

Nominated: The Alamo, Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers, The Sundowners

Should have won: Psycho

Be sure to see: Peeping Tom, Spartacus, The Time Machine

“I like it that way, it makes me look the way I feel.”--Fran Kubelik about her broken mirror

     The Apartment is a fun movie because it pulls off both comedy and drama very well; the genres blend together with no stilted segue from one to the other.

    

    C.C. Baxter works in an insurance office with 32,000 other employees. To get in good with his colleagues, he will oftentimes work late. He doesn't go home; he can't go home. He lends his apartment to others from the office to have trysts. This racket goes on without too many hitches (despite his annoyed doctor neighbor) until the pretty elevator girl Fran Kubelik comes into play. Add in his boss who, unknown to Baxter, is also involved with Fran, a tangled web becomes weaved in his apartment.

     The Apartment is an adulterers comedy which didn't sit well with many critics of its time. But the world was changing and sex was becoming more mainstream. Remember this was seven years after the publication of Playboy Magazine and it was becoming slowly realized that sex wasn't just for marriage anymore. Also, it threw some people for a loop that this comedy would have a suicide attempt halfway through. But The Apartment works for numerous reasons. Jack Lemmon is perfectly cast in what many consider his best role as the well-intentioned Baxter. I must admit I sort of fell in love with Shirley MacLaine as the elevator girl. When I first saw her on the elevator I didn't recognize her and didn’t know she would be a major player and was hoping I'd get to see more of her. If I ever had to list an actress from a certain role (as opposed to in general, ie Elizabeth Taylor who was gorgeous throughout her career) who I would say I had a little crush on, I would point to MacLaine in The Apartment.

     The late night rendezvous by Baxter's friends, the annoyed neighbor, etc. are a few of the many subplots in the film but an interesting one involves the boss of Baxter's company, Mr. Sheldrack. Sheldrack is played by Fred McMurray who you might remember from the fantastic Double Indemnity of 1944. Sheldrack, looking like he could be Lon Chaney Jr's brother, holds the key to The Apartment, I think--pun fully intended here. Because he is the boss, Baxter really can't turn down his proposal to take the apartment for the night. What we find out (and Baxter eventually finds out) is his apartment date is none other than Fran Kubelik, despite the fact he is a married man with a family. It is after this encounter the suicide attempt takes place. Baxter returns from a night of drinking with a woman he picks up in a bar alongside an intoxicated Santa Clause played by Hal Smith who fans of The Andy Griffith Show will recognize as Otis Campbell. He returns to his apartment with this woman to find Fran knocked out from taking too many of Baxter's sleeping pills.

     The comedy turns serious and the doctor neighbor becomes involved. As does Fran's concerned brother-in-law in a scene where he punches Baxter across the face twice, the second punch really connecting with Jack Lemmon. As much as I hate remakes, I could see this one being updated. There was a foreign movie called The Apartment released in 1996 but it wasn't a remake, just a similar title.

     I liked The Apartment a lot. It was very involving. I cared about every character in it. It was funny and dramatic and Lemmon's performance is one of the best I've seen. But to think Psycho didn't even get nominated for best picture is a shame. It does make me wonder though. What if Baxter's apartment key had gotten mixed up with The Bates Motel's key to cabin one? Fran's post overdose shower scene would be a little more interesting.