The Apartment (film)

• Release Date: 1960
• Director(s): Billy Wilder
• Writer(s): I. A. L. Diamond; Billy Wilder
• Principal Actors and Roles: Jack Lemmon (C. C. Baxter); Shirley Maclaine (Fran Kubelik); Jack Kruschen (Dr. Dreyfuss); Fred Macmurray (Jeff D. Sheldrake); Gloria Swanson (Joe Dobisch)

The Apartment is a classic 1960 film starring Jack Lemmon as a low-ranking employee at a Manhattan insurance agency who allows executives to use his apartment for their romantic liaisons in order to advance his career. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won five, including best picture, best director, and best original screenplay. Its exact genre is difficult to define but it has been widely admired for its humor, compelling drama, and touching romance.

Plot

When the film opens Calvin Clifford (C.C.) "Bud" Baxter has been toiling at the large, impersonal insurance agency for four years. He longs to be promoted and has been lending his apartment to four executives who use it for their extramarital affairs. Baxter is hoping that the executives will recommend him to the firm’s personnel director, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). Sheldrake discovers why the executives think highly of Baxter and does in fact promote him, but in return Baxter has to give him a key to his apartment. Though married, Sheldrake is a prolific womanizer and he becomes the fifth and most powerful executive to use the apartment for his own ends.

Baxter has a romantic interest in Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator at the agency, and is devastated to learn that Sheldrake is regularly bringing her to his apartment. Sheldrake’s secretary, Miss Olsen, sees Sheldrake with Kubelik at a restaurant. Olsen tells Kubelik that she was once Sheldrake’s mistress and that Sheldrake has had a string of mistresses of which Kubelik is only the most recent. Distraught, Kubelik attempts suicide. Her suicide attempt takes place at Baxter’s apartment and he helps her recover. During this time his affection for her grows.

Miss Olsen also tells Sheldrake’s wife about his philandering, and his wife throws him out of the house. He moves into the Athletic Club and asks Baxter for the key to his apartment so that he can bring Kubelik there. Baxter is even more appalled at the idea of Sheldrake bringing Kubelik to his apartment than he was earlier, and he quits his job.

When Sheldrake tells Kubelik about Baxter’s decision, she realizes how much Baxter loves her. She leaves Sheldrake stranded in the restaurant where they were dining and runs to Baxter’s apartment where he tells her how much he loves her. Earlier, when she had been staying at his apartment, the two had been playing gin rummy. She asks him to resume the game, affectionately saying, "Shut up and deal."

Significance

Audiences have long appreciated The Apartment as a sophisticated example of Hollywood storytelling. Billy Wilder is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors. He was born in Austria and rose to fame first as one of the screenwriters of Ernst Lubitsch’s classic comedy Ninotcha (1939), then as the cowriter and director of a series of classic films, including Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), and Sunset Boulevard (1950). He also directed Some Like It Hot (1959), an uproarious comedy that he cowrote with I. A. L. Diamond. Diamond collaborated with Wilder on the screenplay for The Apartment, and together they created a moving and insightful story about corporate ambition and the vicissitudes of love.

Critics have noted Wilder’s depiction of the insurance agency as an impersonal and dehumanizing entity where the employees are defined mainly by their position in the company hierarchy. The opening features a shot of Baxter sitting at his desk amid an endless sea of other drones or company employees sitting at theirs. As critics have also noted, the shot is an allusion to King Vidor’s film The Crowd, which is also about the low-ranking employee of a large corporation. Baxter evolves from someone who defines himself merely as an employee to an individual with a broader understanding of himself. The main catalyst is Fran Kubelik, whose development also follows an interesting pattern. As an elevator operator, she is naturally flattered by the attentions of Fred MacMurray’s Jeff Sheldrake, the personnel director and boss. Kubelik becomes Sheldrake’s mistress but gradually comes to realize that he treats her in a dehumanizing fashion and is unlikely to leave his wife for her. Kubelik also comes to appreciate Baxter’s kindness towards her, and the ending suggests that if she does not return his affections yet, in time she may do so.

Another catalyst for Baxter is Dr. Dreyfuss, his neighbor, played by Jack Kruschen. Dreyfuss can hear the sounds of lovemaking in Baxter’s apartment, and Wilder generates considerable humor as well as pathos from the fact that Dreyfuss believes him to be a lothario instead of a lonely bachelor. Exhorting Baxter to be a "mensch," Dreyfuss plays an important role in Kubelik’s recovery. Ironically, given his misreading of Baxter, Dreyfuss serves as a role model for him, exhibiting the type of neighborly behavior that Baxter’s company sorely lacks.

Wilder was known for his cynicism, but as has been widely noted The Apartment has an underlying sadness. Film critic Roger Ebert points out that much of the narrative occurs between Christmas and New Year’s, and Wilder captures the melancholy that is associated with the holidays. Interestingly, Ebert does not find the film to be dated. When it was released it generated criticism because of its frank depiction of adultery. However, it was a critical success and won Academy Awards in three major categories as well as two minor ones. It also earned $25 million at the box office, a considerable sum at the time. Of the three leads, Lemmon went on to a host of successful roles, appearing in such films as Days and Wine of Roses (1962) and The Odd Couple (1968). He also won an Academy Award as best actor for Save the Tiger (1973). Shirley MacLaine also enjoyed a successful career after The Apartment provided her with a breakout role.

Baxter and Kubelik’s romance has a universal appeal and the film’s examination of timeless issues relating to love and career should ensure its continuing popularity.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (1960) Best Art Direction ()
• Academy Award (1960) Best Film Editing ()
• Academy Award (1960) Best Picture
• Academy Award (1960) Best Director: Billy Wilder
• Academy Award (1960) Best Screenplay (Original): I. A. L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
• Golden Globe (1961) Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)

Nominated

• Academy Award (1960) Best Cinematography ()
• Academy Award (1960) Best Sound ()
• Academy Award (1960) Best Actor (): Jack Lemmon
• Academy Award (1960) Best Actress: Shirley Maclaine
• Academy Award (1960) Best Supporting Actor: Jack Kruschen

Bibliography

Crowe, Cameron. Conversations with Wilder. New York: Knopf, 1999. Print.

Crowther, Bosley. "The Apartment (1960)." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 June 1960. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.

Dirks, Tim. "Filmsite Movie Review: The Apartment (1960)." Filmsite. American Movie Classics, 2016. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.

Ebert, Roger. "The Apartment." RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital, 22 July 2001. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.

Horton, Robert. Billy Wilder: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers). Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2002. Print.

MacLaine, Shirley. My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir. New York: Bantam, 1996.

McNally, Karen, ed. Billy Wilder, Movie-Maker: Critical Essays on the Films. Jefferson: McFarland, 2010. Print.

Phillips, Gene D. Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder. Lexington: U of Kentucky P, 2010. Print.

Sikov, Ed. On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder. New York: Hyperion, 1998. Print.