The Apartment (1960)
Grade: 54
Billy Wilder's "The Apartment" was an enormous success. Nominated for ten Academy Awards, it won five, including Best Picture and Best Director. Made as a comedy, the film appears much darker today. However, the stereotype of business executives as cynical, manipulative skirt-chasers strains credibility, and the actions of characters both major and minor is entirely predictable.
Jack Lemmon works long hours in an enormous office. It turns out that he stays late because he can't go home: he has allowed his corporate bosses to borrow his apartment for sessions with their mistresses. Lemmon is hoping for a promotion, which he finally obtains when he grants company bigshot Fred MacMurray exclusive access.
Meanwhile, Lemmon is attracted to winsome elevator operator Shirley MacLaine. His progress with her is limited, as she is MacMurray's mistress. When Lemmon discovers her secret, what will he do? This being a movie, he tells his boss off, walks away from his cushy job, and walks off into the sunset with his willing love interest. We are awaiting the sequel, which assumedly begins with Lemmon and MacLaine standing in the unemployment line.
Many scenes in "The Apartment" don't quite work. Why do these executives go to such trouble to use Lemmon's apartment, when they could get one of their own, or rent a hotel? MacMurray and his fellow bosses are excessively crass, and the office party is so wild that one expects the riot squad to show up. Lemmon's personality change from toadying underling to "mensch" is sudden yet predictable. MacLaine's hot-headed brother-in-law is an unfunny plot device to gain audience sympathy for chivalric Lemmon.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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