The Apartment

Review #4
MGM, 1960
Mov No. 19647
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Rated: PG
Directed by: Billy Wilder
Staring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray
Oscars: 5 wins (Picture, director, original screenplay, art/set direction (B&W), film editing), 10 nominations (Lead actor (Jack Lemmon), lead actress (Shirley MacLaine), Supporting actor (Jack Kruschen), Cinematography (B&W), sound)
AFI 100 years, 100 _____ tributes: Passions (#62); Movies (#93)
Runtime: 2h 5min
Best quote: "You know that the average New Yorker between the ages of 20 and 50 has two and a half colds a year." "That makes me feel just terrible," "Why?" "Well, to make the figures come out even, and I have no colds a year, some poor slob must have five colds a year." - C.C. Baxter & Fran Kubelik

C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon), a bachelor working for an accounting firm, has no hope of doing any better in his dead-end job than he already has got, until he comes up with the idea of renting his apartment to the likes of his boss (Fred MacMurray) and colleagues for their "extra-marital" flings.

But, as C.C. finds out, things don't go they way he had planned out. He is constantly kicked out of his house for hours on end, sometimes for whole nights, and even has to sleep in the rain in the nearby park!

C.C. Just can't take it anymore, and soon decides that he won't allow his place to be used anymore. This is especially true when he meets Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator girl. They soon develop a relationship, and C.C. wants to take her to his apartment. However, it's being used by his boss!

C.C.'s bosses decide to promote him to the top in the company, but only if he keeps on letting them use his apartment. C.C. has two choices: give up his dream girl, or loose his new promotion.

The Apartment is a funny, delightful romp that is just plain "fun". The Apartment is filled to the brim with (As Jack Lemmon's good friend Walter Matthau put it, from Grumpy Old Men) "sexual innuendo." Although risqu�`, it's a great little movie.

Plot:
Very straightforward. It easily understood without a lot of second-guessing.

Visual Effects:
There are really no visual effects to speak of in The Apartment. Nice black and white cinematography, though.

Sound:
Sound effects are average in the film.

Character Development:
In The Apartment's characters are, in a way, strange. Their depth isn't shown off right away, and we don't learn a lot about them, but as the show goes on, we do learn why they do what they do.

Atmosphere:
C.C. Baxter is a character the average man can relate to. He works in a dead-end job that he can't afford to get out of, and he has bosses who push him around. You really feel for C.C., even when he tries to do good.

Realism:
Every one has, at one time or another, had a dead-end job or a boss that just wouldn't leave you alone. And yes, someone has probably done the same as C.C. Baxter has -renting their apartment for money.

Warren�s Rating:

Movies it beat out for Best Picture:
The Alamo; Elmer Gantry; Sons and Lovers; The Sundowners

FINAL RATING

Is the movie worth your time to watch?

14-03-03