Best Picture Winner: 1960

The Apartment (1960)

C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) lets various higher-ups in the insurance company at which he works use his apartment for their sundry extramarital interludes. He’s told that they’ll thank him by recommending him for promotion. Mr. Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), a director at the company, finds out what is going on and decides to join the party. Baxter gets his promotion, and works up the nerve to ask the perky elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) to The Music Man. The problem is that Ms. Kubelik is the woman with whom Sheldrake is having his latest affair.

Director/co-writer Billy Wilder’s acerbic The Apartment takes an attitude that at one time may have been seen as cynical, but today can be viewed as business-as-usual for certain men in power. There are equal amounts of humor and drama in this story of a lonely man who, even if he were to find a lady friend, would have trouble taking her back to an apartment that has a revolving door. Baxter gets in over his head and finds his job on the line if he stops letting those in power use his pad. They flippantly call him “Buddy Boy” but they are no friends of his. When a near tragedy strikes, Baxter is shocked at the callous reaction of Sheldrake. But Baxter himself has helped set up the circumstances. Baxter must now decide if the price of corporate success is too costly.

Jack Lemmon is perfectly cast as the likeable nebbish, and Shirley MacLaine is cute as a button as the woman Baxter adores. It’s very easy to understand the attraction. MacLaine invests Fran with warmth and charm, and she is totally adorable. Baxter is basically a decent guy and Kubelik has a habit of picking the wrong men. There is real chemistry between the two, whether they’re chatting on the elevator or playing gin rummy. And there’s a beautifully heartfelt scene where Baxter observes Fran, who is resting on his bed and gazing out the window, as his face reveals all he is feeling, a mixture of love, concern, and sadness.

The Apartment is a film that improves with subsequent viewings, and seems to be more relevant as time passes. So many stories in recent news have shown how (mostly) men in power take mistresses and/or professional ladies and put them on the expense account. There is much humor in The Apartment, which is character-driven and subtle, such as when Baxter has to juggle the schedule of trysts so he can deal with a cold, or the fact that Baxter’s neighbors think he is a no good womanizer. And the ending is upbeat. But there is also this sad reality of perceived entitlement at the expense of others that gives The Apartment some real sting.

Billy Wilder’s resume includes such classic films as Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and Some Like It Hot (1959). The Apartment can easily be included in the list of Wilder classics.