Review of The Apartment (1960) by Ariel H — 20 Apr 2016

The premise of this romantic comedy from 1960 is that an office worker (Jack Lemmon) lets married men and their mistresses have their trysts in his apartment while he stays late at work. As the men are more senior to him in his company, he does it in part to curry favor and advance, but also simply because he's a soft touch and nice guy. His neighbors think he's a wild man and philanderer since they hear noises and see women coming and going, but he never disabuses them of this misperception. Throughout the movie he consistently protects others, even the 'bad guy' (Fred MacMurray), who is manipulating a woman (Shirley MacLaine) by leading her on about leaving his wife, when it's clear he has no real feelings for her.

It was great to see the little snippets of life in this time period and the cultural references, and the office space shown by director Billy Wilder is on its own fantastic (wow, talk about an 'open office' plan). It's interesting to see several actors you'll know from later works: MacMurray (the father in 'My Three Sons', though he had also been in Wilder's 'Double Indemnity' and other films earlier), David White (who depending on your 60's TV knowledge you may recognize as Darrin's boss in 'Bewitched'), and Ray Walston (who was the hardest to connect for me, but when I finally got it I was quite happy with myself ... he was the actor who, 22 years later, would so brilliantly play Mr. Hand opposite Jeff Spicoli, played by Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High).

But I digress. MacLaine is the real star here, with several great moments. While you can see the ending coming from a mile away, there are elements of real melancholy in this movie, including a scene with Lemmon and a woman in a bar, both down on their luck, which is priceless. There is also some edge to the movie with all that playing around, and a wild company holiday party, so that the movie doesn't feel sugary-sweet. I don't think it should have gotten five Oscars (including Best Picture and Best Director), particularly in the year Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece 'Psycho' was released - this was a huge miss by the Academy - but it's certainly a good movie, and enjoyable to watch 55 years later. As a last bit of movie trivia - this was the last black and white film to win the Best Picture award, that is, until 'Schindler's List' won in 1993.