With a filmography that includes Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sabrina (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like it Hot (1959), writer/director Billy Wilder is one of the most cherished filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. So, when I say The Apartment is one of his best films this is anything but faint praise.
Even the premise of this film is ingenious. A bachelor (Jack Lemmon) works his way up the corporate ladder by renting out his apartment to higher up's so that they can cheat on their wives. Though this often leaves him without a place to stay at night, he feels that it is worth it as he is truly making progress in the company. He becomes disillusioned when he discovers that the girl he has a major crush on, an elevator operator (Shirley McClaine) is the woman the big boss of the company (Fred MacMurray) has been seeing in the apartment. One Christmas Eve after lending his apartment to this boss, he finds the girl in his bed having taken an overdose of sleeping pills in a suicide attempt. He takes it upon himself to save her life and help her recover.
What makes this movie so spectacular is the way it brilliantly handles a wide variety of tones and emotions. This movie serves as a charming romantic comedy, a sharp satire, a biting social commentary, a darkly serious drama and a character study. Not only do all these various elements work extremely well but none of them get in the way of each other. Instead, all of them seem to flow naturally and effortlessly out of the story and characters. The wide variety of tones also allows this movie to go to some very dark places, while not becoming unpleasant to watch. Though the comedy lightens up and makes this dark storyline entertaining, the film always takes the story and characters seriously even in the film's funniest moments. Because of this we can laugh while still being very moved by the storyline. This is something that many movies that try to balance comedy drama try and fail at. Yet as we watch this movie, we are so engrossed in the film that we don't even notice the mastery of filmmaking that is before us. The film is also held together by truly great performances by Jack Lemmon, Fred MacMurray and Shriley McClaine. All of them give some of their best performances here.
The Christmastime setting may at first seem superficial, but it adds so much to this movie. Christmastime is a time we associate with togetherness with your family and loved ones. Yet while this association can cause great happiness in many, for some people it increases their feeling of loneliness and isolation. Unlike most films that take place during the holidays, this movie delves into the darker side of the most wonderful time of the year. Having the film's darkest and most tragic scene (the suicide attempt) happen on Christmas Eve, just makes the tragedy all the more emotional. The same can be said about the scene in the bar. Though being locked out of your own apartment to spend a lonely and sad night in a bar is already sad, having this happen on Christmas Eve makes it truly heartbreaking. Even the office Christmas party is lacking in any real Christmas magic and consists of drinking and meaningless sexual flings.
Billy Wilder first had the basic idea for this film after seeing the classic British movie, Brief Encounter (1945) during a scene in which an adulterous couple uses the home of a friend. However he knew that censorship in Hollywood would make such a movie impossible and so the idea stayed only in his mind. After Wilder made Some Like It Hot (1959) with Jack Lemmon, he decided that Jack would be perfect for the main role in this film idea he had. Also knowing how censorship had loosened over the years, he knew that such a picture would know be possible. He and co-writer I. A. L. Diamond (who also co-wrote Some Like it Hot with Wilder) began working on a script with Jack Lemmon in mind.
Billy Wilder had to convince Fred MacMurray (whom he had directed in Double Indemnity) to take the role here. MacMurray had a very family friendly image around this time. In fact just a year earlier he had made The Shaggy Dog (1959) for Disney and was soon to begin shooting on the TV series My Three Sons. MacMurray would later tell a story of visiting Disneyland and having a woman whack him with her purse telling him that this was not a children's movie. Fred MacMurray replied, "No ma'am it wasn't."
The movie was a major box office success earning double its $3 million budget. The movie was also a major success at the Academy Awards. It won five awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Story and Screenplay, Best Art Direction – Black-and-White, Best Film Editing) and was nominated for five more (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography – Black-and-White, Best Sound). When the award for Screenplay was handed out, Wilder simply said, "Thank you, I. A. L. Diamond." Diamond responded, "Thank you Billy Wilder." Even Wilder (who was known to be harsh on his own films) called The Apartment, "the picture with the fewest faults." Watching it today this movie has not dated at all and still stands as a pure classic.
Resources Used
Christmas in the Movies by Jeremy Arnold.
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