The Apartment (1960)
Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 57
Fresh: 53 | Rotten: 4
Director Billy Wilder's customary cynicism is leavened here by tender humor, romance, and genuine pathos.
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 1
Director Billy Wilder's customary cynicism is leavened here by tender humor, romance, and genuine pathos.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 35,789
Movie Info
Widely regarded as a comedy in 1960, The Apartment seems more melancholy with each passing year. Jack Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, a go-getting office worker who loans his tiny apartment to his philandering superiors for their romantic trysts. He runs into trouble when he finds himself sharing a girlfriend (Shirley MacLaine) with his callous boss (Fred MacMurray). Director/co-writer Billy Wilder claimed that the idea for The Apartment stemmed from a short scene in the 1945 romantic drama Brief
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Cast
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Jack Lemmon
C.C. Baxter -
Shirley MacLaine
Fran Kubelik -
Fred MacMurray
J.D. Sheldrake -
Ray Walston
Mr. Joe Dobisch -
Edie Adams
Miss Olsen -
David Lewis
Mr. Al Kirkeby -
Jack Kruschen
Dr. Dreyfuss -
Joan Shawlee
Sylvia -
Hope Holiday
Margie MacDougall -
Johnny Seven
Karl Matuschka -
Naomi Stevens
Mrs. Dreyfuss -
Joyce Jameson
The Blonde -
Willard Waterman
Mr. Vanderhof -
David White
Mr. Eichelberger -
Benny Burt
Bartender -
Dorothy Abbott
Office Worker -
Frances Lax
Mrs. Lieberman -
Hal Smith
Santa Claus
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The Apartment Trailer & Photos
All Critics (57) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (4) | DVD (25)
Wilder, a bilious and mercurial wit, here becomes a wide-screen master of time ...
Directed by Wilder with attention to detail and emotional reticence that belie its inherent darkness and melodramatic core, it's lifted considerably by the performances.
A comedy of men's-room humours and water-cooler politics that now and then among the belly laughs says something serious and sad about the struggle for success, about what it often does to a man, and about the horribly small world of big business.
Top CriticWith tremendous performances by the two leads (Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine), this is yet another "must see" title to be found on Wilder's resume.
Most of the time, it's up to director Wilder to sustain a two-hour-plus film on treatment alone, a feat he manages to accomplish more often than not, and sometimes the results are amazing.
'The Apartment': The Film That Defines Me
Despite some entertaining moments and a terrific performance by its lead, it's not a perfect film and does have some problems.
{VIDEO ESSAY} Billy Wilder's classic Manhattan-based romantic comedy comes with a sly critique regarding 50's era corporate culture of rampant misogyny and unbridled ambition.
When assessing his own work Billy Wilder described The Apartment as being the film with the fewest mistakes. And he is right: it is as near to perfect as is possible.
Beautifully written and directed by the great Billy Wilder, bittersweet and heartfelt, this is sheer delight.
Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine shine as two essentially good souls trapped in a tangle of office politics.
Wilder has made some truly great movies, but this one is not the masterpiece we thought it was.
Even over a half-century on, The Apartment remains a biting classic due to its modern romantic sensibilities and Lemmon's commanding, thoroughly charming central performance.
This really is a film of ever increasing returns.
No one does the pitchblack flipside of funny like Wilder, and 1960's The Apartment is the darkest he ever made.
This Oscar-winning Best Picture still has the power and appeal that won audiences over back in 1960.
The cast brings the film together, showing Lemmon and MacLaine as more than just comedic performers, but also as those who can hold their own with heavier script elements.
A perfect mix of comedy, drama, and romance, The Apartment showcases writer/director Billy Wilder at the peak of his creative talent.
A screen gem that attained classic status in about as much time as it takes to comb one's hair.
[Lemmon's character is] a whingeing, self-pitying figure who, like other Wilder practitioners, cannot recognise the extent of his turpitude, and this is both the strength and weakness of a remarkable movie.
Not to be missed on any account.
With finely judged performances from Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, it's a great way to spend an evening, and it's something you won't forget about in the morning.
A true classic. It's about advancement, ambition, corruption and adultery, and it operates as both a satire and a sorrowful romance.
Audience Reviews for The Apartment
Super Reviewer
As in Shop, Christmastime and suicide mingle, and the name "Kubelik" has the old-world ring of Kralik, Matuschek, et al.; Baxter's Jewish neighbors put him on the road from schnook to mensch (perhaps this is Wilder responding to the critique that he wasn't Jewish enough?). And Billy again pulls of his trademark feat of finding pathos in taboo subjects. He had a sign in his office that read, "How Would Lubitsch Do It?" and here that director's elusive touch hovers over the proceedings, lending a lightness to even the most mercenary transactions. A classic in the truest sense of the word.
Super Reviewer
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- C.C. Baxter: We never close at Buddy-boys!
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- C.C. Baxter: It's not the Picasso I'm calling about, it's the key to my apartment. You're supposed to leave it under the mat.
- Mr. Joe Dobisch: But I did didn't I? I distinctly remember bending over and putting it there.
- C.C. Baxter: Oh, I found the key alright. Only it's the wrong key!
- Mr. Joe Dobisch: It is? Well how about that. No wonder I couldn't get into the executive washroom this morning.
- C.C. Baxter: And I couldn't get into my apartment!
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- Fran Kubelik: What's the matter?
- C.C. Baxter: Eh. The mirror. It's broken.
- Fran Kubelik: Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.
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- Fran Kubelik: She doesn't seem to like you very much.
- C.C. Baxter: Oh, I don't mind. As a matter of fact I'm flattered. That anybody'd think a girl like you would do a thing like this over a guy like me.
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- Fran Kubelik: Why can't I ever fall in love with somebody nice like you?
- C.C. Baxter: Yeah, well, that's the way it crumbles, cookiewise.
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- C.C. Baxter: Ya know, I used to live like Robinson Crusoe; I mean, shipwrecked among 8 million people. And then one day I saw a footprint in the sand, and there you were.
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Foreign Titles
- Das Appartement (DE)
- The Apartment (1960) (CA)
