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The Apartment

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The Apartment (1960)

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90 %
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Reviews Counted: 40

Fresh: 36

Rotten:4

Average Rating: 8.3/10

Consensus: It has perhaps aged poorly, but in The Apartment, director Billy Wilder's customary cynicism is leavened here by tender humor, romance, and genuine pathos.

Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT blends his customary harsh cynicism with a humane streak that appears only fleetingly in his films. It stars Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter, an office clerk who curries favor with the executives in his office by... Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT blends his customary harsh cynicism with a humane streak that appears only fleetingly in his films. It stars Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter, an office clerk who curries favor with the executives in his office by giving them the key to his small apartment for the odd afternoon dalliance. Among them his is his callous boss, J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), who Baxter eventually learns is using his place to sleep with Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the sweet elevator operator the clerk has loved from afar. When Sheldrake coldly dumps the vulnerable young woman, she tries to commit suicide, but is saved by the intervention of Baxter. As the clerk lovingly nurses the young woman back to health he begins to realize, with the help of epigrammatic neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), exactly how much of a fool he has been. Wilder brilliant depiction of the average American office as a place of brutality, coldness, and alienation conjure up Kafka and Marx. The director seduces the audience into what appears to be an unusually frank sex comedy, but turns the tables in displaying the consequences of the executive's cold indifference. Lemmon and MacLaine both give career performances and MacMurray is memorable as the blandly smiling snake. [More]

Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Edie Adams

Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Edie Adams, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, Joan Shawlee, Hope Holiday, Naomi Stevens, David Lewis, Joyce Jameson

Director: Billy Wilder

Director: Billy Wilder
Screenwriter: Billy Wilder, I. A. L. Diamond
Producer: Billy Wilder
Composer: Adolph Deutsch

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jun 19, 2001

[DVD Details]
 
 

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital Mono - English, French, Spanish

Additional Release Material:

  • Trailers - Original Theatrical Trailer

Reviews for The Apartment

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
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Ratings Image

A true classic. It's about advancement, ambition, corruption and adultery, and it operates as both a satire and a sorrowful romance.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
09/12/08
Daniel Etherington
Channel 4 Film
Ratings Image

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
06/10/08
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Ah, Lemmon and MacLaine... what poetic chemistry.

comment Comment
03/23/08
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
Ratings Image

There is no better demonstration of the art of Billy Wilder than this sophisticated blend of sweet and sour, tender and heartless.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
02/20/08
Channel 4 Film
Ratings Image

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.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
08/15/07
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

The overlong drawn-out one-hook themed Apartment seemed a tad more bare than furnished.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
03/16/07
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image

'The Apartment': The Film That Defines Me

Full Review Source: Passionate Moviegoer | comment Comment
02/13/07
Joe Baltake
Passionate Moviegoer
Ratings Image

Billy Wilder somehow took a story about infidelity and suicide and made it into a comedy.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
01/01/07
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Ratings Image

I wouldn't call this 1960 picture one of Billy Wilder's best comedies -- it's drab, sappy, and overlong at 125 minutes.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/13/06
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Billy Wilder further enhances his filmic resume with this tender portrayal of a lonely man who may soon get what he deserves. Jack Lemmon is terrific.

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
11/15/06
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy
Ratings Image

Diamond-sharp satire with a brilliant performance from Lemmon.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Ratings Image

No review available.

comment Comment
07/07/05
Joe Williams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Ratings Image

The first comedy to win the Oscar since 1944's Going My Way, the Apartment, the serio-comedy about "little people" in N.Y.C. (Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine) is not vintage Billy Wilder, but it's well-acted.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
06/05/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image

Humanism and cleverness age like fine wine, even if served with spaghetti strained with a tennis racket.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
05/06/05
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
Ratings Image

It’s one of the most heartbreaking films I’ve ever seen.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
02/09/05
David Cornelius
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image

No review available.

comment Comment
02/09/05
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope
Ratings Image

No review available.

comment Comment
10/26/04
Mark R. Leeper
rec.arts.movies.reviews
Ratings Image

A classic comedy, showing Billy Wilder at his cynical best.

comment Comment
02/25/04
Bob Bloom
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)
Ratings Image

No review available.

comment Comment
10/04/03
Rebecca Murray
About.com
Ratings Image

No review available.

comment Comment
08/22/03
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
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Latest News for The Apartment

June 22, 2007: AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...

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