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The Apartment
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The Apartment (1960) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 3% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Billy Wilder
Writers:
Billy Wilder (written by) and
I.A.L. Diamond (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Apartment on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
16 September 1960 (France) more
Genre:
Romance | Comedy | Drama more
Tagline:
A Billy "Some Like It Hot" Wilder Production more
Plot:
A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
Won 5 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 8 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(11 articles)
Chris Lemmon: The Hollywood Interview
 (From The Hollywood Interview. 9 June 2009, 12:28 PM, PDT)

Scenes We Love: Two Mules for Sister Sara
 (From Cinematical. 28 February 2009, 12:03 PM, PST)

User Comments:
Becoming A Mensch more

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Jack Lemmon ... C.C. Baxter

Shirley MacLaine ... Fran Kubelik

Fred MacMurray ... Jeff D. Sheldrake
Ray Walston ... Joe Dobisch
Jack Kruschen ... Dr. Dreyfuss
David Lewis ... Al Kirkeby
Hope Holiday ... Mrs. Margie MacDougall
Joan Shawlee ... Sylvia

Naomi Stevens ... Mrs. Mildred Dreyfuss
Johnny Seven ... Karl Matuschka
Joyce Jameson ... The Blonde
Willard Waterman ... Mr. Vanderhoff
David White ... Mr. Eichelberger

Edie Adams ... Miss Olsen
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Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Runtime:
125 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Brazil:Livre | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (1994) | Canada:G (Quebec) (2000) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #19647) | West Germany:16

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
According to Shirley MacLaine on her official web site, much of the movie was written as filming progressed. The gin rummy game was added because at the time she was learning how to play the game from her friends in the Rat Pack. Likewise, when she started philosophizing about love during a lunch break one day, this was also added to the script. more
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At the very end of the film, Baxter and Fran sit down to play a game of Gin. This game is played with 10 cards dealt to each player, but Baxter deals at least 13 cards to both Fran and himself before the picture finally fades out. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
C.C. Baxter: [narrating] On November 1st, 1959, the population of New York City was 8,042,783. If you laid all these people end to end, figuring an average height of five feet six and a half inches, they would reach from Times Square to the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. I know facts like this because I work for an insurance company - Consolidated Life of New York. We're one of the top five companies in the country. Our home office has 31,259 employees, which is more than the entire population of uhh...
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Spin City: The Apartment (#1.3)" (1996) more
Soundtrack:
The Jealous Lover more

FAQ

A Note Regarding Spoilers
How does it end?
Why does Baxter have a cold? It doesn't seem to fit into the plot.
more
83 out of 90 people found the following comment useful:-
Becoming A Mensch, 21 January 2005
10/10
Author: David (davidals@msn.com) from Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Ohhh - after my 4th or 5th viewing, I think this may be one of the most remarkable blends of comedy and drama to have ever been filmed - THE APARTMENT - in subtle ways - rises well above the conventions of any genre. It was my introduction to the great Billy Wilder, and my fondness for Jack Lemmon (a remarkable and sorely missed actor) begins here as well.

*SOME SPOILERS*

The cold take on the sex-and-money ethos to be found in many corporate environments hasn't dated one bit; it could be argued that THE APARTMENT stands a bit ahead of its' time in the depiction of (what would appear to be) educated employees treated like (and feeling like) tools to be used in generation of someone else's income. Lemmon's character never forgets that he's disposable, even if the optimist in him hopes that something better may be found in his superiors. Deep down he knows this to be a pipe dream - the sexual adventurism of those same superiors betrays their utter lack of ethics. Of course, Lemmon's character isn't entirely above it all; he's been more than willing to hire out his own apartment as a place for his colleagues' peccadilloes, in exchange for career advancement, which of course - as Wilder early on links amoral sexual conduct and professional/corporate/financial misconduct in a greater social critique - gets him into trouble.

The dialogue is - as is always true with Wilder - very finely crafted, yet seems natural - this film is a remarkable display of the kind of reactions any of us would offer in similar situations. Interestingly, our two protagonists are also wonderfully imperfect as human beings - Lemmon and MacLaine bear some responsibility for the very serious situations they've gotten themselves into; they manage to realize this ("Be a mensch!" Lemmon's doctor neighbor exclaims) just in time to set things right. MacLaine in particular delivers a remarkable, complex performance - sweet and smart in her earliest scenes, bleak and emotionally ravaged in her climactic scene with MacMurray, naive elsewhere, sharp but hopeful at the end. The cinematography captures the entire cast beautifully - with minimal movement, abundant long takes, and a sleek lack of visual clutter, all of the principals are free to reveal their own best and worst impulses, within an environment that is stripped of artifice. The end result is a film filled with great moments one can easily identify with.

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Jack Lemmon's OVERacting... robertodelamar
anyone else loved the '-wise' jokes ??? hitchcock_is_alive
In a remake . . . kdy_9
Mad Men Tigerlilly9
Showing in Oxford next week, might be elsewhere too? onelastnail
Timeliness drmalama
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