The Apartment (1960)

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.

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond

Stars:

Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray

Top Rated Movies #108 | Won 5 Oscars. Another 19 wins & 8 nominations.

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

Storyline

As of November 1, 1959, mild mannered C.C. Baxter has been working at Consolidated Life, an insurance company, for close to four years, and is one of close to thirty-two thousand employees located in their Manhattan head office. To distinguish himself from all the other lowly cogs in the company in the hopes of moving up the corporate ladder, he often works late, but only because he can't get into his apartment, located off of Central Park West, since he has provided it to a handful of company executives - Mssrs. Dobisch, Kirkeby, Vanderhoff and Eichelberger - on a rotating basis for their extramarital liaisons in return for a good word to the personnel director, Jeff D. Sheldrake. When Baxter is called into Sheldrake's office for the first time, he learns that it isn't just to be promoted as he expects, but also to add married Sheldrake to the list to who he will lend his apartment. What Baxter is unaware of is that Sheldrake's mistress is Fran Kubelik, an elevator girl in the ...

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Plot Keywords:

mirror | evidence | christmas | apartment | christmas eve | 

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Taglines:

Movie-wise, there has never been anything like THE APARTMENT laugh-wise or otherwise-wise!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 September 1960 (France)

Also Known As:

Das Appartement

Filming Locations:

2 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$18,600,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,000,000, 31 January 1970

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Mirisch Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Fred MacMurray hesitated to accept the role of cheating executive Sheldrake, his memories of working with Billy Wilder on 1944's Double Indemnity (the only other high profile film in which MacMurray played a disreputable character) played a part in persuading him to take this role.

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Goofs

A week-old strand of spaghetti on Baxter's tennis racquet is still soft and pliable.

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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 ...

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Connections

Version of Adventures in the Sin Bin (2012)

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Soundtracks

Auld Lang Syne
(1788) (uncredited)
Traditional Scottish 17th century music
Lyrics by Robert Burns
Sung a cappella by all at the party on New Year's Eve

User Reviews

Likewise, it's a love-fest Lemmon-wise

One of the finest examples of smart, satiric comedy-drama ever created for the screen. Jack Lemmon (in amazing comic form) plays a working stiff in Corporate America--via New York City--whose bachelor apartment inadvertently becomes a love-nest for amorous, married executives. The film is extremely modern for 1960 and features a non-stop barrage of funny, clever talk. Lemmon is a mad genius at frenzied (yet sympathetic) characterization, and "The Apartment" catches him at his professional peak in the movies. Working alongside huggable neurotic Shirley MacLaine (also at her peak) and shady Fred MacMurray (parlaying his slimeball role with curt persuasion), Lemmon creates a new kind of acting: screwball realism. **** from ****