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 ...

---

Plot Keywords:

mirror | evidence | christmas | apartment | christmas eve | 

---

Taglines:

He lent his flat for love - of his job ! [UK]

---

Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

---

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

Features Jack Kruschen's only Oscar nominated performance.

---

Goofs

In the opening voice-over, Baxter states the date as November 1, 1959 which was a Sunday. Yet the implication in the narration is that it was Wednesday.

---

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 ...

---

Connections

Referenced in Jeopardy!: Episode #26.75 (2009)

---

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

corporate sex ladder

A struggling office worker in a giant insurance company lends his apartment to higher ups in order to get a promotion. Set during the Holidays, the theme of infidelity turned a lot of viewers off. The Holiday setting however is what provides a lot of the film's best scenes, as in the fantastic office Christmas party where the secretaries are doing a CanCan on the table and couples are making out in the corner. The one-two punch of Jack Lemmon's classic performance and that of Fred MacMurray is fabulous, and the triangle of sorts that forms with Shirley McClaine makes this much more than the comedy that it is known for.