Favorite Movies: The Apartment

Although it won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1961 (as well as 4 other Oscars, including screenplay and direction), Billy Wilder’s brilliant movie, THE APARTMENT, is not as well known as it deserves to be. Oh, it’s hardly been relegated to the dustbin of history, but the average man on the street seems not to have come across this gem.

Wilder’s screenplay is an almost flawlessly constructed work that mixes cynicism and romance in equal parts and is hilarious to boot. And most of the laughs are the best kind, those that arise from character and situation rather than from simply being “funny lines.” His direction is as beautifully assured, and the performances across the board are top notch.

That includes the supporting cast, with a gut wrenchingly funny turn from the otherwise unknown Hope Holiday; marvelous moments from Joan Shawlee (who had appeared in Wilder’s SOME LIKE IT HOT); a fine job from Jack Kruschen; and great work from Ray Walston, Edie Adams, David White and others.

If the supporting cast is incredibly solid, the three leads are irreplaceable. Fred MacMurray plays the cad with all the smoothness and self-centeredness you could ask for. Shirley Maclaine’s performance is so finely etched it could cut glass.

But even with these great turns, it’s Jack Lemmon who deserves the greatest plaudits. His is, hands down, one of the finest comic performances ever put on screen. The amount of telling detail that he puts into the simplest moment makes this performance endlessly rewarding even on multiple viewings.

If you’ve never visited THE APARTMENT, do yourself a favor and find a copy.