Sleeping your way up the corporate ladder takes on an entirely new meaning in The Apartment, Billy Wilder's 1960 classic dramady that stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray. Consolidated Life of New York employee C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) has found a way to bypass other employees and move up to the office with a view.

Baxter doesn't have to sleep with anyone; not that he wouldn't like to! Renting what seems to be prime flat, Baxter only has to lend out his place for a few hours for his many married bosses to "entertain" their mistresses.

When Baxter has finally had enough of sleeping on park benches and finding late night coffee shops, he's about to put his bosses on notice the deal is off. That's when he is escorted up many floors to work in his own big office. So maybe he'll wait a while longer, he thinks.

Meanwhile Baxter turns his attention to Consolidated Life's elevator operator, Miss Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). One mishap after another happens before they kind of get together, but then Miss Kubelik is finally getting more attention from the "big" boss, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray).

Fred MacMurray

Baxter reluctantly agrees, and on Christmas Eve, meets a lonely girl at a party that he takes home. But when he arrives he finds personal belongings of Miss Kubelik's lying around the apartment, and then discovers her in his bed next to an empty bottle of pills.

Aghast, he chases off his date, and runs next door to his Jewish neighbor who is a doctor. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen) agrees to help but gives Baxter an earful for all the wall-banging noise he and his wife have had to put with, and lectures Baxter about his mistreatment of women, pointing

Jack Kruschen &

Shirley MacLaine

Baxter can't own up to what's going on or he'll loss his apartment. His worse dilemma is whether to fix things up between Jeff and Miss Kubelik or tell her the truth that Jeff will never leave his wife.

The Apartment is a classic that offers us many treasures. It's a classic throwback to an era long gone. A time when there were elevator operators, when employees did call each other by their last names and when work promotions sometimes did happen from "what can you do for me" attitudes.

While the story itself is mediocre, it's the charm of the cast; particularly Lemmon and MacLaine have their characters enthusiastically dragging us along. The script by Billy Wilder and I.A. L. Diamond had great one-liners (okay some were cliché) that were made for these characters. Examples are Miss Kubelik explaining her broken mirror to Baxter, "I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel,"   and "I used to live like Robinson Caruso shipwrecked among eight million people and then one day I saw a footprint in the sand and there you were," spoken by Baxter.

With 10 Oscar nominations and five wins for Best Picture - Billy Wilder; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White Alexandre Trauner and Edward G. Boyle; Best Director - Billy Wilder; Best Film Editing - Daniel Mandell; and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Wilder certainly deserves credit for his direction.

There's comedy (who doesn't remember the scene where Baxter strains his spaghetti through his tennis racket-even though we doubt he ever played tennis), romance and some drama is this classic. The Apartment has social implications, delving into the complex corporate of the 1960s and the humanity it takes to survive that complexity. At a time when the Production Code was still affecting films, The Apartment certainly breached brave subplots of sexuality, adultery and even suicide.

Anyone who has seen this movie probably can't see it enough, and anyone who hasn't seen it should. Jack Lemmon, in his very first leading man status, and Shirley MacLaine  are terrific and you can't help but enjoying them every minute of the film. Lemmon was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, but it went to Burt Lancaster for Elmer Gantry. There were some very nice camera shots by Joseph LaShelle who was also nominated for Best Cinematography.

The newly released collector's edition DVD has some great bonus features with lots of comments about Jack Lemmon's life. All very worthy of watching.

Bonus Features

• Audio commentary with film historian Bruce Block - he mostly just explains the scenes as the film unravels, most which are already apparent, but occasionally he reveals some interesting things - how two different titles were originally considered but neither one made it. He talks about the script location, about some of the clues about the plot that are layered in early one and about some scenes that were cut.

• Inside The Apartment - a documentary where professionals and cast members talk about Billy Wilder, how he came to the United States, the production code and it includes a behind-the-scenes look at making The Apartment.

• Magic Time: the Art of Jack Lemmon - Lemmon's son Chris Lemmon and many others talk about the actor. Among other things Chris said:

  

  Chris Lemmon

  "His father wanted him to be a baker. Pop went to Andover than Harvard and then wanted to be an actor and Papa Jack said, 'Do what you do because you love it; never forget that I'll find romance in a loaf of bread.' I think he (Jack Lemmon) found romance in every performance he ever gave. He never read a line in the same way. He was always fresh. My father never lost the respect for and the appreciation of the privilege of being able to work in this industry. The two words he said before getting in front of the camera every time was, 'Magic time.' And he was magic in my life.

Biographer Jack Lemmon (no relation) said, "Jack Lemmon made pleasing films at Columbia but they wouldn't ignite a career but when he was loaned out in 1995 to Warner Bros. for Mr. Roberts, he earned an Oscar. At Columbia he was told what he was going to do, but Wilder invited him to collaborate.

Film Professor Drew Casper said about Lemmon, "He was rescued by Billy Wilder who also felt Jack was an average American but mischievous. With Wilder's vision of the world Lemmon was the perfect persona for it."

TCM'S Host Robert Osborne said, "Billy wilder pushed Jack to a whole different lever where he could use the comedy and the zaniness that Jack Lemmon had. I think Jack Lemmon had a lot of the qualities of Henry Fonda in a comedy version.

Molly Haskell, co-host of TCM's "The Essentials" said, "There's a loving quality to him (Jack Lemmon).

Author Kevin Lally of Wilder Times, said, "He (jack) brought so much of his own comic genius to the film, but The Apartment was also a leading role with him as a romantic leading man."

Mrs. Margie MacDougal (played Hope Holiday in The Apartment) said about Lemmon and Wilder, "It was like a father/son relationship; they were very close."

Shirley MacLaine (played Fran in The Apartment) - said, "Billy Wilder saw America as few American saw it because we're too close."

Director: Billy Wilder

Writers: by Billy Wilder and I.A. L. Diamond

Cast Members: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, David Lewis, Hope Holiday, Edie Adams

Rating: Not Rated - due to some mature subjects not appropriate for under 13

Classic Movie Guide Rating: 4 our of 5 stars

DVD Release Date: 02/05/2008

Run Time: 125 minutes

Studio: Fox Home Entertainment/MGM Pictures

Format: Black & White - Widescreen

Photo credits: © Fox Home Entertainment/MGM Pictures