#59: The Apartment

The Apartment (Wilder, 1960)

The Apartment is a film that plays right to Jack Lemmon's strengths, and it's his performance that gives the film it's character. He plays C C Baxter, a low ranked worker in a huge insurance company who gets promotions by letting managers bring their mistresses to his apartment. Personally he hates what they're doing, but he doesn't feel like he's better than them either. He's willing to play the playboy to his neighbors, even repeating the lines given to him by his bosses ("Take them out a few times and immediately they assume you're thinking about marriage!")

He meets and falls in love with a girl who works the elevator in his building. Only, she used to be the mistress of one of the managers who uses his apartment and is trying to get her back as his mistress. He keeps teasing the idea of marriage but clearly has no intention of leaving his wife. Baxter finds this awful, but his own history has made him cynical enough that he just plays along and makes things easy for them.

The way it's framed is pretty predictable, but it's done well enough that it works. The audience roots for Baxter and the girl to get together, and there are a series of almost-happens that lead to misinterpretations that lead to the girl going back to the manager or Baxter retreating into his cynicism. Lemmon plays it all well enough for the movie to be entertaining.

The only problem I have with the film is that it can be a little self righteous and preachy. But you can forgive it, first because it was made in the 60's, and second because it's a comedy.

44/101

Next: The Searchers, Chinatown