===
The film opens with narration by our lead character, C.C. "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon), who works for an insurance company in New York City. He often works late, but it's not necessarily because he's a workaholic. He just can't always get into his apartment. On this particular night he finally goes home and waits outside until the people inside his apartment leave. Baxter goes in and cleans up the dishes but the man comes back, saying the little lady forgot her gloves. This man is Kirkeby (David Lewis), one of the higher-ups at the insurance company, who's using the apartment for an extramarital affair. He apologizes for leaving later than planned but also says he's put in a good word about Baxter to the company director, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). After Kirkeby leaves again, Baxter brings out the empty bottles that have piled up over time for recycling. His next-door neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), sees the pile and teases that Baxter should ease up on the boozing and noise over there.
After heating up a TV dinner, Baxter settles in front of the TV but can't find anything except violent westerns and a promised showing of Grand Hotel that keeps getting delayed by advertisements. Having finished dinner, Baxter turns off the TV, takes a sleeping pill and climbs into bed. Moments later, his phone rings. It's another company manager, Dobisch (Ray Walston), who needs the apartment because he's picked up a Marilyn Monroe-esque dame that he can't let slip away. Despite Baxter's protests, Dobisch makes a veiled threat of Baxter's positioning within the company. Baxter puts the key under the doormat and heads back outside just as Dobisch and his mistress arrive, going to the park for an hour until the apartment is clear again.
The next morning, Baxter arrives at work sniffling and sneezing, tissues in hand. He enters the elevator and chats up the elevator girl, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). After getting out, he and Kirkeby talk about Fran with Kirkeby saying everyone always wants to date her, but she declines. The first thing Baxter does at his desk is call Dobisch. Dobisch put the executive washroom key under the doormat by mistake, so Baxter had to wake up the landlord. Dobisch has the right key brought to Baxter while also telling him he should expect Sheldrake to give him a call later today.
After the call, Baxter takes his temperature and sees it's elevated, so he whips out his appointment book and his Rolodex, making several calls amongst the four different higher-ups who have the apartment booked. He cancels tonight and rearranges everyone's schedules accordingly. Afterwards, he gets word that Sheldrake's secretary has been trying to call for him to come up, so Baxter gets into the elevator with Fran, who wishes him good luck on the 27th floor.
Sheldrake greets Baxter and talks about all the accolades he's received about him from the likes of Dobisch and Kirkeby and two others. He then wonders what it is about Baxter that they all love. He thinks he knows. There's word of a certain key to an apartment that's being passed around the office. Sheldrake is worried about such information getting out and having the company looked upon with disdain. Baxter assures Sheldrake it won't happen any more. Sheldrake then calls his wife and tells her he won't be home tonight due to work matters. After the call, Sheldrake changes the subject abruptly, saying he has two tickets to see The Music Man on stage tonight. Baxter should take those tickets and go see the show tonight. After a few moments and some hints of job performance looking so good, Baxter realizes Sheldrake wants the apartment tonight. He obliges.
Getting back into the elevator, Baxter invites Fran to go with him. She says she's meeting someone for dinner but will meet him in the lobby at 8:30 just when the show's set to begin. As it turns out, we soon see that Fran is meeting Sheldrake for dinner. He says it's been six weeks, a long time. She seems to have mixed feelings about getting together again since their affair ended. Sheldrake says he's going to divorce his wife because he wants to be with Fran. Fran tries to get emotionally past Sheldrake but she can't do it, saying she still loves him. Sheldrake's secretary, Miss Olsen (Edie Adams) arrives at the restaurant, so Sheldrake and Fran leave. Olsen does notice the two of them together, however. Sheldrake convinces Fran to go with him to the apartment, which she has no idea is Baxter's. Baxter is meanwhile unfortunately stiffed outside the theater with the unclaimed extra ticket.
Several weeks pass, and it's now Christmas Eve day. Baxter is moved into his new office. The four higher-ups all visit to congratulate him, but then chastise him for shutting them out of the apartment lately. Dobisch says they made him and they can break him. Sheldrake then shows up and the others leave. He cracks jokes about his lady expecting him to divorce his wife. Baxter gives Sheldrake a broken compact mirror that he correctly assumes belongs to his mistress. Sheldrake says she threw it at him last night.
Swingin' office Christmas party on the 19th floor! Baxter and Fran wish each other a Merry Christmas, and Baxter says he isn't angry about being stiffed on the musical ticket. He pulls Fran out of the elevator and into the party. While he gets some punch, an inebriated Miss Olsen comes up to Fran and tells her about how she herself was Sheldrake's first, and then there was another, and then another, and now it's Fran. Olsen also says she heard all those promises of him divorcing his wife too. Who will be next? Olsen leaves, Baxter returns and brings Fran to his office to show it off. Fran's upset about something but Baxter doesn't know what. He shows her his new bowler hat and having no idea of the Sheldrake-Fran affair, even shows off the Sheldrake family Christmas card he got today. Fran tries to pretend everything's fine, saying the hat looks good, and she hands him her compact mirror to see for himself. Baxter looks in the mirror...and sees it's the broken one that was left in his apartment. He does the math but doesn't let on to Fran that he's figured out that she's Sheldrake's mistress. Sheldrake then calls Baxter to check on the apartment for later as Fran goes back to the elevator.
Baxter winds up hitting a bar and getting sloshed on martinis, lining up the toothpick-ed olives in front of him to make a flower design. A woman blows straw wrappers his way trying to get his attention but he doesn't notice, so she goes up to him and says if he'll buy her a drink she'll buy him some music, and goes to the jukebox. Baxter buys the drink and she sits next to him. She's Mrs. Margie MacDougall (Hope Holiday). Her husband is jailed in Cuba. Meanwhile, at the apartment, Fran is crying and Sheldrake can't get her to say anything to him as to why, other than he makes excuses about not getting the divorce rolling. Fran finally speaks and tells him all about what Miss Olsen told her. She then hands him a Christmas present, a record album that he pretends to like but obviously doesn't, as he says they should leave it here. He then says he wanted to buy her something but he couldn't think of what, so he hands her a $100 bill. She gets up and starts to disrobe, saying at least it's paid for now. He stops her and says not to make it seem so cheap. He has to get home anyway to trim the family Christmas tree since it's Christmas Eve. Fran stays behind to wash her face. While in the bathroom, she sees the bottle of sleeping pills and looks back and forth between them and the $100 bill.
Back at the bar, which is closing up. Baxter and MacDougall are leaning on one another, sorta dancing to the music. They decide to go to his apartment (after he checks his watch to make sure it's clear), saying "Why not? Everybody else does." At the apartment, MacDougall goes into the kitchen while Baxter notices the record player on spinning at the end of a record. He starts up music and finds a pair of women's gloves, which he tosses into his bedroom. While doing that, he sees Fran passed out on the bed. He tries to wake her and boot her out, but he notices the empty pill bottle in the bed too, and that she has virtually no pulse. In a panic, he fetches Dr. Dreyfuss, then chases out MacDougall, who the doctor saw there as well. Baxter also finds an envelope from Fran written out to Sheldrake.
Baxter and Dreyfuss carry the unconscious Fran into the bathroom where Dreyfuss inducing her vomiting and orders Baxter to brew up some coffee. After finishing in the bathroom, they carry her to a chair where Dreyfuss gives her an injection to bring her to. She rouses and Dreyfuss continues to wake her up and keep her talking, asking her questions and whatnot. He also makes her drink the coffee. Finally, they both walk her around until Dreyfuss feels she's out of danger and can actually sleep safely. Dreyfuss tells Baxter, who continues to cover for the use of the apartment and who's actually responsible, that he got lucky, and he also advises she'll need to stay for the next 48 hours to get everything out of her system.
The next morning is Christmas morning. Baxter calls Sheldrake at home. Sheldrake is with his kids playing with their new toys and takes the call. He says he can't come over there now. Baxter also says he has a letter for him from Fran. Fran wakes up as the call is ending and stumbles into the living room. She now realizes this is Baxter's apartment and begins to apologize profusely. Dreyfuss's wife brings soup for Fran to eat, which she does a little of. Fran asks Baxter if he found an envelope, which he did. She asks him to open it. It's not a letter, it's the $100 bill Sheldrake gave her. She asks for Baxter to make sure Sheldrake gets it. Baxter starts up a game of gin rummy with her while she laments about her bad luck with men, but she also thinks Sheldrake really might love her but is just afraid to tell his wife. After two hands of cards, Fran falls back asleep.
It's now 4PM and Baxter prepares to shave, but his doorbell rings. It's Kirkeby with champagne and a mistress. Kirkeby reminds Baxter he told him at the Christmas party he'd need the apartment at 4PM today, but Baxter throws him out. Kirkeby sees that Fran is in his bed so he congratulates Baxter on "hitting the jackpot", and he leaves the champagne behind for them.
The next day at the office, Sheldrake arrives and calls Miss Olsen into his office. He fires her and sends her back out to pack her things before starting to call Baxter. While packing up, Olsen listens in to the conversation. Baxter wants Sheldrake to talk to Fran to make her feel better, and he hands her the phone before running to the grocery store. Sheldrake playfully scolds her for scaring him and tells her they should just forget the whole thing ever happened. Fran says certainly it never happened, nothing did. They never even met. After the call is finished, Olsen calls Mrs. Sheldrake and sets up a lunch date for later.
Elsewhere in the office, Kirkeby and Dobisch are cracking wise about the Baxter-Fran situation and the fact that neither of them are at work today. Someone arrives looking rather angry, and it's Fran's brother-in-law Karl (Johnny Seven), who is there because Fran's sister is concerned that she hasn't been home for 2 days. The other men say they can help Karl out because "What has Buddy Boy done for us lately?" Buddy Boy...erm...I mean, Baxter is home making spaghetti and meatballs, including using a tennis racket as a makeshift strainer. Just as he and Fran sit down to eat, Karl arrives at the door. Dr. Dreyfuss also then shows up to check on Fran, and Karl learns of the ordeal with the sleeping pills. Baxter says she did it because of him, so Karl slugs him before leaving with Fran. Dreyfuss says he'll get his doctor bag, but Baxter just smiles and says it doesn't hurt at all.
Baxter returns to work the next day. He's excited and wants to meet with Sheldrake right away with a prepared speech about how his troubles are over since he's going to take Fran off his hands. When seeing Sheldrake, it turns out Sheldrake gives BAXTER that very speech, explaining that Miss Olsen spoke to Mrs. Sheldrake, and as a result he got thrown out of the house, so now he CAN finally divorce her. Sheldrake also thanks Baxter for taking care of things and shows Baxter his new office right next door, as he's gotten another promotion to Assistant Director. Sheldrake also infers he still is in no rush to marry Fran as he's going to enjoy bachelor life for awhile. Later, before leaving for the day, Baxter sees Fran downstairs. They chat for awhile. Fran is actually surprised that Sheldrake finally is moving on the divorce. Baxter pretends to have a date, but he actually just heads home.
It's now New Year's Eve day. Baxter brings facts and figures to Sheldrake, but he doesn't want to hear about that. He has plans for tonight with Fran and since his current temporary living quarters are stag, he needs the apartment tonight. Baxter says no, he's done with that, and he especially isn't allowing anyone else to bring Fran there anymore. Sheldrake infers that it would only take 30 seconds for Baxter to find himself unemployed. Baxter tosses a key onto Sheldrake's desk. However, Sheldrake notices it's not the key to the apartment, it's the key to the executive washroom. Baxter says it sure is and leaves.
Back home, Baxter is spending New Year's Eve packing up the apartment. He's decided it's time to start a new life chapter elsewhere. Before boxing up his tennis racket, he sees a strand of spaghetti still there. Meanwhile, Sheldrake is out on the town with Fran. Sheldrake has booked a room for them for the night out of town, blaming Baxter for him having to do that since he wouldn't give up the apartment. He kisses Fran and turns around to sing "Auld Lang Syne" with everyone else. When he finishes, he turns back around to find Fran gone. She's raced over to Baxter's apartment, but is initially startled when she hears what she thinks is a gunshot. It's actually Baxter having just opened up a bottle of champagne. They sit on the couch and prepare to finish their gin rummy game. Baxter proclaims his love for her, to which she reciprocates with a smile and four words: "Shut up and deal."
===
The initial concept for the film came from a 1945 British film entitled Brief Encounter, in which Celia Johnson has an affair with Trevor Howard in his friend's apartment. Wilder and co-screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond also partially based the film on a Hollywood scandal in which a talent agent was shot by producer Walter Wanger for having an affair with Wanger's wife, actress Joan Bennett. During the affair, the agent used a low-level employee's apartment for his liaisons.....Due to its racy content involving infidelity, the film was controversial for its time, even getting some early negative reviews just based on the content despite the actual quality of the film. Fred MacMurray himself once relayed a story that after the film's release he was accosted by a woman in the street who berated him for making a "dirty filthy movie" (VERY against the norm for him, but not virgin territory) and hit him with her purse.....Shirley MacLaine, who at this point was the female member of the famed Rat Pack, actually shot her cameo for the film Ocean's Eleven during a break from filming this one. The playing of gin rummy was also added to the story since she had just recently learned the game from the Pack.....MGM wanted Groucho Marx to play Dr. Dreyfuss, but Wilder wanted someone heavier in stature.....Playwright Neil Simon adapted this screenplay into the Broadway success Promises, Promises.....The film's famous last line didn't exist until the day that scene was shot when Wilder and Diamond came up with it at the last minute.
Despite the handful of early negative reviews because of its adult themes, the film wound up a tremendous success and is yet another film on the list of classic Billy Wilder vehicles from his tremendous career. The Apartment scored 10 Oscar nominations, and at the 33rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, it scored 5 victories. The defeats came in the categories of Sound, Black-and-White Cinematography, Supporting Actor (Kruschen), Lead Actress (MacLaine) and Lead Actor (Lemmon). Wins came in Black-and-White Art/Set Direction, Film Editing, Original Screenplay, Director and Best Picture, with the top prize being a victory over The Alamo (good, but overdone film), Elmer Gantry (also good, but more memorable for Burt Lancaster's Oscar-winning performance), Sons and Lovers (I know nothing about it) and The Sundowners (a decent western, but nothing spectacular). This was the last completely black-and-white film to win Best Picture until 2011's The Artist, and the three wins here for Wilder would turn out to be his last competitive Oscar victories.
I think the right film won. I love The Apartment and have seen it 4 or 5 times now. It's great fun seeing the likes of Ray Walston and especially Fred MacMurray play absolute pricks, but moreso, it's just a nice story with a lot of humour and nothing overly outlandish to not be believable. Lemmon is classic Lemmon, and MacLaine never looked more alluring. Go ahead, the key's under the mat. Check out The Apartment. Just try to keep the noise down.
No comments:
Post a Comment