ormich Going into "The Apartment", I had very high expectations. I was hoping the plotline of 5 people using the same apartment to cheat on their wives would be the core of the movie. And that is one hell of a premise for a comedy, so I was excited.Unfortunately, that aspect is pushed to the background about 40 minutes in and the movie turns into a full-fledged romance. And a very typical one at that. A beautiful girl is wanted by a good guy and a bad guy. She's in love with the bad guy, but he keeps mistreating her, so the good guy sweeps in and we wait for her to make the right choice for about an hour. I'm sure this concept was not much less typical in 1960 than it is now. And it's really hard to root for a resolution. Baxter is the guy the viewer naturally feels compassion for (and the movie is certainly fixated on making us feel sorry for him), but the girl is clearly not all that into him and she only decides to settle for him after she's delivered 5 dramatic monologues about the hopelessness of unrequited love and being involved in a love affair with a married man. She doesn't even reciprocate his declaration of love in the end. I must admit this is certainly not unrealistic, but as a movie ending, it falls short for me.Sidenote : the "wise" joke really wore thin, didn't it?

MJB784 When I first saw this movie I thought I liked it, but I watched it again and it was boring. The story was nothing special and I didn't find any humor. It seems very dated. I seem to find a lot of Billy Wilder's movies dated except Some Like It Hot, Sunset Blvd and Double Indemnity. I especially love Double Indemnity, but I found this slow and boring. I don't get the joke and I love comedy. Some Like it Hot has lots of laughs. Nothing very memorable seemed to happen during this one. Why is it so interesting that other people have affairs or dates in C.C. Baxter's apartment? What makes that so entertaining? I also don't understand the tone of this movie. Is it a romantic comedy? A drama? A situational comedy? Some of Billy Wilder's movies I understand why audiences enjoy and others I find boring. I also didn't get what was so funny about One, Two, Three. I liked Fortune Cookie and Front Page.

bankofmarquis My local cinema does "Secret Movie Night" once a month, you just show up and watch a "classic" of their choosing, you just don't know what it is until it starts.One of the reasons that I enjoy this is that I end up viewing films that I might not, otherwise, choose to watch. Case in point is the selection for May - the 1960 Oscar winner for Best Picture, THE APARTMENT - a "love story" with some comedy and some dark dramatic moments and themes. A very tricky combination of items that are bundled together, brilliantly, by a master of the craft.THE APARTMENT tells the story of nebbish office worker C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon in an Oscar nominated performance, more on that later) who is talked into lending his apartment to higher-ups in his company so they can carry out extra-marital affairs. When one of the affairs goes wrong, Baxter is forced to "clean up the mess".Written and Directed by the GREAT Billy WIlder (SOME LIKE IT HOT, SUNSET BOULEVARD), The Apartment is more than a love story, more than a look into the vacuous lives of those anonymous office workers, it is a look into the lives of those who are victims of abuse of power. Wilder, rightfully so, won the Oscar for Best Director and Best Screenplay for this film. The Apartment is strongly written and directed not flinching at the deep subject matter while also balancing things out with moments of comedy and joy, turning what could have been a dour, dark subject into a more joyous exploration of true humanity and love rising through the corruption and abuse of power heaped upon them.In the lead role of CC Baxter, Lemmon is perfectly cast. Starting as a pure comedic character who is set upon by a world too strong for him, his character slowly turns sharper, deeper, more serious and more real as the film progresses. Lemmon was nominated for the Oscar for his performance - and rightfully so. I had to look up who beat him out for the statue and found out it was Burt Lancaster's powerhouse performance in ELMER GANTRY, so I can't really argue about this (but I digress).Matching Lemmon beat for beat is Shirley MacLaine, the wronged girl who's "issues" (I'm not going to spoil what happens, if you haven't seen this) are at the heart of this film - and at the heart of Lemmon's character. MacLaine is charming and tragic in this role and she, too, was nominated for an Oscar (for Best Actress losing to Elizabeth Taylor for Butterfield 8). Rounding out the cast was a pre-MY 3 SONS Fred MacMurray (as the Exec who abuses both Lemmon's and MacLaine's characters). He was terrific as this cad, and thought for sure that he would have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but that honor went to Jack Kruschen as Lemmon's neighbor in the apartment building where they both lived. I am fine with that but preferred MacMurray's performance. Also showing up are such great character actors as Ray Walston (MY FAVORITE MARTIAN), David Lewis (GENERAL HOSPITAL), Willard Waterman (THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE) and David White (Larry Tate in BEWITCHED) as other Execs using The Apartment for their purposes.This is a terrific motion picture and if you haven't seen it (or if you haven't seen it in quite sometime), I highly recommend you check it out (it is shown on the Turner Classic Movie channel on a fairly regular basis). It certainly shows a slice of life during the MAD MEN days that just doesn't exist anymore - and also presents a type of film, and a type of filmmaker, that just doesn't exist today.Letter Grade: A+10 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)

AhmedD-8 I will not talk about the acting and the other things that every film stand on but i will talk "screen writing". For me the most beautiful thing on Billy's movies is the story.It was easy to understand. the dialogues were too beautiful and well written. The sequence of events was more than good so there was no boredom during the movie. At the end i would like to say that Billy all his movies are well written and too joyful.