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The Apartment
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Overview

User Rating:
MOVIEmeter: ?
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Director:
Billy Wilder
Writers:
Billy Wilder (written by) and
I.A.L. Diamond (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Apartment on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
16 September 1960 (France) more
Genre:
Romance | Comedy | Drama more
Tagline:
A Billy "Some Like It Hot" Wilder Production more
Plot:
A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
Won 5 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 8 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(15 articles)
An Education From Oliver Stone
 (From Vanity Fair. 6 October 2009, 8:19 PM, PDT)

September. It's a Wrap
 (From FilmExperience. 30 September 2009, 8:59 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
Another Wilder classic more (175 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Jack Lemmon ... C.C. Baxter

Shirley MacLaine ... Fran Kubelik

Fred MacMurray ... Jeff D. Sheldrake
Ray Walston ... Joe Dobisch
Jack Kruschen ... Dr. Dreyfuss
David Lewis ... Al Kirkeby
Hope Holiday ... Mrs. Margie MacDougall
Joan Shawlee ... Sylvia

Naomi Stevens ... Mrs. Mildred Dreyfuss
Johnny Seven ... Karl Matuschka
Joyce Jameson ... The Blonde
Willard Waterman ... Mr. Vanderhoff
David White ... Mr. Eichelberger

Edie Adams ... Miss Olsen
more
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Also Known As:
Das Appartement (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
La garçonnière (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Piso de soltero (Argentina) (Mexico) (informal alternative title) [es]
Byt (Czechoslovakia) [cs]
El apartamento (Spain) [es]
Garsoniera (Poland) [pl]
Garsoniyer (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
I garsoniera (Greece) [el]
Kärleksnästet (Sweden) (TV title) [sv]
L'appartamento (Italy) [it]
Legénylakás (Hungary) [hu]
Nøglen under måtten (Denmark) [da]
O Apartamento (Portugal) [pt]
Poikamiesboksi (Finland) [fi]
Se Meu Apartamento Falasse (Brazil) [pt]
Ungkarlslyan (Sweden) [sv]
more
Runtime:
125 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Brazil:Livre | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (1994) | Canada:G (Quebec) (2000) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #19647) | West Germany:16

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Billy Wilder also used the character name Sheldrake in Sunset Blvd. (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), and Kiss Me, Stupid (1964). more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: The layout of Baxter's apartment makes no sense, especially in the context of Dr. Dreyfus's apartment. Dreyfus lives next to Baxter, which means their walls should be adjoining the full length of both flats. But from inside Baxter's living room one can see windows in both his kitchen and bedroom facing directly where the Dreyfus apartment should be (and there would likely be a window in the bathroom between the kitchen and bedroom). Dreyfus's apartment would have to veer immediately off to the extreme right when you enter it and be no more than a couple of inches wide in order to allow the kind of set-up seen in Baxter's apartment - clearly unrealistic, if not downright impossible. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
C.C. Baxter: [narrating] On November 1st, 1959, the population of New York City was 8,042,783. If you laid all these people end to end, figuring an average height of five feet six and a half inches, they would reach from Times Square to the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. I know facts like this because I work for an insurance company - Consolidated Life of New York. We're one of the top five companies in the country. Our home office has 31,259 employees, which is more than the entire population of uhh...
more
Movie Connections:
References Grand Hotel (1932) more
Soundtrack:
Capriccio Italien, Op. 45 more

FAQ

Is this movie based on a novel?
Was slapping really the prescription for overdosed patients back in the 1960s?
Why does Baxter have a cold? It doesn't seem to fit into the plot.
more
28 out of 33 people found the following comment useful.
Another Wilder classic, 14 August 1999
8/10
Author: Primtime from Langley

Jack Lemmon is the man.

The Apartment really surprised me. The Best Picture winner starts off right in the middle of the action, but yet the first hour seems long and overrun. Too much time seems spent in trying to develop the characters (and oh so many of them) and not enough time is spent on just seeing what will happen. Just when I was about to lose faith, the film picks it up like I have never seen before. The whole sub-plot of the four guys wanting to use Lemmon's apartment for their evening tyrsts is dropped and Wilder smartly concentrates on Lemmon, MacLaine and MacMurray and the film creates true magic.

The Apartment is more of a drama than a comedy and balances the two elements perfectly. Just after one of the more dramatic moments of the film, we see Lemmon straining his pasta with a tennis racquet. The use of the doctor and his wife in supporting roles are completely there for comedy and yet add so much to the film. The ending also rates up there with the best of all time using an old device that doesn't seem at all cliched in this film. Some say that "Some like it hot" was Wilder's best, but now I have to disagree. The Apartment is better and surely would have made my top ten had the first hour not been so predictable.

How Jack Lemmon didn't win Best Actor is beyond me. His is a great performance, getting to act on more than one scale. MacMurray, another Wilder favourite is perfectly cast in the role of a family-wrecker. I wish they would have put a scene in which his wife confronts him with "The News". MacLaine glows on the screen even when she is sick and in bed.

I fully recommend this film to all, it being Wilder's best makes it a must see.

8/10 stars.

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Jack Lemmon's OVERacting... robertodelamar
Happy 50th anniversary! dgcrow
Does Kubelik love Baxter? donmendo
Currently Watching It komey9
In a remake . . . kdy_9
Painting in Sheldrake's office? amaclean-1
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