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The Apartment
on DVD (1960)
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| Starring: |
Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, David Lewis, Joan Shawlee, Naomi Stevens |
| Director: |
Billy Wilder |
| Studio: |
MGM ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time: |
120 mins |
| Certificate: |
 |
| User collections: |
50 Cinematic Gems, Best Deals Ever?, My Top 20, CashOnTheNail, My Top Ten Films, Odd mixture but hey that's life, 10 Great Romantic Comedies, Must See Classics, *Watch it over and over!, Academy Award Winners: Best Picture |
| Genres: |
Drama |
| Languages: |
English |
| Dubbed: |
French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired: |
English |
| Released: |
26/11/2001
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Showing in 1 cinema
Brief synopsis of The Apartment
Winner of numerous Academy and BAFTA Awards, Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT blends his customary harsh cynicism with a humane streak that appears only fleetingly in his films. The movie stars Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter, an office clerk who curries favor with the executives in his office by giving them the key to his small apartment for the odd afternoon dalliance. Among them is his callous boss, J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), who Baxter eventually learns is using his place to sleep with Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the sweet elevator operator the clerk has loved from afar. When Sheldrake coldly dumps the vulnerable young woman, she tries to commit suicide, but is saved by the intervention of Baxter. As the clerk lovingly nurses the young woman back to health he begins to realize, with the help of epigrammatic neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), exactly how much of a fool he has been. Wilder brilliant depiction of the average American office as a place of brutality, coldness, and alienation conjure up Kafka and Marx. The director seduces the audience into what appears to be an unusually frank sex comedy, but turns the tables in displaying the consequences of the executive's cold indifference. Lemmon and MacLaine both give career performances and MacMurray is memorable as the blandly smiling snake.
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Related
Critics Reviews
Radio Times
When he saw David Lean's classic Brief Encounter, director Billy Wilder was intrigued by the man who gave Trevor Howard the use of his flat. That germ of an idea eventually led to The Apartment, in which Jack Lemmon is a schmuck who loans his home to his philandering superiors in return for promotion. With its marvellous script and flawless performances by Lemmon, Fred MacMurray as his slimy boss and Shirley MacLaine as an elevator girl, this satire of office life has real bite as well as a feel-good glow. A timeless classic that won five Oscars, including best picture, direction and screenplay.
Variety
Most of the time, it's up to director Wilder to sustain a two-hour-plus film on treatment alone, a feat he manages to accomplish more often than not, and sometimes the results are amazing
Halliwell's Film Guide
Agreeably mordant and cynical comedy with a sparkling view of city office life and some deftly handled individual sequences.
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