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From Amazon.co.uk
Romance at its most anti-romantic--that is the Billy Wilder stamp of genius, and this Best Picture Academy Award winner from 1960 is no exception. Set in a decidedly unsavoury world of corporate climbing and philandering, the great filmmaker's trenchant, witty satire-melodrama takes the office politics of a corporation and plays them out in the apartment of lonely clerk CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon). By lending out his digs to the higher-ups for nightly extramarital flings with their secretaries, Baxter has managed to ascend the business ladder faster than even he imagined. The story turns even uglier, though, when Baxter's crush on the building's melancholy elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine) runs up against her long-standing affair with the big boss (a superbly smarmy Fred MacMurray). The situation comes to a head when she tries to commit suicide in Baxter's apartment. Not the happiest or cleanest of scenarios, and one that earned the famously caustic and cynically humoured Wilder his share of outraged responses, but looking at it now, it is a funny, startlingly clear-eyed vision of urban emptiness and is unfailingly understanding of the crazy decisions our hearts sometimes make. Lemmon and MacLaine are ideally matched and while everyone cites Wilder's Some Like It Hot closing line "Nobody's perfect" as his best, MacLaine's no-nonsense final words--"Shut up and deal"--are every bit as memorable. Wilder won three Oscars for The Apartment, for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay (cowritten with long-time collaborator I A L Diamond). --Robert Abele
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Buddy Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a meek and mild nobody in a big company who has an "arrangement" with his superiors: They can use his apartment to entertain their ladyfriends in exchange for recommendations for his promotion. The deal works out fine, until he discovers that his big boss (Fred MacMurray)'s girlfriend is the object of his own affection, elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine).
It's a quiet, character-driven comedy about shady dealings in the world of big business, with just enough touching dramatic scenes to tug at your heart. "The Apartment" won the 1960 Best Picture Oscar, thanks to the excellent cast and honest script. Nobody played the Everyman character as well as Lemmon. He's involved in an unsavory situation, but is so sweet, likeable, and noble that you really care about him. MacLaine gives an uncharacteristically subdued and thoughtful performance, and MacMurray is perfect as her philandering paramour. The beautiful title tune is one of the loveliest movie love themes ever. The subject matter was considered somewhat racy back then, but now it would probably be rated PG today. Clever, sweet, and entertaining movie.
It's a quiet, character-driven comedy about shady dealings in the world of big business, with just enough touching dramatic scenes to tug at your heart. "The Apartment" won the 1960 Best Picture Oscar, thanks to the excellent cast and honest script. Nobody played the Everyman character as well as Lemmon. He's involved in an unsavory situation, but is so sweet, likeable, and noble that you really care about him. MacLaine gives an uncharacteristically subdued and thoughtful performance, and MacMurray is perfect as her philandering paramour. The beautiful title tune is one of the loveliest movie love themes ever. The subject matter was considered somewhat racy back then, but now it would probably be rated PG today. Clever, sweet, and entertaining movie.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By Hiro
Format:DVD
Am not talking about Delia Smith... I watched this film when I was 12, and still love it.
The scenes were meant to be very cool and modern at the time the work was released, And, 37 years later on, amazingly, the film still is as just cool and modern, and the film now also has the air of romantic nostalgia.
Jack Lemmon is a great actor. He acts a meek young man in this film - a bit like a male Bridget Jones in 1960s, dare I say. But his acting is superb. Watch the short scene when he makes spaghetti with meat balls (very American). Even though this film is monochrome, you can almost smell the evocative smell of the pasta he is making.
This one is to be watched around Christmas with someone you love on a sofa in a warm room - not that I have done this yet...
The scenes were meant to be very cool and modern at the time the work was released, And, 37 years later on, amazingly, the film still is as just cool and modern, and the film now also has the air of romantic nostalgia.
Jack Lemmon is a great actor. He acts a meek young man in this film - a bit like a male Bridget Jones in 1960s, dare I say. But his acting is superb. Watch the short scene when he makes spaghetti with meat balls (very American). Even though this film is monochrome, you can almost smell the evocative smell of the pasta he is making.
This one is to be watched around Christmas with someone you love on a sofa in a warm room - not that I have done this yet...
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By PJC
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The comic genius of Billy Wilder was never better illustrated than by this bitter sweet romantic comedy. It's focus ranges from the general with its' seering indictment of the corporate world to the particular and a wonderful exploration of the central characters's lives in the persons of Lemmon, MacLaine and MacMurray.
Lemmon's performance as the central "everyman" or John Doe character caught between career enhancement and love, is superb. MacLaine provides a wonderfully tragic heroine and McMurray is immoral corporate America personified.
Laughter freely mingles with tears as Lemmon struggles to assert his identity against a rising tide of corruption and infidelity. It's warm, it's funny, it's wonderfully evocative but most of all it makes you consider the ethics of the corporate world and their impact on society at large.
An all together superior romantic comedy
Lemmon's performance as the central "everyman" or John Doe character caught between career enhancement and love, is superb. MacLaine provides a wonderfully tragic heroine and McMurray is immoral corporate America personified.
Laughter freely mingles with tears as Lemmon struggles to assert his identity against a rising tide of corruption and infidelity. It's warm, it's funny, it's wonderfully evocative but most of all it makes you consider the ethics of the corporate world and their impact on society at large.
An all together superior romantic comedy
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. Laurence Williams
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
This is a classic film from the 1960s which deservedly won 5 Oscars (including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay ALL for Billy Wilder).
It is essentially a love comedy, but still manages to include some sinister undertones, to create a very entertaining story about a man attracted to another employee at the insurance company where he works, but where she is already involved with another man....
The lead actors, Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, beautifully portray their characters with verve and great emotion and there are several other contributors who add to the overall impact of the film.
Of course, the most influence factor is that of Wilder, who moves the plot along at a perfect pace and injects many moments of pure dramatic and comedic brilliance, courtesy of a faultless screenplay.
This DVD has an excellent picture quality, with only the occasional blemish appearing, and a clear soundtrack.
It is essentially a love comedy, but still manages to include some sinister undertones, to create a very entertaining story about a man attracted to another employee at the insurance company where he works, but where she is already involved with another man....
The lead actors, Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, beautifully portray their characters with verve and great emotion and there are several other contributors who add to the overall impact of the film.
Of course, the most influence factor is that of Wilder, who moves the plot along at a perfect pace and injects many moments of pure dramatic and comedic brilliance, courtesy of a faultless screenplay.
This DVD has an excellent picture quality, with only the occasional blemish appearing, and a clear soundtrack.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Sverdlov
Format:DVD
Great great romantic comedy, at once warming and cynical, sharply observed - Wilder indeed at his best. MacLaine is wonderful, Lemmon superb. Be a mensch! is the message - relevant now as then.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By WSH
Format:DVD
Billy Wilder turns a limpid eye upon the swinging sixties (right there at the beginning) in New York -- cheating husbands and hardbitten good-time girls ('the takers'); hopeful lovers and buddy boys ('those who get took') -- and from out of this mire lifts up two memorable, redeeming characters, played to perfection by Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon, at the height of their powers. As you would expect with something written for the screen by Wilder and his associate I.A.L.Diamond, the story moves through a perfect arc of comic situation, misunderstandings, misdirected desires, thwarted hopes, and on to a believable resolution that draws these elements along with it but trumps them all. The dialogue is witty, and the comedy is as broad as the satire is cutting -- one never dominates or displaces the other; we laugh and we sigh at once. There are one or two lacunae in the action -- coffee that should scald; old cooked spaghetti that should no longer be limp -- but to focus on these, and ignore the much that is real and effective, would be a terrible mistake. The scenes of Miss Kubelik and Mr Baxter alone together are quite wonderful. 'I was Robinson Crusoe,' Baxter tells her at one point, 'shipwrecked among eight million people, till I saw a footprint in the sand and looked up to find you.' Among a million films, I would suggest, this one will leave a lasting imprint on you.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Item, at bargain price
Great Item, at bargain price, ordered one day, here the next morning. It made a great and appreciated gift for me to give.
Published 26 days ago by a1 toolman 2011
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sir Alan Sugar would be proud of young Baxter
Why didn't he win this very early series of The Apprentice? CC Baxter's whizz of an idea; to allow seedy, misogynistic manchilds to use his apartment as a knocking shop, was sure... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bru
4.0 out of 5 stars
It stands apart
I'd like to have given it 5 stars, but it does have its longueurs in the middle and, I suppose inevitably, some of the supporting cast are weak. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. D. L. Wood
5.0 out of 5 stars
One Of Hollywood's Very Best, Tragi-Comedy-wise
I should admit up front that this 1960 masterpiece (co-written and) directed by one of Hollywood's greatest ever directors, Billy Wilder, is one of my favourite ever films (top 10... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Keith M
4.0 out of 5 stars
the apartment
arrived on time. seen this on video but not on dvd yet. I love Shirley Mclaine so hope the standard is good
Published 2 months ago by EAP of B
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my all time favourite films
Watched this years ago - a satirical comedy based on a thankfully long gone era of overt work based sexism (it's rather more discrete these days, compared to this!). Read more
Published 3 months ago by Gerard C. MacManus
4.0 out of 5 stars
I just love Jack Lemmon's films
I just love Jack Lemmon's films. One of those films that you can come back to and enjoy all over again. A great cast!
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. Caroline O'Callaghan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't make 'em like this any more
Smart and sassy, funny and sad, this MGM film was made when the lion still roared and before Hollywood went into terminal decline. Read more
Published 4 months ago by smallamazonian
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love this film
I hadn't seen it for years when I decided to buy it on a whim but it has lost none of the punch it had when I saw it first time round. Read more
Published 4 months ago by A Watson
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Apartment
Quite good, enjoyed it, only problem it is black & white
Jack lemon and Shirley MacLaine are great.
Excellent Value for Money.
Jack lemon and Shirley MacLaine are great.
Excellent Value for Money.
Published 4 months ago by jamescl
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