Apartment

UPC: 883904100805

Studio: MGM

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Humor, Suitable for Teens]

Summary: Widely regarded as a comedy in 1960, The Apartment seems more melancholy with each passing year. Jack Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, a go-getting office worker who loans his tiny apartment to his philandering superiors for their romantic trysts. He runs into trouble when he finds himself sharing a girlfriend (Shirley MacLaine) with his callous boss (Fred MacMurray). Director/co-writer Billy Wilder claimed that the idea for The Apartment stemmed from a short scene in the 1945 romantic drama Brief Encounter in which the illicit lovers (Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson) arrange a rendezvous in a third person's apartment. Wilder was intrigued about what sort of person would willingly vacate his residence to allow virtual strangers a playing field for hanky panky. His answer to that question wound up winning 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. The Apartment was adapted by Neil Simon and Burt Bacharach into the 1969 Broadway musical Promises, Promises. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Comedy Drama

Awards: Best Film - Any Source – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Foreign Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Foreign Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Picture - Comedy – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – null Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – null Best Director – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Black and White Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Black and White Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Black and White Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review Volpi Cup for Best Actress – Venice International Film Festival Best Picture – New York Film Critics Circle Best Director – New York Film Critics Circle Best Screenplay – New York Film Critics Circle Best Screenplay – New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture - Comedy – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Directors Guild of America

Features: cc
Audio commentary from Bruce Block - film producer and historian
Inside the Apartment documentary
Magic time: the art of Jack Lemmon

Apartment

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 02/05/2008

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 125 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,Spanish,French

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Apartment
1. Main Titles [1:31]
2. Killing Time [6:16]
3. TV Dinner [3:59]
4. Be My Guest [4:35]
5. Two and a Half Colds [2:10]
6. Scheduling Problems [7:12]
7. Why So Popular? [6:27]
8. All Sorts of Things [3:21]
9. Like Old Times [3:38]
10. Trust Me [2:54]
11. Selfish and Ungrateful [3:34]
12. Broken Mirror [7:08]
13. Drowning Their Sorrows [3:23]
14. A Million Laughs [6:08]
15. O-U-T [6:09]
16. Coffee and a Prayer [6:43]
17. Be a Mensch [2:37]
18. Person-to-Person [3:51]
19. So Ashamed [3:47]
20. Chicken Soup and Gin [7:27]
21. The Jackpot [3:21]
22. Lunch Date [4:26]
23. Out of Her System [3:52]
24. Brother-in-Law [1:33]
25. Footprint in the Sand [4:26]
26. A Kick in the Head [5:37]
27. All Washed Up [2:34]
28. Ring in the New [6:15]

Mark Deming

Billy Wilder always liked to thread a strong streak of cynicism through his comedies, and he rarely made a film with a darker undertow than The Apartment. The effervescent comic charm of Jack Lemmon and quirky beauty of Shirley MacLaine give the film a palatable sweetness (while she would be given more glamorous treatment in later films, MacLaine was never more adorable than she was here), but they sugarcoat a very bitter pill in what is ultimately a story about moral accountability (and the lack thereof) in American business. While the film starts off as a naughty-for-its-time sex comedy about sad sack C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) who discovers he can curry the favor of his many bosses by letting them use his apartment for romantic indiscretions, it takes a more serious turn when we get to know Fran Kubelik (MacLaine), an elevator operator with precious little self-esteem. While most of the women Baxter's superiors lure to the tiny den of seduction look like brassy bar girls who've been this route before and know what they're doing, Kubelik is at heart a sweet (if disappointed) girl who desperately wants to be loved and who has made the mistake of falling for the duplicitous J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), whose callous indifference to the agony he inflicts falls just short of horrifying. (Anyone who grew up watching MacMurray on My Three Sons may be shocked to see how slimy he is in this role.) Ultimately, Baxter and Kubelik seem like two innocents stranded in a corrupt world, and what's most remarkable is not that they finally end up together, but that they both survive the experience intact -- and that Wilder is able to wring so many laughs out of a story that runs so close to tragedy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Dorothy Abbott  Actor 
Frances Lax  Actor 
Hal Smith  Actor 
Adolph Deutsch  Composer (Music Score) 
I.A.L. Diamond  Screenwriter 
Billy Wilder  Director 
Billy Wilder  Producer 
Billy Wilder  Screenwriter 
Jack Lemmon  Actor 
Shirley MacLaine  Actor 
Fred MacMurray  Actor 
Ray Walston  Actor 
Edie Adams  Actor 
David Lewis  Actor 
Jack Kruschen  Actor 
Joan Shawlee  Actor 
Hope Holiday  Actor 
Johnny Seven  Actor 
Naomi Stevens  Actor 
Joyce Jameson  Actor 
Willard Waterman  Actor 
David White  Actor 
Benny Burt  Actor 

Country: USA