The Apartment #98

(Below) Director : Billy Wilder ( Sunset Blvd, Some Like It Hot)

 (left)Main Actor: Jack Lemmon

Mr Sheldrake and Baxtor

When I saw this 1960's romcom on the list i can say with out any doubt, i was not looking forward to it for a few resons. Firstly, the modern romcom is as predictable as Wednesday following Tuesday  this i assumed all stemmed from romcoms of a past era. Secondly it was made in the 1960's, not a sparkling year for movies of my choice and lastly its a bloody romcom.

The story

set in New York late 1959, following the main character of Mr C C Baxter (Jack Lemmon). Baxter is a nice gentle guy who is busy working hard as another cog in the corporate machine. The Title "the apartment" refers to Baxter's home, which he has started to lone out for his superiors for extramarital booty calls. In return for use of the apartment his bosses Dobish, Vanderhoff, Kirkeby and Eichelberger put a word in with the cheif administrator, Mr Sheldrake to get him promoted.

Baxter is often kicked out of his apartment at anytime of a given night. One night  he was woken up at 11pm to get out of his apartment for his boss, even though Baxter has a cold from being locked out all night the night before. Baxter finally gets his reward and is given the promotion he wants. The movie is shot in black and white, this added to the effect of Baxters misery and loneliness. 

As the story unfolds he meets a lift girl called Fran Kubelik and starts to fall for her, meanwhile unbeknownst to Baxter this girl is seeing Mr Sheldrake. Sheldrake is stringing Miss Kubelik along, saying he will leave his wife for her. At a Christmas party his secretory tells Miss Kubelik that she had heard the same story before and he has told it to many people that preceded her.

Baxtor and Miss Kubelik



When she next meets Mr Sheldrake in The Apartment he gives his excuses why he cannot leave his wife just yet and she will just have to be his bit on the side for a while. She cannot handle the rejection so takes an overdose of sleeping pills.

When  Baxter arrives home that night he finds Kubelik passed out on the bed, thinking quickly he manages to get the doctor next door to save her and nurse's her back to health. When Sheldrake's sectory hears of this, she meets with his wife and tells her about the affairs. The wife leaves him. Mr Sheldrake makes out to Miss Kubelik that he has left his wife for her. She is over the moon and tells Baxter (who is now in love with her) that she is going to be with the full time.

When the boss asks Baxter for the key to take Miss Kubelik back there, he refuses, the boss explains that if he doesn't give the key he will lose his job, he then quits as he cant bare to see his love be used by this man.

Kubelik finds out about this on New Year's Eve and ditches Sheldrake for Baxter. Running up the stairs to his house she hears a bang like a gun shot, she hurries to the door and bangs on it. Baxter has just opened a bottle of champagne on his own to celebrate the new year and a new start to his life. He has now packed up the apartment and is thinking of moving town.

What I thought:

This movie strangely had me hooked, unlike the 'slowly cantering bull' of movie (hash tag) 99, i thoroughly enjoyed it. the script was beautifully written, and the characters were perfectly chosen. like I said earlier in the review, when i saw this in the list it was an instant turn off, but after watching, I couldn't have been more wrong. the whole movie was the perfect portrayal of how a comedy/romantic drama should be written. There were twists and turns all the way through, and it kept you guessing until the very end. For a movie that only had about 5 locations and a handful of characters it was well   worthy of a place in the top 100. Maybe if modern day rom coms followed the same principle they wouldn't be the predictable dribble we get forced fed nowadays.

scores

Visual
5/10 Not much to base it on. Only a few scenes.

Sound
5/10 Although the sound was of the time, I'm sure classical music was not the only choice back then

Acting
9/10 Baxter is played brilliantly. The bosses are made to come across as fat cats and (lift girl) is a gullible ditsy 'broad'

Plot

8/10 Great story line acted out with great class

Ending
9/10 Fantastic ending, the last 40 mins built up and the plot thickened.

Final Score: 36/50

Next up is Indiana Jones #97.