THE APARTMENT

Another swell adventure! The Apartment, 1961's Oscar-winning Best Picture, was written, directed, and produced by the brilliant Billy Wilder. It will be the last black & white film to win the Best Picture award until 1994's Schindler's List.

The movie starts off with what seems to be a rather silly premise. Office worker CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon) loans out his apartment to superiors in his firm, so they can have a place to carry on their extra-marital affairs, in the hopes it will advance his own career.

But it's not long before the frivolity of this gag takes a twist and this film, considered a comedy, soon begins to deal with some heavy subject matter, as two protagonists begin to think the worst of themselves. But thanks to the brilliant performances by Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, the darkness never gets a real foothold. It was also nice to see Fred MacMurray playing against his affable archetype. He’s the son of a bitch boss who’s going to get his way… until he doesn’t. As with many Wilder films, the movie quickly wraps up right at the point where you wish it would pick up again and carry on!

“Shut up and deal!”