Fran Kubelik: “Some people take, some people get took. And they know they’re getting took and there’s nothing they can do about it.”
There’s no denying the sense of gloominess that has overtaken our lives since last March. I’ve made a big point to aerosol it out of my mind as much as possible, but there are days that it just hangs there. A Billy Wilder film has always proven to be the right antidote for any malaise. His comedies in particular, dive into the ennui – his dark vision laced with the right amount of wit and hopefulness to pull you out and restore your faith in human kind. At a very young age, I developed a strong affinity for his romantic comedy “The Apartment” (1960) – and have visited it many times throughout my life. Last night, I was struck by how pertinent it feels to our current state of insecurity – and how this film should become a priority for all of us.
Written by Billy Wilder with I.A.L. Diamond as a follow up to their wildly successful “Some Like It Hot” (1959), it tells the story of C.C. “Buddy Boy” Baxter (Lemmon) – an insurance employee for Consolidated Life in New York, who dreams of climbing the corporate ladder. He has agreed to a Mephistophelian deal wherein his apartment is used at night by four of his bosses to carry out extramarital affairs with the understanding that eventually he will get a promotion. Quite symbolically, the elevator that carries the executives to their higher floor is manned by Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) – and Baxter is smitten by her. She herself is engaged in a murky exchange in hopes of bettering her position in life. She has been having an affair with married man Jeff Sheldrake – who is the personnel director for the company. Unbeknownst of this, Baxter agrees to loan his apartment to Sheldrake to meet with Fran.
Baxter’s next door neighbors think of him as a lothario because they hear the non-stop laughter and merriment coming out of his apartment. Ironically he spends most evenings alone wandering the streets. The action is contained within the hardest week for some of us – that which falls between Christmas and New Year’s. It is while using Baxter’s pad on December the 24th that Fran realizes that she’s being used by Sheldrake – and makes a dramatic decision that will sober up both her and Baxter about their condition. The script walks a fine line between real heartbreak and loneliness – and total farce and warmth. It also makes some extraordinary observations about the human heart and that no matter how social mores and times have changed – feelings of belonging and the need for connection remain the same. Baxter points out that Fran’s pocket mirror is broken. “Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel,” she replies.
Wilder fuses his thematic ideas with his design. Baxter is seen in the vast insurance office surrounded by an overwhelming amount of desks with a deep perspective behind him – emphasizing his isolation and the dehumanizing aspect of his corporate job. Working with cinematographer Joseph LaShelle, Wilder takes advantage of the widescreen to dwarf Baxter visually or separate him from others. Pay attention to shots of him at a Central Park bench and the emphasis of a long diagonal behind him created by the bench, or him standing outside the Majestic Theatre waiting in vain for Fran to show up to see “The Music Man” with him. His apartment has a very contained feeling – it was designed intentionally to understand the sense of entrapment that he feels while being in it. One of the most spectacular scenes is the office Christmas party with the camera at first on a high angle panning capturing the outrageous merriment. The black and white photography emphasizes the melancholic feel.
Shirley MacLaine’s performance in this has always stolen my heart. This is someone who knows she’s been taken advantage of and understands that life is all about concessions. Her run across the streets on New Year’s Eve with her head held high always chokes me up. Jack Lemmon is wondrous as Baxter – both handling the pathos and the heartbreak seamlessly – sometimes in one line. One of the biggest delights in cinema is watching him prepare a spaguetti dinner with a tennis racket – a scene that was actually improvised. Fred MacMurray was cast against type, and he’s terrific. This film won the 1961 Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. It was adapted into a successful 1968 Broadway musical – “Promises, Promises” with book by Neil Simon, choreography by Michael Bennett and music by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The song “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” comes from it.
Fran Kubelik: “Why can’t I ever fall in love with somebody nice like you?”
C.C. Baxter: “Yeah, well… That’s the way it crumbles, cookiewise.”
Love,
Roger
Available to stream on Amazon Prime and to rent on YouTube, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, Microsoft, Apple TV, FandangoNOW, Redbox and AMC Theatres on Demand.
Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
Directed by Billy Wilder
Starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray and Jack Kruschen
125 minutes
The Making of “The Apartment”
Contemporary sources note that associate producer I. A. L. Diamond and producer-director Billy Wilder wrote “The Apartment” specifically for Lemmon, just after filming finished on “Some Like It Hot”…Wilder stated in a modern interview that he was inspired by the character of the man who lends his apartment to the lovers in “Brief Encounter,” the 1945 David Lean film…Wilder described his story note as reading, “Movie about the guy who climbs into the warm bed left by two lovers.” The 1960 New York Times article stated that Wilder had originally planned the story as a play, but upon realizing that the important office set could not be shown to full effect on a stage, he and Diamond reconceived it as a film. Diamond asserted in the article that the film comments on “the mores of the American business community.”
According to a feature on Wilder in New York Times in January 1960, the script for “The Apartment” was only half-finished when shooting began, a customary practice of Wilder’s that allowed him to tailor the roles to the actors after they were cast. Press materials note that exterior shooting all took place at night in New York City, including locations such as Central Park, the Majestic Theatre lobby and Columbus Avenue. The rest of the film was shot at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Los Angeles. There, the filmmakers constructed the huge interior set of the insurance office, designed to represent the demoralizing, impersonal nature of the corporate environment. According to press notes, the set was made of glass and metal and covered more than 25,000 square feet. In a modern interview, Wilder described the techniques they used to create the vast office space, including forced perspective with progressively smaller sized desks that recede into cardboard cutouts. Although Wilder claimed in a modern interview that he placed progressively smaller actors at the desks, finally casting dwarves, art director Alexander Trauner has stated that the actors in the back rows were children.Hollywood Reporter reported in December 1959 that the set included nearly $4 million worth of loaned office equipment, attended to by operators supplied by the IBM corporation. (tcm.com)
About Co-Writer I.A.L. Diamond
I.A.L. Diamond was a Romanian-born American screenwriter who worked with director Billy Wilder to produce such motion pictures as “Love in the Afternoon” (1957), “Some Like It Hot” (1959), and “The Apartment” (1960), for which he won an Academy Award for best screenplay. Before graduating from Columbia University (1941), Diamond wrote for The Columbia Spectator and adopted the initials I.A.L. as his legal name. He wrote scripts for such films as “Murder in the Blue Room” (1944) and “Always Together” (1947) before embarking on a 30-year collaboration with Wilder. The two combined witty dialogue with sexual situations and explored male-female relationships, combining cynicism with sentiment. Some of their other films include “Irma La Douce” (1963), “The Fortune Cookie” (1966), “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” (1970), “Avanti!” (1972), “The Front Page” (1974), “Fedora” (1978), and “Buddy Buddy” (1981). (britannica.com)
About Actor Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine, original name Shirley MacLean Beaty was born in Richmond, Virginia…Beaty’s mother was a drama teacher, and her younger brother, Warren Beatty (he later changed the spelling of the family’s last name), became a successful director and actor. At the age of three, she began studying ballet, and, after graduating from high school, she moved to New York City, where she worked as a dancer and model. Around this time she changed her name to Shirley MacLaine. In 1954 she was hired as a chorus girl and understudy to the second lead, Carol Haney, in the hit Broadway musical “The Pajama Game.” When Haney broke her ankle, MacLaine took over the role and was “discovered” by film producer Hal Wallis, who put her under contract. MacLaine made her movie debut in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Trouble with Harry” (1955). Her unique sexy tomboyish looks and her ability to combine worldly experience with an offbeat innocence caused her to be frequently cast as a good-hearted hooker or waif—for example, in such films as Vincente Minnelli’s “Some Came Running” (1958), an adaptation of a James Jones novel, and Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment” (1960) and “Irma la Douce” (1963), romantic comedies that also starred Jack Lemmon. Her performances in those films earned MacLaine Academy Award nominations. In 1969 she starred in Bob Fosse’s “Sweet Charity,” portraying a taxi dancer who remains optimistic despite a series of disappointments…She was cast as a former ballerina questioning her decision to give up her career for her family in “The Turning Point” (1977), for which she received her fourth Oscar nomination for best actress, and she finally won the award for her portrayal of a strong-willed compulsive mother in “Terms of Endearment” (1983). She later played grumpy Ouiser Boudreaux in “Steel Magnolias” (1989), a feisty former first lady in “Guarding Tess” (1994), and a wealthy woman surprised by her daughter-in-law’s mistaken identity in “Mrs. Winterbourne” (1996).
In 2000 MacLaine directed her only feature film, “Bruno” (also released as “The Dress Code”), about a young boy struggling to express himself…In 2005 she appeared in “In Her Shoes,”…and “Rumor Has It,” a comedy about the family that was the inspiration for Charles Webb’s novel “The Graduate” (1963). She later starred in “Bernie” (2011), a dark comedy based on the true story of a popular funeral director who killed a wealthy widow, and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (2013). In “Wild Oats” (2016) MacLaine was cast as a widow who, after mistakenly receiving a life insurance check for $5 million, goes to the Canary Islands with her best friend (played by Jessica Lange). The film underwent numerous production delays because of financial difficulties, and MacLaine chronicled the troubled shoot in the book “Above the Line: My Wild Oats Adventure” (2016). Her subsequent movies included “The Little Mermaid” (2018), based on the Hans Christian Andersen story…MacLaine often appeared on television variety specials, winning several Emmy Awards, and in 1976 and 1984 she returned to Broadway in, respectively, “A Gypsy in My Soul” and “Shirley MacLaine on Broadway.” Her other notable TV credits included the British drama series “Downton Abbey.” In 1970 MacLaine published “Don’t Fall off the Mountain,” which turned out to be the first in a series of best-selling memoirs describing not only her life in movies and her relationships (including that with her brother) but also her search for spiritual fulfillment. In 1987 she co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in a television adaptation of one of her autobiographies, “Out on a Limb,” which had been published in 1983. She also directed “The Other Half of the Sky” (1976), which received an Oscar nomination for best documentary; it was about life in China. MacLaine was the recipient of numerous honours. She received the Cecil B. DeMille Award (a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement) in 1998 and was named a Kennedy Center honoree in 2013. (britannica.com)
About Actor Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon was born in Newton, Massachusetts…Lemmon attended Harvard University and was president of the school’s Hasty Pudding Club, an organization renowned for its annual satiric revues. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and graduated from Harvard in 1947, after which he moved to New York City. There he worked as a piano player and actor, taking roles in radio dramas and live television programs. He made his Broadway debut in a revival of the farce “Room Service” (1953). Although the production was unsuccessful, his performance led to a contract with Columbia Pictures the following year. Lemmon’s first two film appearances were opposite Judy Holliday in “It Should Happen to You” and “Phffft!” (both 1954). His Academy Award-winning performance as Ensign Pulver in “Mister Roberts” (1955) firmly established him as one of the screen’s brightest new comic actors. He went on to deliver solid performances in other comedies, including “My Sister Eileen” (1955), “Operation Mad Ball” (1957), “Bell, Book and Candle” (1958), and “It Happened to Jane” (1959), all directed by Richard Quine. Two films directed by Billy Wilder helped establish Lemmon as a major star. “Some Like It Hot” (1959), an American comedy classic, featured Lemmon as a jazz musician posing as a woman, and “The Apartment” (1960) reinforced the character type for which he became known, that of a tense, excitable, and baffled individual who painfully progresses to a deeper understanding of the world. He received Oscar nominations for both films, as well as for “Days of Wine and Roses” (1962), in which he gave a harrowing portrayal of an alcoholic advertising executive. Wilder teamed Lemmon with Walter Matthau in “The Fortune Cookie” (1966), the first of many comedies for the pair. Their most famous teaming was in “The Odd Couple” (1968), based on Neil Simon’s stage hit. The film established the pattern for most of their appearances together, with a fussy neurotic (Lemmon) butting heads with a carefree scalawag (Matthau).
Other Lemmon-Matthau films included “The Front Page” (1974), “Buddy Buddy” (1981), “Grumpy Old Men” (1993), “Grumpier Old Men” (1995), and “The Odd Couple II” (1998). In 1970 Lemmon made his directorial debut with “Kotch,” starring Matthau, and he later won his second Oscar for his performance in “Save the Tiger” (1973). He appeared in two more Neil Simon comedies, “The Out-of-Towners” (1970) and “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” (1974), and garnered additional Oscar nominations for “The China Syndrome” (1979), “Tribute” (1980), and “Missing” (1982). As he aged into character roles, Lemmon remained no less prolific. His acclaimed performances of later years included his portrayal of James Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night” in both a stage revival (1986) and a television adaptation (1987); a down-and-out real estate salesman in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross” (1992); a smooth-talking con man in “The Grass Harp” (1995); and two TV renderings of classic American dramas, “12 Angry Men” (1997) and “Inherit the Wind” (1999), both of which costarred George C. Scott. Lemmon also won an Emmy Award for his touching portrayal of a dying college professor in the television film “Tuesdays with Morrie” (1999). Among Lemmon’s many honours were the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 1988, the Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award in 1990, and a Kennedy Center Honor in 1996. (britannica.com)
About Director and Co-Writer Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was born Samuel Wilder on June 22, 1906, in Sucha, a village in Galicia, an Austro-Hungarian province that is now part of Poland. His mother, who was in love with all things American, nicknamed him Billie in honor of the Buffalo Bill Wild West show. (New York Times) In 1929 Wilder had his first break working on the German film “Menschen Am Sontag” (“People on Sunday”). He remained in Germany co-writing and directing films until the rise of the Nazis forced him to move to France, and ultimately to the United States. Wilder arrived in Hollywood in 1934. He worked on and off until 1938, when he began a long and fruitful collaboration with Charles Brackett, which lasted twelve years. His films range from stark melodrama, like “Double Indemnity,” “The Lost Weekend” and “Sunset Boulevard,” to antic farce, such as “The Seven Year Itch,” and “Some Like It Hot,” to satiric comedy, like “A Foreign Affair” and “The Apartment.” With over fifty films and six Academy Awards to his credit, he is one of Hollywood’s all-time greatest directors, producers and screenwriters. (pbs.org)