No other Christmas film, no matter how bleak, walks quite as delicate a line between pathos and pleasure as Billy Wilder’s bittersweet 1960 comedy The Apartment. The film centers around C.C. “Bud” Baxter (Jack Lemmon), a lonely pushover who works as an office drone at a New York City insurance company. He allows his managers to use his apartment for their extramarital affairs (even if it means he has nowhere to sleep that night) in the hope of earning their favor to give him a leg up the corporate ladder. He’s also in love with Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the building’s elevator operator, but unbeknownst to him, she’s one of the women being clandestinely brought to his place— by the company’s personnel director, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), who has promised Baxter a promotion in exchange for the use of his apartment.
The Apartment marked the third collaboration between Wilder and frequent writing partner I.A.L. Diamond, coming right on the heels of the massive success of their comedy Some Like It Hot. They based it partially on a segment of David Lean’s devastating romantic drama Brief Encounter, in which the central couple— both married to other people— meet at a friend’s apartment for a tryst that goes unrequited, imagining the scenario from the perspective of the person lending their place. A decent chunk of The Apartment is contained in that titular space, specifically the scenes set over Christmas, juxtaposing the darkest pieces of the movie with cheerful gatherings and bright holiday decor. It’s at a wild office Christmas Eve party that Miss Kubelik learns from Sheldrake’s secretary that he has engaged in numerous affairs with female employees. Sheldrake goes home to his wife and children in the suburbs for the holidays, and Miss Kubelik, overcome by the knowledge that she isn’t that special, and that regardless of his claims that he loves her Sheldrake likely isn’t going to leave his wife for her, overdoses on sleeping pills in Baxter’s apartment.
If Some Like It Hot, a sex comedy in which men disguise as women, put some dents in the already-crumbling Production Code that had strictly governed film content for nearly three decades, The Apartment busted right through it. It was acclaimed (nominated for a whopping 10 Academy Awards and ultimately winning five, including Best Picture), but controversial, less because of its black subject matter, which ranges from strident indictments of capitalism to meaningless sex to suicide, but because it plays that subject matter with an almost farcical edge. The ridiculousness of the situation Baxter has gotten himself into is played up by Lemmon’s performance, so wide-eyed and earnest compared to the seriousness of those around him, from the despondent Kubelik (so charmingly realized by MacClaine, employing her comedy and drama chops in equal measure) to the slimy Sheldrake. This was an against-type role for MacMurray, who wasn’t Wilder’s first choice (that would be Paul Douglas, whose wife Jan Sterling Wilder directed in 1951’s Ace in the Hole, but who passed away unexpectedly before filming began), and who’s normally remembered for his fatherly roles in family-friendly fare on TV and in movies after this, and for the screwball comedies he appeared in before this, with the exception of his villainous turn in 1944’s Double Indemnity, a noir also helmed by Wilder; reportedly, women were so angry to see him play such a heartless role here, to the point where one accosted MacMurray on the street and smacked him with her purse. There are other humorous touches (Baxter straining pasta through the wire of a tennis racket, a portrait of peak bachelordom), and as dark as the Christmas holidays are rendered, the time they spent commiserating together means that Baxter and Kubelik’s prospects look brighter by New Year’s Eve, as they leave the activities and people that were making them miserable behind (Kubelik literally running away from a New Year’s Eve party) and search for solace in each other. It’s that hopeful feeling that new beginnings bring that, above anything else, makes The Apartment not just a great movie, but a great holiday movie.
The Apartment is currently streaming for free on Tubi and on services such as MGM+ and Kanopy, and is available to rent or buy on all digital platforms. Runtime: 125 minutes.
Katie at the Movies 