The Apartment
A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.
- Director: * Billy Wilder
- Genre:Comedy / Drama / Romance
- Runtime:120 minutes
Cast
Jack Lemmon : C.C. Baxter
Shirley MacLaine: Fran Kubelik
Fred MacMurray : Jeff D. Sheldrake
Ray Walston : Joe Dobisch
Jack Kruschen : Dr. Dreyfuss
Official Site:-
C. C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lonely office drone for an insurance company in New York City. Four different company managers take turns commandeering Baxter’s apartment, which is located on West 67th Street on the Upper West Side, for their various extramarital liaisons. Unhappy with the situation, but unwilling to challenge them directly, he juggles their conflicting demands while hoping to catch the eye of fetching elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). Meanwhile the neighbors in the apartment building assume Baxter is a “good time Charlie” who brings home a different drunken woman every night. Baxter accepts their criticism rather than reveal the truth.
The four managers write glowing reports about Baxter — a little too glowing, so personnel director Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) suspects something illicit behind the praise. Sheldrake lets Baxter’s promotion go unchallenged on condition that he be allowed to use the apartment as well, starting that night. Sheldrake gives Baxter two tickets to The Music Man to ensure his absence. Delighted about his promotion, Baxter asks Kubelik to meet him at the theatre. She agrees and it is revealed to the audience that she is Sheldrake’s girlfriend, intending to break off their affair that night but is instead charmed by Sheldrake to the apartment. Baxter is disappointed at being stood up, but is willing to forgive Kubelik.
At an office party on Christmas Eve, Baxter discovers the relationship between Sheldrake and Kubelik, though he conceals this realization, while Kubelik learns from Sheldrake’s secretary that she is merely the latest female employee to be his mistress, the secretary herself having filled that role several years earlier. At the apartment, Kubelik confronts Sheldrake with this information and while he maintains that he genuinely loves her, he leaves to return to his family. Meanwhile, a depressed Baxter picks up a woman in a local bar and, upon returning the apartment, is astounded to find Kubelik in his bed, fully clothed and overdosed on Baxter’s sleeping pills. Read more
