The Apartment

Date watched- 6th March 2011
Genre- Comedy, Drama, Romance
Year- 1960
Running Time- 2hrs
Directed By- Billy Wilder
Written By- Billy Wilder & I.A.L Diamond
Actors- Jack Lemon, Shirley Maclaine et al.

Acting-4 ½ /5
Keeping my attention- 3 ½ /4
Visuals/Direction- 4/5
Story/Plot- 5 ½ /6
Total 17 ½ /20

Plot

C.C Baxter (Lemon) is a man on a mission, a mission to rise through the company he works for; his main way of doing this is by letting the top company executives use his apartment for trysts so that their wives don’t find out. But C.C Baxter had never anticipated on falling for one of the girls involved, Fran (MacLaine).

My Personal Views

I have never seen Jack Lemon outside of a handful of movies, of which one is Some Like It Hot, and I have to say this movie has me wanting more. Shirley MacClaine I have seen in a few more movies but most of those are modern movies where she is the matriarchal figure and always enjoyed her performances so I was really interested in seeing this movie, and I was not disappointed in any way. Both of the main actors are brilliant and you really feel the pain that they are going through with the decisions they have made in life to get ahead in any way possible.

This is not just a comedy with a very real and slightly dark/sad edge to it. But instead of this overshadowing the funnier and happier moments it really adds to the story and you can better understand the whole picture of the two main characters.

There is really good picture quality on the DVD edition that I have which is remarkable considering that this movie is 60+ years old. And really added to my enjoyment of the movie because I didn’t have to squint at everyone in the movie to try and work who they were (like you sometimes have to with older movies because the quality has deteriorated so much).
This is really good black and white motion picture fun, with an ‘ahh’ ending (which you may be figuring out I am a bit of a sucker for). I really enjoyed this movie and hope to watch it again soon. I might also have to rummage through Amazon.co.uk after pay day to look for more classic Jack Lemon and Shirley MacClaine movies to keep me going through the long cold nights (and days) that we are having in England at the moment.

This movie is two hours long and not once did I feel bored or like it was dragging on, there was always something to keep me occupied or a little twist in the story that would make it pick up again.

I also think that the spaghetti on a tennis racket is a genius idea and if only I had a tennis racket I would implement this procedure in my own home!

Outcome

This is now going to be placed into my collection and I hope it stays for a long time.