Apartment (film, 1960)

A modest, inconspicuous worker, “quiet American” C.C. “Bad” Baxter works as an ordinary accountant in a large insurance company in New York . He is single and rents a small bachelor apartment in the very center of the city, on the West Side , not far from his place of work. This circumstance arouses the interest of several managers from his office, including the big boss, the HR director. This interest is of a special kind: all these bosses, mostly married men, have secret affairs on the side, and for meetings with their mistresses they need some convenient safe place. Baxter's apartment is suitable for these purposes as well as possible. The authorities offer him an unspoken deal - his quick promotion through the ranks in return for the opportunity to use his apartment for secret love meetings. Baxter has no choice but to agree, although he is extremely dissatisfied with the situation and suffers because of this great inconvenience.

He is trying to establish a relationship with a pretty lifter who works at his own company, named Fran Kubelik. He is pleasant to the girl, but for some reason she is in no hurry to accept his courtship. Baxter does not even suspect that she has a secret affair with the director Mr. Jeff Sheldrake himself, and their dates take place in his apartment. This novel, for the girl, however, is hopeless, since the director is married, values ​​her position and - whatever she tells her there - is not going to get divorced. The next meeting of Jeff and Fren at Baxter’s apartment takes place on Christmas Eve, and Jeff is not going to spend a holiday with his lover, but is rushing frantically home to his family. Instead of a Christmas present, he gives Fren a hundred-dollar bill. When Baxter returns home, he discovers Fren, who is lying insensibly on the bed. Fortunately, his neighbor doctor takes all the necessary measures in time, and Fren is brought back to life after an attempted suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. Baxter stays with the girl and takes care of her for two days, fearing new suicide attempts on her part. He entertains her with talking and playing cards.

Baxter’s efforts were not in vain and the director of the company generously rewards his subordinate with a promotion. After Christmas, Sheldrake fires her secretary, Miss Olsen, for her tongue is too long. She finally takes revenge on her former boss, telling about the adultery to his wife. Mr. Sheldrake is now a bachelor and can safely return to Fren. Sheldrake again calls Baxter to borrow the key to the apartment, but he suddenly refuses him. Sheldrake asks Baxter to change his mind, reminding his subordinate who is his benefactor, but he declares that he generally leaves the office.

New Years Eve. In the end, Fren rejects Sheldrake's courtship, even though he is free, and rushing to Baxter's apartment. She succeeds just in time: he has already packed his things and is going to move out. Baxter confesses his love to Fren, and she slyly suggests that he continue the game of gin rummy , which they did not finish.

• 1961 - five Oscars : the best film (Billy Wilder), the best director (Billy Wilder), the best original script (Billy Wilder, I. A. L. Diamond), the best work of production designer (Alexander Trauner, Edward J. . Boyle), best editing (Daniel Mandell), as well as five nominations: Best Actor (Jack Lemmon), Best Actor (Shirley MacLane), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jack Crushen), Best Cinematography in a Black and White Movie ( Joseph Lachell), Best Sound (Gordon Sawyer)
• 1961 - three Golden Globe awards: the best film is a comedy or musical, best male role in a comedy or musical (Jack Lemmon), best female role in a comedy or musical (Shirley MacLane), as well as a nomination for best director (Billy Wilder )
• 1961 - three BAFTA awards : Best Film (Billy Wilder), Best Actor (Jack Lemmon), Best Actor (Shirley MacLane)

• The film is black and white , and for 1960, when it was released, it already looked like a certain artistic device, a kind of stylization. Characteristically, Wilder’s previous film with Jack Lemmon, " Only Girls in Jazz, " was also black and white.
• All the events of the film take place mainly in the evening - both on the street and in the interiors. This fact, taking into account that the film is black and white, gives the “Apartment” a somewhat gloomy atmosphere of noir films of the 1940s.

In the late 1970s, the film was released by MGM / CBS Home Video on Betamax and VHS , re-released in 1983 by MGM / UA Home Video on VHS and Betacam . In the USSR, in the 1980s, a film with Soviet dubbing was released on videotapes “The Goskino USSR Video Program”. In the early 2000s, in Russia, a film with Soviet dubbing was re-released on videotapes by the distributor of Svetla.

• The Flat on the Internet Movie Database  
• Apartment (eng.) On allmovie