The Apartment

(Dir. Billy Wilder) (1960)

David Shipman (“The Great Movie Stars” 1982) wrote the best thumbnail review for this: “bitter-sweet, tragical-comical, sordid and sad”.  Jack Lemmon gives an immortal performance as the heel who finds his spine in the last reel, an insurance schmuck who lets superiors use his handily located apartment for sexual rendezvous, till he falls in love with Big Boss Fred MacMurray’s latest conquest.

Only when midnight chimes on New Year’s Eve does she realize she loves him back.  Features great, authentic playing by MacMurray as the ogre (Mr Sheldrake), a lovely turn by Shirley MacLaine as the depressed gamine, Lemmon’s charming work, great support roles and the scariest champagne cork-popping moment in film*.  “That’s the way it crumbles, cookie-wise.”

[* scarier even than in ‘Meet the Parents’]