I think another important component to Fran and Baxter's chemistry is that aside from being a love story, The Apartment is also a powerful narrative about two kind souls who are being trampled on and taken advantage of by this cruel outside world. We are completely invested in them partly because we want to see them together, but it's mostly because we want to see them each reclaim their sense of self worth by the end. And it just so happens that they accomplish this by falling in love with each other; as they see more of the good in the other person, they also start seeing more of the good in themselves, and the more they believe that the other person deserves better, the more they believe that they themselves deserve better.

Awwww, you didn't mention my favorite line: "That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise." When Baxter says it, he's trying to joke and shrug off the deep emotional pain caused by hearing Fran say "why can't I ever fall in love with someone nice like you?" But when she realizes she loves him in the bar on New Year's Eve, she repeats the line as a realization that she IS in love with someone nice like Baxter! I always cry when she repeats his line and it hits her like a ton of bricks that she finally loves a good, decent man and begins smiling before leaving Shelldrake behind.

"I love you." "Shut up and deal." :D

I’m happy that somebody (you) is reacting to good/classic movies.

I’d highly recommend “Double Indemnity” for more Fred MacMurray. And if you really want to see an invested performance from Jack Lemmon, I’d recommend “Days of Wine and Roses.”

The problem with doing research on these films is that it often gives away some of the best parts! The biggest surprise of the movie was when we discover the Fran/Sheldrake relationship. And then the way Baxter discovers it. If you read the synopsis that surprise is gone!

"Mildreeeed! He's at it again!"

Another great reaction, Mia! About black and white films : B&W tends to give movies a smaller scale and a more intimate viewing experience, which worked perfectly here. Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors, very versatile, a master storyteller, and he knows how to end a movie better than anyone else. Take a look at Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Ace In The Hole. In 1963 Billy brought Jack and Shirley back together for Irma La Douce.

Great Brief Encounter observation! When Billy Wilder started writing this movie he was originally inspired by Brief Encounter. He wondered what the story would be of the guy who has the flat - and maybe a lot of people use that flat. Great to see the long arc of cinema history at work!

Billy Wilder's films cover a wide range of topics & genres...yet the 1 constant is the quality & intelligence of his writing (with partner IAL Diamond). I love all of his films.. hell, you could do a channel simply of Wilder films & I'd watch...lol.

So wonderful to see an Apartment reaction. And great connections drawn with Brief Encounter!

Billy Wilder and Izzy Diamond were inspired to make this movie by watching the David Lean movie “Brief Encounter” many years earlier - the scene where Trevor Howard uses a friend’s apartment to meet Celia Johnson, and then the friend comes back unexpectedly ( and asks for his key back). Wilder was fascinated by that sequence, and the idea eventually evolved into “The Apartment”. So many connections in Hollywood history!

It's been on my Top Ten favorites movie list for a very long time. Lemmon and MacLaine are superb together (and apart). Lemmon described their relationship on screen, very accurately, as a rose growing in a garbage dump. Although both characters are making very bad life choices at the beginning, there's a cesspool around them, represented by the corporation which employs them both, working against the happiness they need and deserve. No actor alive at the time (or today) could have made C.C. Baxter sympathetic but Jack Lemmon. His ability to make us feel for him as an Everyman instead of a self-serving user is masterful. I'm sure Wilder sensed this when he cast him in the part. And anyone not in love with Shirley MacLaine by the end of the film is dead inside. The Apartment is one of the most deserving winners of the Best Picture Oscar ever awarded.

I recently saw a re-run of the Jack Benny show where Billy Wilder was the guest star. Briefly, Wilder approaches Jack to appear in a new film he’s making. Jack is ecstatic until he learns that his role is limited to falling out of an 8-story window. Adding to his disappointment is his being a fraidy cat. “We’ll try to find a net.” Wilder explains.

A REALLY nice reaction... "moviewise..." ;)

Thank YOU for doing this film. It is my number 1 fave ever easily. I think it’s truly a perfect movie. I’m a bit of a soft hearted romance film lover and this is the greatest of its kind. I also love When Harry Met Sally, and Brief Encounter and the Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight trilogy… but all of them I feel are just a step away from perfection. Not The Apartment. It’s the greatest. And yes Shirley and Jack in this film are the the number 1 best film couple.

My favorite film. Thank you

I think you said a while ago you were saving Billy Wilder's 'Sunset Boulevard' for a Noir month or something like that, but while you're waiting there's 'The Seven Year Itch' and of course 'Some Like It Hot' - both starring Marilyn Monroe ('Some Like It Hot' also has Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis).

Wilder's my favorite director of the classic Hollywood period, with a near-perfect track record, and this is my favorite film of his (not to mention my favorite Christmas movie). The makers of Mad Men must have liked this movie quite a lot.

Glad you got a chance to enjoy this classic. I think the admiration for The Apartment is starting to come back around again. This was a film that was widely admired upon release, as you mentioned regarding its Academy Award wins. However, in casual conversation or compilation of movie lists, you rarely see it mentioned amongst the greats of the era. Even among Wilder's filmography, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity and Some Like it Hot are mentioned much more often. Thankfully, in recent years, it appears to be making a much deserved resurgence. I've always thought that It Happened One Night was the Alpha of Romantic Comedies and The Apartment is the Omega. They serve as bookends to the genre---It Happened One Night created the tropes (and arguably perfected it), and The Apartment broke many of the tropes for a new era. I'm anxious to have you rank Wilder's filmography after you've viewed his most acclaimed films. For my money, Billy Wilder deserves to be mentioned on the Mount Rushmore of film directors. You'll be hard pressed to find a director with 4 undeniable masterpieces: Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment and Some like it Hot. By the way, if you liked Jack Lemmon here, you'll also enjoy him in Some Like it Hot (same for Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity).

My favorite Billy Wilder story: He was always dreaming great stories that he couldn't remember in the morning. So he put pen and paper on his nightstand. The next time he had a story dream, he wrote the story down and went back to sleep, very happy, because he was convinced it was the greatest story ever to be told. In the morning he read what he had written: Boy loves girl, girl loves boy.

if you love Billy Wilder as a director and there is many reasons to do so. The biggest inspiration being a director was a director by the name "Ernst Lubitsch". Wilder had a plaque in his office " W W L D" what would Lubitsch do. I would recommend the comedy that he is best known for from 1942 "TO BE or NOT TO BE"

One of my all time favorite movies. I'm happy to see you liked it too.

Fab movie and review. "Shut up and deal" is one of the most memorable final lines I've ever heard.

Loved this reaction! I haven’t seen The Apartment in ages, so it was fun to revisit with another pair of fresh eyes! Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine were so likeable, you find yourself rooting for them and the ending is so satisfying. I’m so excited for The Best Years of Our Lives! One of my favorite all time films! 👏🏻😁 It addresses PTSD, the societal shift of women in the workplace, and the post war American boom!

At this point in his career actor Fred MacMurray was doing a string of Disney family friendly movies so when this came out fans approached him and where so upset with him he turned to his wife and said "That's it only family movies from now on". The rest of his career he did Disney movies and his TV Sitcom " My Three Sons".

Damn Mia. You absolutely “get” this film on every level. And this is a dense film, especially on first watch. It was for me. There are certain films that have a clear before-and-after effect on culture. Their influence is undeniable and this is one of those films. And you immediately zeroed in like a hawk on one of its chief ingredients: its tone. It does have a modern sensibility. Movies (or shows) that juggle both comedy and drama are something we kind of take for granted nowadays. Even WandaVision was proof of that. But back then, films were categorized into very separate genres. And this extended to tone as well. “Funny” and “heavy” didn’t really mix all that much. These days, no one really thinks twice of Dave Chapelle speaking raw truth in between jokes. But back then? ...Never... It would have blown people’s minds (which Pryor managed to do a few years later). You also zeroed in on the cultural shift in society. You can feel it in the film. I also love that you provided historical context in relation to earlier classic films. This is 22 years after Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The Wizard of Oz. By this point that innocence is gone. The 60’s is the most transformational decade of the century. In a short span of 10 years, we saw dramatic changes in fashion, technology, music, and politics. For example, men’s styles went from clean-cut and well groomed to shaggy and way loose in a short matter of time. In 1960, a young man may have sported a buzz cut, a 3-piece suit, and a briefcase. But by 1970, he could have ended up with very long hair and pork chop sideburns, while kicking it in bell bottom jeans. Musical tastes shifted from Johnny Mathis and Perry Como to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin (from clean cut crooners to sex, drugs, & rock n’ roll - in the blink of an eye). Also during this period, our nation celebrated a man’s first steps on the moon and grieved through 4 major assassinations (the Kennedy brothers plus Martin & Malcolm). A crazy amount of highs and lows. Your heart has to go out to that generation. The reason I mention all of this is because the shift we sense in the movie is real. There was definitely something in the air circa 1960. But who could have ever predicted everything that followed? It’s a trip. But back to tone. The Apartment is not a warm and fuzzy movie. Although it features romance and comedic relief, there is a tough cynicism bubbling at its core. After all, the story revolves around deception, sexual exploitation, and the sacrificing of one’s soul - all in the name of career advancement. The American Dream as marketed by the devil himself. Throw in a suicide attempt and we really have a recipe for a fun time at the movies, don’t we? And yet it all works like a charm. In lesser hands, this could have been a disaster. But that is Billy Wilder’s genius. He’s able to keep all of this perfectly balanced. Again, he is a master of tone. Sunset Boulevard is my personal favorite (and I’m thrilled you’re including it as part of your Film Noir month) but this is a masterwork as well. They sit together on my shelf with other Wilder classics, such as Double Indemnity, Some Like it Hot, Sabrina, and Ace in the Hole. (As you mentioned, it’s so cool that the lovely Audrey Hepburn, whom he directed in “Sabrina,” would hand him his Oscar six years later - keeping’ it in the family, baby!) I’m so excited for The Best Years of Our Lives - one of my faves. (Btw, sorry this was so long 😬)

I still have "The Best Years of Our Lives " on VHS, two tapes because it's so long, when I bought it some classic films were super cheap and at that time were hard to find in tv.

CLASSIC! One of Thee Best Romantic Dramedies of the age. Jack Lemmon, another dear favorite of mine.

All Quiet on the Western Front won Best Picture in 1930. Probably the earliest Best Picture winner that still holds up and isn’t silent. Although there is a silent version filmed alongside the sound version that I need to watch.

The Apartment was made into a musical in the late 60's early 70's called "Promises, Promises"with Jerry Orbach playing Baxter. The 70's hit song "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" was from this show. It is sung after the suicide scene. I love the fim and the musical.

So far no one has mentioned that this film was adapted to a Broadway musical called "Promises, Promises" in 1968. I was a teenager at the time and this was the first Broadway show I had ever seen. I saw is twice with the original cast ( Jerry Orbach and Jill Ohara )and then years later it was revived on Broadway and I saw it twice again with Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. The musical score written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David was fantastic. It is a lively, funny and sentimental story and making it into a musical brought a new dimension to it. I loved the movie and I loved the Broadway musical as well.

Just watched this again last night with my flatmate who had never seen it. My favorite line... "That's the way it crumbles.... cookiewise!"

3 great stars giving great permances thanks for the reacrion

I adore Jack Lemmon and this film. Thanks for your reaction!

If you watch enough old films you'll notice that colour was mostly used on lightweight films, e.g. musicals, Disney films, adventure films, light comedies. Serious dramas were generally made in black and white. Another Billy Wilder film, The Fortune Cookie, made in 1966, was one of the last Hollywood films to be made in black and white. Other black and white films made since tended to indicate it was set in an earlier era. E.g. Young Frankenstein, Raging Bull, Schindler's List and The Artist.

Want more laughs with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine? Watch "Irma La Douce"!

You as many times as they ran this on TV. I never had a chance to see the full story, but it always caught my attention. I had something like this happen while I was married. My wife's married uncle ( who I knew his family for years ) wanted to use our place while we were at work to bring one of my wife's girlfriend by. I told her NO!!! Tell him to get a room or something. Great movie.

I love The Apartment. It has three of my all-time favorite actors (Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray), and I love that it treats MacLaine's character with so much sensitivity (unlike some later films dealing with similar issues, like Fatal Attraction). All three of these actors are so versatile, but in the rom com genre, two of my top picks for Jack Lemmon are when he teams up with Kim Novak in The Notorious Landlady and in Bell, Book and Candle. My top picks for Shirley MacLaine movies are Two for the Seesaw, where she pairs up with Robert Mitchum for a romance that is most assuredly not a comedy, and The Children's Hour, where she plays opposite Audrey Hepburn (also not a comedy by any stretch of the imagination). And Fred MacMurray starred in one of the best films noir ever... Double Indemnity. I'm not sure it's fair to compare this movie with Close Encounter to gauge the changes in how affairs were addressed in the movies, because you're not just jumping across time, but also across the big pond, and after having lived in the UK for many years, I can tell you that a lot of social issues were and still are decidedly different between the two cultures (a common language does not a common culture make). In fact, the pay gap between men and women is still way behind the US, and the US isn't exactly great on that front. And ethics are certainly very different. It might make more sense to compare this with something like An Affair to Remember, although that's late 50s already, so maybe not. I'm sure there were plenty in the 40s though. If I think of one, I'll let you know. Really looking forward to your review of Best Years of Our Lives. I saw it about 30 or 40 years ago and then spent decades wanting to see it again. It finally resurfaced, and I managed to see it again recently. Just ten minutes into the film, the tears were already flowing, so bring your box of tissues! You're going to love it!

Probably the finest romantic comedy/drama I have seen. I've often pondered what this classic 'has', that most modern films of the genre sorely misses and I always end up at the characters and the performances of Lemmon and MacLaine. And the film has a big heart wrapped in melancholy; the film is 'Mensch' :)

A fun Shirley MacClaine movie is 1964's What a Way to Go! with Dick Van Dyke, Robert Michum, Paul Newman, Dean Martin, and Gene Kelly!

Your critique is sublime.

One of my favorite films. A couple I know watch this movie every New Year's eve.

Oh shiiiiiit I can´t believe I found a classic cinema reaction channel! 💪😎 Please for the love of God, watch *_"Irma la Douce"_* it´s Wilder, Lemmon and MacLaine again, but the movie is set on France! You will love it and you will made me very happy! 🥰

I always watch this during Christmas.

This also shows the transition from movies to TV. Cases in point: Fred MacMurray would go on to play the father in "My Three Sons", Ray Walston would play in "My Favorite Martian" and David White would play Larry White on "Bewitched"

It’s a pleasure to see someone your age getting into the library of great movies. I’m 68, and have always watched the great movies made before my awareness. I’ve always been surprised by how few of younger people I supervised over my career had any knowledge of the great movies that came before their time. Might I suggest a lesser known Billy Wilder film, made around the same time: One, Two, Three. It’s a farce set in Berlin right at the time the Berlin Wall was being built. Makes fun of corporate America, the Soviets, East Germans, and Nazis. Not a great movie like The Apartment, but very satisfying.

thank you.

Another great Billy Wilder-Jack Lemmon movie is The Fortune Cookie, with Walter Mathau.

I'd like to recommend you watch a film called Ace in the Hole. Kirk Douglass is a reporter taking advantage of a terrible accident to further his career.

I love your reaction/reviews to these classic films. Thanks for doing these earlier works.

Great job, once again! Please review Mrs. Miniver = Thanks

There hasn't been a finer script than The Apartment - it's a perfect movie. The characters are so endearing, the dialogue so witty, the storytelling honed to perfection. Movie lovers will cherish this film for decades to come. I loved watching you watch this! If I may be so bold as to throw in another couple of similarly "perfectly scripted" movies for consideration - Chinatown, 12 Angry Men, Manhattan

This is a great film. Glad to see you reacting to it. If you are interested, you can catch Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine together again in Irma La Douce.

I felt terrible for Baxter! The people around him used him for their own personal gain except for Fran because she, like Baxter, was being taken advantage of by the men around her. For me, I saw this as a reminder that it's always good to be kind, but don't be afraid to put your foot down and set boundaries when it gets too much. My sister always taught me that I shouldn't be too kind to people because they can take advantage of me. The Apartment is a perfect example of that lesson. I loved the ending when he tricked his boss into giving him the wrong key, lol.

Another favorite Jack Lemmon movie is "It Should Happen To You" (1954) with Judy Holiday. In fact, I believe it was his first lead film role. And speaking of Judy Holiday, please react to "Born Yesterday" (1950), also starring William Holden (hubba hubba!), and Broderick Crawford. It was her first starring role on film. She created the role on Broadway, and the movie made her a star. The movie is a gem, and Judy's performance is iconic. The scene with the gin game btwn her and Broderick Crawford is hilarious. As for Lemmon, any review of his career MUST include "The Odd Couple."

This is one of my favorite dysfunctional Christmas movies, the other being ‘The Lion in Winter’. In 1960 the burgeoning ‘sexual revolution’ was creeping into the contemporary pop culture. While some of the lines were funny this film was more of a drama as well as a morality tale. Wilder’s dialogue sparkles and the actors are flawless. I think MacLaine should have gotten the Oscar for her performance. She and Lemmon were a hoot in ‘Irma la Douce’, a really fun Billy Wilder romp which was released a year or two after The Apartment. Although television changed the entertainment industry greatly, going to the movies remained very popular given the programming of the three major tv networks. Cable was still a few years away. Dad, being retired USAF, drove us to the army base theatre every weekend. Kids tickets were 25 cents, adults 50. There were no issues back then about dropping your kids off somewhere and coming back to pick them up later. Same for the big amusement park. It really seemed like a perfect world. And now here we are in March of 2023. Glad to be a senior these days.

Perhaps my favorite part of Billy Wilder movies are the end. He knows how to put a cherry on a sunday. Be it Sunset Boulavard (I'm ready for my closeup Mr. De mill), Some Like It Hot (Well, nobody's perfect) or The Apartment (shut up and deal)

I am still new to your channel so, still checking out what you’ve watched. If you haven’t done “What away to go” with Shirley MacLaine it’s definitely up your alley.

I’ve just discovered you, and your reviews are fantastic!!! I love your choices. I was so happy to see that you have reviewed many of my favorites, and I look forward to your review of “The Children’s Hour.” Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacClaine, also 1960 (or 61).

This is what I found regarding Wilder's use of black and white. "While it seems an obvious choice on its face, the decision to shoot in black and white is another aspect of Wilder’s genre-bending approach to THE APARTMENT. By 1960, the monochromatic format was on the wane, with mainstream studio films increasingly adopting color as the industry standard- comedies in particular were a ripe opportunity for splashes of brilliant Technicolor. Wilder’s decision to shoot in monochrome underscores his countercultural approach to the picture, which was to subvert the language of classical Golden Age cinema with modern techniques (i.e., positioning the subjects of his close-ups in stark profile). directorsseries.net/2016/03/11/billy-wilders-the-apartment-1960/

So great.. Jack Lemmon a gem.. Shirley so cute.😉😆

I have to check this information, but I think Billy Wilder made another black and white movie just one year after : One, Two, Three staring James Cagney and Arlene Francis.

Fred MacMurray's character here was a cad. He usually, but not always, played a nice guy. When "The Apartment" came out he had a few incidents where he was confronted in public by women who chewed him out for how poorly Mr. Sheldrake treated Miss Kubelik.

I always felt that the view of the conclusion as a happy ending was a bit pat. I don't think it's as cut and dried as that, or the loose ends tied. It's clear Fran is fond of C.C., and it'd be ridiculous for her to effusively return his devotion, so the ultimate happiness is more hopeful than actual. It works more for me as mysterious, like if Ben and Elaine are really going to make a go of it in The Graduate, with that awkward bus scene at the end. Over time, I've seen Fran and C.C. as kind of the prototype for Joel and Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where they finally realize it's "okay" that they will eventually tire of each other.

My absolute favorite film! I thought that no one had reacted to this!

“Q: Could you take one of your original films say The Apartment, and trace its origins - where the idea came from, the problems in writing it? Wilder: The genesis of The Apartment I remember very, very vividly. I saw David Lean’s Brief Encounter, which was based on a one-act play by Noel Coward, and in the play Trevor Howard was the leading man. A married man has an affair with a married woman, and he uses the apartment of a chum of his for sexual purposes. I always had it in the back of my mind that the friend of Trevor Howard’s, who only appears in one or two tiny scenes, who comes back home and climbs into the warm bed the lovers have just left, would make a very interesting character. I made some notes, and years later, after we had finished Some Like It Hot, we wanted to make another picture with Jack Lemmon. I dug out this notion, and we just sat down and started to talk about the character, started the structure, started the three acts, started the other characters, started to elaborate on the theme, and when we had enough we just suggested it to Mr. Lemmon and to Walter Mirisch and United Artists. Diamond: We had the character and the situation, but we didn’t have a plot until there was a local scandal. An agent, who was having an affair with a client, was shot by the woman’s husband. But the interesting thing was that he was using the apartment of one of the underlings at the agency. That was what gave us the relationship - somebody who was using somebody lower than he in a big company, using his apartment. Wilder: In those days it was a very, very risqué project. Today, of course, it would be considered a Disney picture.”

Another fun reaction! Thank you! Jack Lemmon - Some Like it Hot, Mister Roberts. Shirley MacLaine - Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolia.

Love Lemmon and McClain. A great film with McClain is, What a Way to Go. Love this movie, the Apartment.

20:29 Wilder/Diamond also knew she was a Queen. See what card she takes in the last scene with Baxter! No accident. That's what I call a SCREENPLAY! ;-)

Just by sheer coincidence, last night I watched another Billy Wilder film, made not long after The Apartment, that turned out to be dealing with a similar issue to The Apartment, although this one was clearly a comedy. It's called "Kiss Me, Stupid!" and stars Ray Walston (My Favorite Martian), Kim Novak (one of my all-time favorite actresses) and Dean Martin playing himself. The premise is pretty simple. Ray Walston plays an amateur songwriter living in a tiny town in Nevada called Climax (can you see where this is heading?). He is extremely jealous of anyone who comes into any contact with his wife whatsoever. So one day, "Dino" (Dean Martin) drives through Climax because of a detour and stops to fill up his gas tank. The gas station attendant is Ray Walston's lyricist, and seeing Dino's presence as an opportunity to finally be able to sell their songs, he sabotages Dino's car, and Dino has to spend the night at Ray Walston's house. Only thing is, that Dino has to have sex every night, or he will wake up with a terrible headache. Ray is terrified of having him meet his wife, so he gets her mad at him so she'll go home to her mother, and meanwhile, he goes to the local whorehouse to get a call girl to pose as his wife and be "available" for Dino. Hilarity ensues, but not without a great deal of sensitivity given to the portrayal of the call girl, showing how she got stuck in that lifestyle, and what she really wants out of life. It was such a sweet (and funny) film, but flopped at the box office because people were apparently shocked by the subject matter. I'm not sure why... it doesn't seem that much different from The Apartment. Kim Novak, btw, was great as the call girl with her New Jersey accent and head cold!

I watch this at least once every December (Under a sour-with-the-aim-to-turn--sweet kind of mood of course) and love it more and more each time I do. I love the callback to the "Mensch" exchange between Baxter and Dreyfuss in that climactic quitting scene. Of course the theme of the movie was built up enough that without it you'd still feel a sense of triumph, but with it, it's even stronger and more subtly significant. I wish we'd had one or two more scenes with the doctor and his wife because they're just great, kind of what I've always theorized CC and Fran would be like in their older years: Totally comfortable with each other but also comfortable to joke about the neighbors for their own entertainment. But "leave them wanting more" I guess. Overall The Apartment is why I get so frustrated that we've accepted romcoms as inevitably low quality ventures when this proved 61 years ago that with effort put in, the genre can produce masterpieces just like anything else.

I watched this as a teen, but didn't remember it well (except the dialogue about colds, for some reason), so I rewatched it before seeing your reaction. It truly is wonderful, so thank you for giving me reason to return to it! Funny thing, I remembered it as being in colour, but realize now that my mind blended it with Irma la Douce or maybe Avanti! - I watched a lot of Lemmon movies for a while there.

I’m completely colourblind. I have no idea when a film is b/w or colour. I miss things in movies that were meant to be dramatic or subtle by muted or dramatic colours. BUT I am not distracted by colour. Or the lack of it

I’m very surprised to read so many comments identifying this movie as a romcom! After several viewings over several decades, I would describe this film as a black comedy. And I say this with the thoughts that these people are generally, pretty despicable, and it covers some dark themes like adultery, suicide, depression, etc. Of course, because it’s Wilder, there are comedic moments and romance which are intrinsic to his POV.

You can’t go wrong with Billy Wilder. I took someone to see this in the cinema a few years back. They asked me beforehand if it was a comedy and I had to think about it and finally said “kind of.” It technically is a comedy but the pain is so real. Fabulous movie.

Hi Mia Tiffany, I seem to recall that after a run at theaters, a movie would not be picked for television broadcast for two years, if at all. This was pre- cable television time.

I had the privilege of seeing Jack Lemon on the West End stage with Michael Gambon (2nd Dumbledore) in a play called Veterans Day.

Have you seen "Irma La Douce" which also stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine? (1963 in color)

Re: Black and White. I did look at the figures a while back and, as I recall there was a hard line between films released in 1965 and 1966. As late as 1965 around 40-50% of films were black and white, in 1966 almost 100% were in colour. What made the difference was American TV being in colour. TV stations suddenly didn't want to pay as much for b/w films or even buy them at all. The choice to shoot in b/w for films up to 1966 wasn't, by the way, entirely economic. Colour by then was still a little more expensive than b/w but the difference was much narrower than it had been in the 1940s and many low budget films were shot in colour while many higher budget Hollywood studio pictures weren't. It was, by then, largely based on the personal preferences of the film makers. B/W was often thought to be more suitable for darker, more serious subjects and those which were more realist. Many also preferred the graphic qualities of b/w which were harder to achieve in colour.

the apartment has next to (Casablanca and citizen Kane) the best script of all time. Great review i enjoyed it

One of my favorite movies. Speaking of Billy Wilder, you should delve into Audrey Hepburn. Roman Holiday and Sabrina (Billy Wilder), Charade, Two For the Road and Wait Until Dark.😄👍

If you like Hepburn and MacLaine, you should watch The Children's Hour. adapted from playwright Lillian Hellman's controversial play, it explores the stigma of lesbianism in the sixties.

7:17 The point of the scene where Baxter is watching TV is that he spends most of his day at the office as a corporate drone and at the end of the day, he just wants to sit at home and relax while enjoying a good movie. But instead, he's completely bombarded with endless advertisements from the TV network's corporate sponsors. The commentary being that even after Baxter leaves the office, he can't get away from the corporate machine... even in his own home. The film was a biting satire of corporate culture and corporate politics because it was rather new at the time. This film was made in the late '50s. It was after WWII ended (1945) when all the soldiers came home to find jobs that the American economy expanded greatly and this modern corporate environment was born and evolved to what it was then (late 1950s) and continued to grow now... for better or worse. Definitely for worse.

It's taken me some time to get to this one. I adore Shirley MacLaine, read some of her books and like her as an actress, very underrated. As for Fred MacMurray growing up I only knew him from the sitcom "My Three Sons" where he was an iconic widower/father. I didn't find out about "Double Indemnity" and his other films until years later, what a shock. For a real eye-opener watch MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 "The Children's Hours". This film was way ahead of its time.

A lot of the shifts in movies visually from the 40s to the 60s were a result of changing sound/audio technology.

Thanks for this reaction to one of my favorite films. It's a love story with a moral center, but at the same time it's unsentimental. It's about two people finding their self-respect in the middle of a moral cesspool. Did you notice that Baxter never once calls her "Fran"? Even at the end, when he's declaring his love for her, he calls her "Miss Kubelik." And her response, "Shut up and deal," was perfect. She's been burned pretty badly, and even though she cares for him, she's cautious. So even though the movie ends with them together, there's still a bit of distance between them. I think this is more powerful than a more conventional ending would have been. One thing that marks this as an older movie is the intense concern Baxter has for Miss Kubelik's reputation. For instance, he allows the doctor to believe he's a creep rather than let the doctor know why she attempted suicide. He also doesn't tell her brother-in-law the truth about her situation, which earns Baxter a punch in the jaw. The theme of a man protecting a woman's reputation shows up in a lot of old films. For instance, in The Awful Truth (1937) Jerry (Cary Grant) and Lucy (Irene Dunne) agree to an amicable split, but he lets her file for divorce rather than file for it himself because people would assume if he filed that she had been unfaithful to him. Better they should assume that about him. As for color, even by 1960, a lot of movies were in black and white. For instance, Psycho, La Dolce Vita, Breathless, Inherit the Wind, Never on Sunday, and The Entertainer were all in black and white. Did you know that this story was turned into the musical "Promises, Promises"? It opened on Broadway in 1968, and starred Jerry Orbach and Jill O'Hara. Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the songs, the most famous being "I Say a Little Prayer," "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," and "Promises Promises." Dionne Warwick had hit records of all three songs. I'm looking forward to The Best Years of Our Lives. It's been a long time since I last saw it. Thanks again!

Wilder was such a tremendous writer/director. Several of his more heralded films have already been mentioned in the comments, but I'm going to recommend two of my favorites that may not warrant a reaction video, but that I think you'll enjoy: The Major and The Minor (1942), starring Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers, and The Fortune Cookie (1966), the first pairing of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Lots of laughs in both flicks.

Hopefully everyone has watched these movies in their entirety.

Three more outstanding black and white 'The' films - The Hustler, The Third Man, and The Misfits - that need some love.

Fav line - SHUT UP AND DEAL!

Just as tragedy needs a hint of humor to heighten the emotions (think of the humorous graveyard scene in 'Hamlet'), the reverse is also true. Sometimes, humor is needed to deal with darker themes. As Mel Brooks said in a documentary about the development of the Broadway version of 'The Producers' (another excellent film, by the way), sometimes the best way to deal with things that terrify you is to make fun of them.

If you like Jack Lemmon check out "Mr. Roberts."

It was the BREEN CODE that took effect in 1933 and remained in place until it was starting to be relaxed starting at this time. And the editing issue your cited in the Dissolves in SEVEN BRIDES was not an "editing" problem, but a technical challenge in inserting the opticals into the negative. What you see is a color/density shift due to how the Ansco color process responded in printing. This was another example of MGM making that wrong decision about where to put the money. No, Film Editing was already quite advanced by this time, and certainly a great improvement over early sound films that were a bit more clunky and awkward at times.

If u like Jack Lemmon, check out the Odd Couple. It's hysterical the way Jack and Walter Mathau bounce off each other

I don’t see this as a RomCom at all. I see it as a drama with comic elements, notably in the sharp script and excellent acting.

Can I recommend "I Confess" directed by Alfred Hitchcock?

If you are up for watching some foreign language films, I have some suggestions for you: -8 1/2 by Frederico Fellini -The Human Condition Trilogy by Masaki Kobayashi -Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa -M by Fritz. Lang -The Seventh Seal by Igmar Bergman

Remember my first view. Being surprised how dark it was.

I love you, Miss Kubelik. Seven....queen. Did you hear what I said, Miss Kubelik? I absolutely adore you. Shut up and deal.