The Apartment | |
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Original film poster
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Directed by | Billy Wilder |
Produced by | Billy Wilder |
Written by |
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Starring | Jack Kruschen |
Music by | Adolph Deutsch |
Cinematography | Joseph LaShelle |
Edited by | Daniel Mandell |
Production
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Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date
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Running time
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125 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3 million |
Box office | $24.6 million |
The Apartment is a 1960 American romantic comedy film that was produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and which stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray.
It was Wilder's next movie after Some Like It Hot and, like its predecessor, a commercial and critical success, grossing $25 million at the box office. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and won five, including Best Picture. The film was the basis of the 1968 Broadway musical Promises, Promises, with book by Neil Simon, music by Burt Bacharach, and lyrics by Hal David.
Calvin Clifford (C. C.) "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lonely office drudge at a national insurance corporation in a high-rise building in New York City. In order to climb the corporate ladder, Bud allows four company managers, who reinforce their position over him by regularly calling him "Buddy Boy," to take turns borrowing his Upper West Side apartment for their various extramarital liaisons, which are so noisy that his neighbors assume that he is a playboy bringing home different women every night.
The four managers (Ray Walston, David Lewis, Willard Waterman, and David White) write glowing reports about Bud, who hopes for a promotion from the personnel director, Jeff D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). Sheldrake calls Baxter to his office but says that he has found out why they were so enthusiastic. Then he goes on to promote him in return for exclusive privileges to borrow the apartment. He insists on using it that same night and, as compensation for such short notice, gives Baxter two company-sponsored tickets to the hit Broadway musical The Music Man.