Synopsis
Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.
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Cast
- Jack LemmonC.C. Baxter
- Shirley MacLaineFran Kubelik
- Fred MacMurrayJeff D. Sheldrake
- Ray WalstonJoe Dobisch
- Jack KruschenDr. Dreyfuss
- David LewisAl Kirkeby
- Hope HolidayMrs. Margie MacDougall
- Joan ShawleeSylvia
- Naomi StevensMrs. Mildred Dreyfuss
- Johnny SevenKarl Matuschka
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
The underlying seriousness of MacLaine's performance helps anchor the picture--it raises the stakes, and steers it away from any tendency to become musical beds. - 100
Empire
Absolutely brilliant. It's funnier, sadder and cooler on the big screen. - 100
The Guardian
It's still luminous, 52 years on. - 100
ReelViews
The Apartment represents Wilder at his most complete - seamlessly weaving the lighthearted and the serious without encountering a snarl or tangle. - 100
Empire
Delightful comedy romance with a clutch of note-perfect performances. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
The Apartment captured one of the singular images of early '60s America; the immense office (designed by Alexander Trauner) in which the human workers, seated behind endless, perfectly aligned rows of identical desks, appear completely subordinate to the dehumanizing mechanisms of conformity and efficiency. - 90
Variety
Second half of the picture is loosely constructed and tends to lag as the rahers go through their paces in over-extending the major plot angle. Most of the time, it’s up to director Wilder to sustain a two-hour-plus film on treatment alone, a feat he manages to accomplish more often than not, and sometimes the results are amazing. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
The Apartment is an important and provocative film.
