Guess the film…

All I’ll say is this, it’s from the 1960s and it’s due up in my countdown within the next few days.  If you’ve seen it, it’s easy.  If not…

 

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The Apartment (no 35)

 

by Allan Fish

(USA 1960 125m) DVD1/2

Living like Robinson Crusoe

p  Billy Wilder  d  Billy Wilder  w  Billy Wilder, I.A.L.Diamond  ph  Joseph La Shelle  ed  Daniel Mandell  m  Adolph Deutsch  art  Alexandre Trauner

Jack Lemmon (C.C. (Calvin Clifford) Baxter), Shirley MacLaine (Fran Kubelik), Fred MacMurray (Jeff D.Sheldrake), Edie Adams (Miss Olsen), Jack Kruschen (Dr Dreyfuss), Ray Walston (Dobisch), Joan Shawlee (Sylvia), David Lewis (Kirkeby), Hope Holiday (Margie MacDougall), Johnny Seven (Karl Matuschka),

In 2000, just a year before his death, Jack Lemmon was interviewed by Mark Cousins for the BBC’s Scene by Scene series and during their discussion about The Apartment Cousins made an interesting point.  He asked Lemmon whether, in his opinion, he thought it was possible that if C.C.Baxter (the hero from Billy Wilder’s classic) had not found happiness with Fran Kubelik, and if things hadn’t gone too well for him, he might have turned into Shelley Levene, the bag of nerves, ageing real estate salesman from Glengarry Glen Ross, who tries to cheat his way to success to pay for his daughter’s operation.  Lemmon thought about it and responded that it was perfectly possible.  However, for all its cynicism, The Apartment ends on a high on New Year’s Eve so, for the sake of auld lang syne, let’s look on the bright side.

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