Reviews

Billy Wilder knew how to make a great movie. Of course it helps to have one of the greatest all-time actors, Jack Lemon, play in your movies, but Lemon aside, Wilder was a genius. His gift for the comedic moment showed brilliantly on screen and reached deep inside the audience.

The Apartment, the last of the great Black and White films, showed a bit darker side to comedy than some of his other romps such as the hilarious Some Like It Hot. Some Like It Hot is just as funny today as it was in 1959. It is pure fun. At no point in the film are we approached with anything that we would take seriously. Let's face it, most of us are not running from the mob disguised as a member from the opposite sex.

The Apartment, however, brings up much more human themes and issues. Wilder is an expert and at no time does he leave you worried that it will turn out badly. This is, after all, a comedy. One mistake in the script and the movie could quickly become a deep film about suicide, loneliness, and peer pressure, but Wilder balances the subjects on the edge of a knife and allows us to smile at what could otherwise be a very depressing movie.

Wilder and his films like The Apartment are very similar to Shakespeare's comedies. It can be said that the difference between a Shakespeare comedy and tragedy is often not the story, but the ending. In a comedy, everyone is married; in a tragedy, everyone dies. the same is true with The Apartment, it all hinges on the outcomes. If Kubelik dies or Baxter is left alone, the movie would be a tragedy. But since they prevail in the end, the movie comes off as a great comedic success, albeit a bit dark.

***This review may contain some spoilers - please be advised***

Ok, this is an average comedy/drama for the first half of the movie. A couple of good characters and a promising plot, but then it fizzles, fast.

The main character, Mac, works for a huge international oil company called Knox oil, which was coincidentally started by a Scotts. The CEO of this company, Felix Happer, is an eccentric single tycoon played by Burt Lancaster who is avidly interested in astronomy. When Mac goes to Scotland to secure a small beach for a new oil well, he ends up falling in love with the small town. His eccentric boss shows up at the end to meet the one person in town who won't sell out, a man who lives on the beach named Knox. Little is made of this reference and a potentially good plot really starts to suffer. The town who is anxious to sell, presumably because of the military jets that constantly fly over, is upset with Knox for net selling.

What happens? Nothing. At then end, everything is pretty much the same as it was in the beginning. Mac returns to Texas and continues in his old life. The town is much the same but with the promise the business from a new marine aquarium (although the planes still fly overhead). All in all, a lot of plot points are left hanging in the wind and the characters do not change from the beginning of the film to the end.

A lot of potential, but not much substance.