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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/800px_the_apartment_1960_poster.jpg]]
2
3->'''J.D. Sheldrake''': You know, you see a girl a couple of times a week, just for laughs, and right away they think you're gonna divorce your wife. Now, I ask you, is that fair?
4->'''C.C. Baxter''': No, sir, it's very ''un''fair... especially to your wife.
5
6''The Apartment'' is a 1960 American romantic {{dramedy}} film directed, produced, and co-written by Creator/BillyWilder and starring Creator/JackLemmon and Creator/ShirleyMacLaine. The supporting cast includes Creator/FredMacMurray, Creator/RayWalston, Jack Kruschen, and Edie Adams.
7
8The plot concerns one C.C. "Buddy Boy" Baxter (Lemmon), a lowly office drone at a large [[BigApplesauce New York City]] insurance firm, who has just found the solution for climbing up the corporate food chain: allowing various company bigwigs to borrow his apartment as a trysting place for their various extramarital affairs. His boss, personnel director J.D. Sheldrake ([=MacMurray=]), discovers this and promotes him on condition that Baxter let him have the use of the apartment for his own affair. Baxter readily accedes to this arrangement, but things soon turn complicated when he discovers that his crush, mousy elevator operator Fran Kubelik ([=MacLaine=]), is Sheldrake's other woman.
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10One of Wilder's most acclaimed pictures, it was nominated for ten UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, winning for Best Picture, Director (Wilder), Original Screenplay (Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond), Art Direction, and Editing. The story was subsequently adapted by Creator/NeilSimon into the 1968 stage musical ''Theatre/PromisesPromises''.
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12----
13!!This film provides examples of:
14* AdvertisingByAssociation: "There's nothing like that Billy Wilder ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'' type of laughter," to quote the original trailer. The original poster also referred to the movie as "A Billy 'Some Like It Hot' Wilder Production."
15* AntiHero: C.C. Baxter is sympathetic, but he's also an ExtremeDoormat who has decided that the possibility of a promotion justifies the negative effects the apartment scheme has on his neighbors as well as his own well-being. Casting the extremely likable Creator/JackLemmon in the role tones down the less savory side of the character.
16* BetterLivingThroughEvil: What Sheldrake gives Baxter.
17* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: When Baxter proves to Fran that he is a "mensch".
18* BungledSuicide: Baxter tells Miss Kubelik he attempted suicide once, and ended up accidentally shooting himself in the knee.
19* CatchYourDeathOfCold: Baxter is forced to sleep in the park for hours until someone is through with the apartment, and he gets a nasty cold and fever.
20* CelebrityParadox: Dobisch wants to use Baxter’s apartment for a date with a woman whom he says looks just like Creator/MarilynMonroe. Creator/BillyWilder's previous film, ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', starred Jack Lemmon with Monroe.
21* CerebusSyndrome: While the film deftly mixes comedy and drama throughout, the relatively light first half is overtaken by a much darker second half (although the well-known comedic scene of Baxter straining spaghetti through a tennis racket happens in the latter half).
22* ChekhovsGun:
23** Baxter mentions taking a sleeping pill early in the film. Later, Fran takes the whole bottle.
24** The key to the executive washroom.
25** Inverted with Baxter's gun. In the film's final scene, Baxter has lost the girl, quit his job, and is dejectedly moving out of apartment when we see him take out his pistol. As Fran approaches the door, we hear a loud pop, but it turns out that he's just opened a bottle of champagne, not shot himself.
26* CorruptCorporateExecutive: J.D. Sheldrake.
27* CrappyHolidays:
28** Christmas and New Year's are both miserable affairs for Baxter and Miss Kubelik. At least until the very end of the film.
29** A sidewalk SantaClaus calls in at the bar where Baxter is drowning his sorrows, but his cheerful wisecracking is no match for the glum stare Baxter gives him. At the end of the night, we see the same Santa sitting morosely at the bar, all alone.
30* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The MGM logo is in color, but the film itself is entirely in black and white. Until ''Film/SchindlersList'', it was the last black and white film to win Best Picture; the last ''prior'' to ''The Apartment'' had been the ultra-low-budget ''Film/{{Marty}}'' five years earlier.
31* DidIMentionItsChristmas: While the film takes place around Christmas and New Year's, the holidays themselves don't have much to do with the story other than to underscore the emptiness of the characters' lives.
32* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: The pianist at the bar where Fran meets Sheldrake plays the opening theme for her when she enters.
33* DigitalDestruction: The Collector's Edition DVD and Blu-Ray[[note]]released in 2008 and 2012, respectively[[/note]] looked overly dark, and vertically compressed. The 2017 restoration corrected these issues.
34* DoggedNiceGuy: Baxter.
35* DrowningMySorrows: Baxter, when he learns Miss Kubelik is Mr. Sheldrake's other woman.
36* EspeciallyZoidberg: This exchange, also serving as IronicEcho to the prior conversation:
37-->'''Baxter:''' You're not going to bring anybody to my apartment.\
38'''Sheldrake:''' I'm not just bringing anybody; I'm bringing Miss Kubelik.\
39'''Baxter:''' ''Especially'' not Miss Kubelik.
40* ExecutiveExcess: All of the company managers receive this treatment, happily exploiting the opportunity to use Bud Baxter's Upper West Side apartment to carry out their extramarital affairs with multiple different women. But in particular the personnel director J.D. Sheldrake stands out. A sleazy serial philander, Sheldrake has cheated on his wife with literally dozens of women, many of whom were his own employees (including his long-suffering secretary Miss Olsen), stringing them along by pretending to be planning to leave his wife for them. He spends the film constantly pursuing his latest victim Fran Kubelik.
41* FauxAffablyEvil: Sheldrake is a corrupt, manipulative, self-centered serial adulterer. But he's also played by Creator/FredMacMurray, so he still comes across as charming and fatherly, which makes the character even more disturbing.
42* GrewASpine: Baxter eventually refuses to loan his apartment to Sheldrake again, and quits instead.
43-->'''Sheldrake:''' What's gotten into you, Baxter?\
44'''Baxter:''' Just following doctor's orders. I've decided to become a mensch. You know what that means? A human being.
45* IUhYouToo: Baxter confesses his love to Miss Kubelik while they play Gin Rummy. She responds with this classic line:
46-->"Shut up and deal."
47* InterruptedSuicide: Miss Kubelik tries to kill herself when she realized Mr. Sheldrake didn't really love her back. Baxter and Dr. Dreyfuss prevent her from becoming an example of DrivenToSuicide.
48* KarmaHoudini: The four executives who were using Bud's apartment. They take advantage of Baxter, cheat on their wives with ridiculous frequency and in the end only Bud gets punched in the face.
49* LastNameBasis: Bud and Fran always refer to each other as "Miss Kubelik" and "Mr. Baxter", in and out of the workplace; even when he tells her that he loves her, he uses her last name. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Dr. Dreyfuss:
50-->"Mister, Miss. Such politeness."
51* LoveTriangle: Baxter loves Miss Kubelik, Kubelik loves Sheldrake, Sheldrake just wants a bit on the side. In the end Miss Kubelik leaves Sheldrake when she hears that Baxter finally stood up to him, and goes running to Baxter's apartment.
52* MaybeEverAfter: Baxter seems to be totally head over heels about Fran; she, on the other part, is severely traumatized by her past love experience and had only realized a few minutes ago that he is a guy who can make her happy. Though she came back to his titular apartment on the New Year Eve for the film's ending, they don't share a kiss or even embrace, and she doesn't reciprocate his love confession. However, her glowing smile and a hint that she's left her abusive romantic interest for good allow enough space for optimism, along with the immortal last line: "Shut up and deal."
53* TheMistress: Miss Kubelik.
54* MoralMyopia: The other executives -- who are cheating on their wives and depriving Baxter of his home whenever it suits them in order to do so -- get outraged and act as if they're the ones being wronged when Baxter finally pulls the plug for them.
55* NewYearHasCome: The film climaxes at midnight.
56* OpeningMonologue: Baxter introduces himself and his predicament in narration at the beginning.
57* PrettyInMink: Miss Kubelik has a coat with a huge lynx collar.
58* ProductDisplacement: The Blu-ray Discs removed Creator/UnitedArtists' logo from the beginning. Surprisingly, the Arrow Video releases don't even replace it with the logo for [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer UA's current parent]].
59* RaceForYourLove: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]]. In the film's final scenes, Miss Kubelik leaves Sheldrake on New Year's Eve and runs to Baxter's apartment... but she's just hurrying to him, rather than running against any particular thing. Then, as she's almost there, she hears a noise distressingly similar to a gunshot, and runs faster... only to see Baxter with an opened bottle of champagne. In the end it turns out he ''was'' going to leave the titular apartment for good.
60* RecycledPremise: Billy Wilder decided to write a movie about a man who lends his apartment to adulterers after watching ''Film/BriefEncounter'', and becoming intrigued by how willingly the male lead's friend would let him carry out an affair in his flat.
61* ScreenToStageAdaptation: Adapted as the Broadway {{musical}} ''Theatre/PromisesPromises'', with a book by Creator/NeilSimon, music by Music/BurtBacharach and lyrics by Hal David.
62* {{Sexiled}}: An interesting variation, where there are no actual roommates, forms the whole premise of the film: Baxter's work colleagues constantly borrow the key of his apartment, so that they can use it for philandering.
63* SexualEuphemism: Deliberately {{Invoked|Trope}} when Sheldrake hands Miss Kubelik $100 as a Christmas present, making it appear as if he's treating her like a prostitute. Her response is to give him a DeathGlare.
64* ShoutOut:
65** The shot where the camera swoops in to find Baxter at one of a sea of desks is an {{homage}} to King Vidor's 1928 silent classic, ''Film/TheCrowd''.
66** Trying to schedule a tryst with one of the company switchboard operators, one of the bosses suggests they meet at the apartment on Thursday night. "Thursday?" she replies. "But that's ''Series/TheUntouchables'' with [[Creator/RobertStack Bob Stack]]!"
67** Baxter tries to watch ''Film/GrandHotel'' on television but gives up when it keeps getting interrupted by commercials.
68** Baxter gets tickets to ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'' from Sheldrake and tries to take Miss Kubelik to the show, only to get stood up.
69** One of Billy Wilder's own earlier films gets a Shout Out when Kirkeby tells Dobisch about Miss Kubelik staying at Baxter's apartment:
70--->'''Dobisch:''' No kidding. Buddy-boy and Kubelik having themselves a little toot!\
71'''Kirkeby:''' Toot? More like a [[Film/TheLostWeekend lost weekend]]. Neither of them showed up for work today.
72** "Sheldrake" was also the name of the movie producer in Wilder's ''Film/SunsetBoulevard''.
73* SleepingWithTheBoss: Miss Kubelik. Who, as she learns from Miss Olsen, is only the latest in a long string of office conquests for [[TheCasanova Sheldrake]].
74* StalkerWithACrush: Baxter's rather unnervingly thorough knowledge of Miss Kubelik hints at this.
75* SuddenPrincipledStand: When Sheldrake asks Baxter for the key to his apartment for (unbeknownst to him) the final time, Baxter decides to finally cut everyone off from using his home as an adultery pad and to become a mensch.
76* SuicideByPills: How Fran tries to kill herself at the start of the story that jump starts the main romance.
77* TakeThat:
78** TheDitz that Dobisch takes to the apartment is a lampoon of Creator/MarilynMonroe. (Billy Wilder had earlier directed Monroe in ''Film/TheSevenYearItch'' and ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', and didn't think much of her professionalism.) [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when Dobisch mentions that the girl even looks like Marilyn Monroe.
79** When Bud watches television, he finds that almost every station is playing a violent [[TheWestern Western]], causing him to grimace and keep turning the channel.
80* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The original trailer almost immediately reveals the movie's closing scene.
81* UrbanLegendLoveLife: Baxter's neighbors see all of the girls cycling through the apartment and come to the conclusion that he's TheCasanova.
82-->'''Dreyfuss:''' From what I [[RightThroughTheWall hear through the walls]], you got something going for you every night.
83-->'''Baxter:''' I'm sorry if it gets noisy.
84-->'''Dreyfuss:''' Sometimes, there's a twi-night doubleheader. ''[clucking his tongue]'' A nebbish like you!
85* VerbalTic: The office workers in the film have the habit of adding the suffix ''-wise'' to words. At one point, Baxter even says "otherwise-wise". The {{tagline}} on the movie's original poster: "Movie-wise, there has never been anything like ''The Apartment'' love-wise, laugh-wise, or otherwise-wise!" Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's screenplay ends thusly, following Miss Kubelik's "Shut up and deal" line:
86-->"Bud begins to deal, never taking his eyes off her. Fran removes her coat, starts picking up her cards and arranging them. Bud, a look of pure joy on his face, deals -- and deals -- and keeps dealing. And that's about it. Story-wise."
87* WhamShot: Baxter looks at Fran's cracked compact mirror and realizes [[ChekhovsGun it's the same one he had found in the apartment and given back to Sheldrake earlier.]]
88* WomanScorned: Miss Olsen, Sheldrake's secretary and one of his earlier conquests, reveals his serial philandering to Fran and then (after Sheldrake fires her for this) his wife.
89* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: Dr. Dreyfuss encourages Baxter to "be a ''mensch''", while Mrs. Lieberman opines that the bad weather "must be from all that ''meshugaas'' at Cape Canaveral." Kirkeby calls Baxter a "''schnook''" behind his back. Vanderhof admires "the whole ''schmear''" that Baxter has received with his new office.
90* YourMakeupIsRunning: Miss Kubelik lampshades this trope when cleaning up her face after a cry.
91-->"When you're in love with a married man, you shouldn't wear mascara."

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