The Essentials - The Apartment
SYNOPSIS
An ambitious young clerk in a big New York insurance company climbs the ladder to corporate success - by lending his apartment to executives for their extramarital affairs. But complications arise when he falls in love with the company's elevator operator, then realizes she is having an affair with his married boss.
Producer/Director: Billy Wilder
Screenplay: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
Cinematography: Joseph LaShelle
Editing: Daniel Mandell
Art Direction: Alexander Trauner
Music: Adolph Deutsch
Cast: Jack Lemmon (C.C. "Bud" Baxter), Shirley MacLaine (Fran Kubelik), Fred MacMurray (Jeff Sheldrake), Ray Walston (Joe Dobisch), Jack Kruschen (Dr. Dreyfuss), Edie Adams (Miss Olsen).
BW-126m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.
Why THE APARTMENT is Essential
One of the most popular and acclaimed writer-director-producers of his time, Billy Wilder created in
The Apartment what many consider the summation of all he had done on screen up to that point. He was the master of a type of bittersweet comedy that had a sadness and a barbed commentary of modern life at its core. Even his darkest dramas - among them
Double Indemnity (1944),
Sunset Boulevard (1950), and
The Big Carnival (aka
Ace in the Hole, 1951) - had elements of sardonic, macabre satire. With this film, he managed to make a commercially successful entertainment that, for all its laughter and romance, took a serious stab at the prevailing attitudes and way of life of a country where getting ahead in business had become the greatest measure of personal success.
Wilder's brilliance at balancing light and dark material is evident in the scene from
The Apartment where Jack Lemmon's character comes home drunk with a bar pick-up to find Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) unconscious on his bed with an empty bottle of sleeping pills next to her. Lemmon goes back and forth between the kooky pick-up in the living room, which is all comedy, and the dying girl he loves in the bedroom. Wilder walks the tightrope between humor and tragedy and creates sympathy for his morally ambiguous characters in a way very few filmmakers could pull off.
"I always felt that Billy Wilder grew a rose in a garbage pail with this one," Jack Lemmon later stated. "He was throwing cold water right in our faces about the terrible false premises with which most of our society lives. He challenged our priorities and the way we rationalize our behavior on the grounds of getting ahead in America - at a time when it wasn't fashionable to challenge these things. He gave us a pretty good jolt, and it hasn't been done a hell of a lot better since then."
The movie was also a hallmark in Lemmon's career. The young actor had already made a name for himself as the freshest, most talented comic performer in movies, especially in his work with Wilder on
Some Like It Hot (1959).
The Apartment was created with Lemmon in mind, and it marked his transition into the more dramatic roles that established him as one of the leading actors of his time.
It was also an important role for Shirley MacLaine. Discovered dancing on Broadway, she had been making films for about five years, mostly in light comic roles.
The Apartment gave her a chance to broaden her range and establish herself as a serious actress, one whose career has spanned five decades.
by Rob Nixon
The Essentials - The Apartment
SYNOPSIS
An ambitious young clerk in a big New York insurance company climbs the ladder to corporate success - by lending his apartment to executives for their extramarital affairs. But complications arise when he falls in love with the company's elevator operator, then realizes she is having an affair with his married boss.
Producer/Director: Billy Wilder
Screenplay: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
Cinematography: Joseph LaShelle
Editing: Daniel Mandell
Art Direction: Alexander Trauner
Music: Adolph Deutsch
Cast: Jack Lemmon (C.C. "Bud" Baxter), Shirley MacLaine (Fran Kubelik), Fred MacMurray (Jeff Sheldrake), Ray Walston (Joe Dobisch), Jack Kruschen (Dr. Dreyfuss), Edie Adams (Miss Olsen).
BW-126m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.
Why THE APARTMENT is Essential
One of the most popular and acclaimed writer-director-producers of his time, Billy Wilder created in The Apartment what many consider the summation of all he had done on screen up to that point. He was the master of a type of bittersweet comedy that had a sadness and a barbed commentary of modern life at its core. Even his darkest dramas - among them Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and The Big Carnival (aka Ace in the Hole, 1951) - had elements of sardonic, macabre satire. With this film, he managed to make a commercially successful entertainment that, for all its laughter and romance, took a serious stab at the prevailing attitudes and way of life of a country where getting ahead in business had become the greatest measure of personal success.
Wilder's brilliance at balancing light and dark material is evident in the scene from The Apartment where Jack Lemmon's character comes home drunk with a bar pick-up to find Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) unconscious on his bed with an empty bottle of sleeping pills next to her. Lemmon goes back and forth between the kooky pick-up in the living room, which is all comedy, and the dying girl he loves in the bedroom. Wilder walks the tightrope between humor and tragedy and creates sympathy for his morally ambiguous characters in a way very few filmmakers could pull off.
"I always felt that Billy Wilder grew a rose in a garbage pail with this one," Jack Lemmon later stated. "He was throwing cold water right in our faces about the terrible false premises with which most of our society lives. He challenged our priorities and the way we rationalize our behavior on the grounds of getting ahead in America - at a time when it wasn't fashionable to challenge these things. He gave us a pretty good jolt, and it hasn't been done a hell of a lot better since then."
The movie was also a hallmark in Lemmon's career. The young actor had already made a name for himself as the freshest, most talented comic performer in movies, especially in his work with Wilder on Some Like It Hot (1959). The Apartment was created with Lemmon in mind, and it marked his transition into the more dramatic roles that established him as one of the leading actors of his time.
It was also an important role for Shirley MacLaine. Discovered dancing on Broadway, she had been making films for about five years, mostly in light comic roles. The Apartment gave her a chance to broaden her range and establish herself as a serious actress, one whose career has spanned five decades.
by Rob Nixon
Pop Culture 101 - The Apartment
The Apartment was adapted into a Broadway musical,
Promises, Promises, in 1968, book by Neil Simon, music by Burt
Bachrach, lyrics by Hal David.
The tag line for the Tennessee Williams film
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) was "She knew she was being used for something evil."
Wilder made a play on that line to promote
The Apartment: "Suddenly, last winter - he knew his apartment was being used for
something evil."
The theme from
The Apartment, played by the piano duo Ferrante & Teicher, became a widely played radio hit.
by Rob Nixon
Pop Culture 101 - The Apartment
The Apartment was adapted into a Broadway musical, Promises, Promises, in 1968, book by Neil Simon, music by Burt
Bachrach, lyrics by Hal David.
The tag line for the Tennessee Williams film Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) was "She knew she was being used for something evil."
Wilder made a play on that line to promote The Apartment: "Suddenly, last winter - he knew his apartment was being used for
something evil."
The theme from The Apartment, played by the piano duo Ferrante & Teicher, became a widely played radio hit.
by Rob Nixon
Trivia - The Apartment - Trivia & Fun Facts About THE APARTMENT
Within a short time after its release,
The Apartment doubled its $3 million cost at U.S. box offices alone.
MOVIE'S ADVERTISING TAG LINE: Movie-wise, there has never been anything like it - laugh-wise, love-wise, or otherwise-wise!
The Apartment). In addition to his three Oscars for this film, he won for the screenplay of Sunset Boulevard
(1950, along with Charles Brackett and D.M. Marshman, Jr.), and direction and screenplay (with Brackett) of The Lost Weekend (1945).
He was also presented with the Academy's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1988.
Wilder received the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 1986.
The Apartment was lauded by Soviet-bloc critics as an indictment of the American system and a story that could only have happened in
a capitalistic city like New York. At a dinner honoring him in East Berlin, Wilder said the movie "could happen anywhere, in Hong Kong, Tokyo,
Rome, Paris, London." When Wilder said the one place it could not have happened was Moscow, the East Germans broke into thunderous
applause and cheers. When the ovation died down, Wilder continued: "The reason this picture could not have taken place in Moscow is that in
Moscow nobody has his own apartment." The remark was met with grim silence.
Jack Lemmon has been nominated for seven Best Actor Academy Awards, including one for his drag performance in Wilder's Some Like It
Hot (1959). He won for Save the Tiger (1973). He also won a Best Supporting Actor Award for Mister Roberts (1955).
Shirley MacLaine has been nominated for Best Actress five times and won for Terms of Endearment (1983). She was also nominated for
her documentary feature The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir (1975).
The Apartment was the second of Jack Lemmon's seven films with Billy Wilder. He also appeared in Wilder's Some Like It Hot
(1959), Irma la Douce (1963, again with MacLaine), The Fortune Cookie (1966), Avanti! (1972), The Front Page
(1974), and Buddy Buddy (1981).
Fred MacMurray's fan mail was overwhelmingly against his role as the no-good chief executive Sheldrake. People hated seeing the usually
amiable, sympathetic actor play such a heel. The response shook him so much, he vowed never to take on another such role. He spent the
remainder of his career in Disney comedies and playing the good-natured dad on the television sitcom My Three Sons.
As a journalism student at Columbia University in 1941, I.A.L. Diamond's contribution to the school's annual Varsity Show resulted in a story in
the New York Times. Executives at Paramount Studios read the article and offered him a ten-week contract as a junior writer. Diamond
quit school and headed to Hollywood where he began his career as a screenwriter on the B-movie comedy-mystery-musical Murder in the Blue
Room (1944).
Impressed with the skits Diamond wrote for a Writers Guild dinner, Billy Wilder, who had worked with several writers since his break-up with
longtime writer-producer Charles Brackett, felt he had finally found the ideal collaborator.
The hugely successful 25-year collaboration between Wilder and Diamond began with Love in the Afternoon (1957). They created a total of
12 pictures together.
The Romanian-born Diamond's real name was Itek Domnici. The I.A.L. stood for Interscholastic Algebra League, in honor of his youthful wizardry
at mathematics.
MacLaine once recalled meeting an interpreter for Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev, who was in the U.S. to address the United Nations. The
Russian interpreter told the actress, "The Premier sends his regards, wishes to be remembered to you, and says he's just seen your new picture,
The Apartment, and you've improved."
At a party in Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe told Wilder how much she wished she could have played the part of Fran Kubelik in The
Apartment (MacLaine's role).
Wilder and production designer/art director Alexander Trauner worked on eight films together.
The Hungarian-born Trauner began his career in France, where he worked on such classic films as Quai des Brumes (1938) and Le
Jour se leve (1939). During the Nazi occupation of France, the Jewish Trauner was forced to work secretly and anonymously under difficult
conditions, yet managed to contribute greatly to the look of such films as Les Visiteurs du soir (1942) and Les Enfants du paradis
(Children of Paradise, 1945).
Memorable Quotes from THE APARTMENT
FRAN (Shirley MacLaine): Shall I light the candles?
BUD (Jack Lemmon): It's a must! Gracious living-wise.
FRAN: (explaining the cracked mirror in her compact) I like it that way. It makes me look the way I feel.
SHELDRAKE (Fred MacMurray): You see a girl a couple of times a week and sooner or later she thinks you'll divorce your wife. Not fair, is it?
BUD: No, especially to your wife.
SHELDRAKE: When you've been married to a woman 12 years, you don't just sit down to a breakfast table and say, "Pass the sugar, I want a
divorce." It's not that easy.
FRAN: (crying) When you're in love with a married man you shouldn't wear mascara
BUD: That's the way it crumblesÉcookie-wise.
FRAN: I never catch colds.
BUD: Really. I was reading some figures from the Sickness and Accident Claims Division. You know that the average New Yorker between the
ages of 20 and 50 has two and a half colds a year?
FRAN: That makes me feel just terrible.
BUD: Why?
FRAN: Well, to make the figures come out even, if I have no colds a year, some poor slob must have five colds a year.
BUD: Yeah... it's me.
BUD: Miss Kubelik, one doesn't get to be a second administrative assistant around here unless he's a pretty good judge of character, and as far
as I'm concerned you're tops. I mean, decency-wise and otherwise-wise
BUD: I used to live like Robinson Crusoe, shipwrecked among 8 million people, but one day I saw a footprint in the sand and there you
were
FRAN: Just because I wear a uniform doesn't make me a girl scout.
BUD: You hear what I said, Miss Kubelik? I absolutely adore you.
FRAN: Shut up and deal.
Compiled by Rob Nixon
Trivia - The Apartment - Trivia & Fun Facts About THE APARTMENT
Within a short time after its release, The Apartment doubled its $3 million cost at U.S. box offices alone.
MOVIE'S ADVERTISING TAG LINE: Movie-wise, there has never been anything like it - laugh-wise, love-wise, or otherwise-wise!
The Big Idea - The Apartment
Billy Wilder always worked best with a script collaborator. He had created several successful films in the 1930s and 40s with Charles Brackett
before they ended their association. It wasn't until the mid-50s before Wilder found another writer with mutual collaborative skills. The quiet,
introverted I.A.L. Diamond had a dramatically different personality from the outgoing Wilder. But they shared a common European immigrant
background, the same dry sense of humor, and an interest in many of the same themes and characterizations, such as the use of tangled webs
of deception. They had two successful pictures under their belt -
Love in the Afternoon (1957) and
Some Like It Hot - when they
started this one.
Wilder and Diamond were so impressed with Jack Lemmon's performance in their first film with the actor,
Some Like It Hot, they decided
in the first month of production on that picture that "this was not to be a one-shot thing with Jack. We wanted to work with him again, and while
Some Like It Hot was still in the works, we got underway with the planning of another one,
The Apartment."
Lemmon said he signed onto
The Apartment after Wilder told him the story but before he ever saw a line of the script. "I'd have signed even if he said
he was going to do the phone book," the actor noted.
"Billy's scripts are amazing," Lemmon later said. "They take a year and a half to write and everything's in them, but everything. He
sees
scripts. A script is to be played, not read. So if something doesn't look right in action, he'll change it."
The part of Sheldrake, the company boss having an affair with the elevator operator, had been written with Paul Douglas in mind. Two weeks
before the start of production, Douglas died of a heart attack. Wilder asked Fred MacMurray, who he had directed in
Double Indemnity
(1944), to step into the role.
MacMurray played mostly comic and light leading man parts for most of his career. Any trepidation he may have had about playing a heel in this
picture were put to rest by the fact that he had done some of his best work in a dark, serious part in Wilder's
Double Indemnity.
by Rob Nixon
The Big Idea - The Apartment
Billy Wilder always worked best with a script collaborator. He had created several successful films in the 1930s and 40s with Charles Brackett
before they ended their association. It wasn't until the mid-50s before Wilder found another writer with mutual collaborative skills. The quiet,
introverted I.A.L. Diamond had a dramatically different personality from the outgoing Wilder. But they shared a common European immigrant
background, the same dry sense of humor, and an interest in many of the same themes and characterizations, such as the use of tangled webs
of deception. They had two successful pictures under their belt - Love in the Afternoon (1957) and Some Like It Hot - when they
started this one.
Wilder and Diamond were so impressed with Jack Lemmon's performance in their first film with the actor, Some Like It Hot, they decided
in the first month of production on that picture that "this was not to be a one-shot thing with Jack. We wanted to work with him again, and while
Some Like It Hot was still in the works, we got underway with the planning of another one, The Apartment."
Lemmon said he signed onto The Apartment after Wilder told him the story but before he ever saw a line of the script. "I'd have signed even if he said
he was going to do the phone book," the actor noted.
"Billy's scripts are amazing," Lemmon later said. "They take a year and a half to write and everything's in them, but everything. He sees
scripts. A script is to be played, not read. So if something doesn't look right in action, he'll change it."
The part of Sheldrake, the company boss having an affair with the elevator operator, had been written with Paul Douglas in mind. Two weeks
before the start of production, Douglas died of a heart attack. Wilder asked Fred MacMurray, who he had directed in Double Indemnity
(1944), to step into the role.
MacMurray played mostly comic and light leading man parts for most of his career. Any trepidation he may have had about playing a heel in this
picture were put to rest by the fact that he had done some of his best work in a dark, serious part in Wilder's Double Indemnity.
by Rob Nixon
Behind the Camera - The Apartment
Billy Wilder gave Jack Lemmon free rein to fill in the character of C.C. "Bud" Baxter in performance. He compared the actor favorably to Charles
Chaplin and thought he could do no wrong.
Wilder found Lemmon very professional and cooperative. "He has his own opinion on things, but he's not bullheaded about it," the director said.
"As I saw it, [Baxter] was ambitious; a nice guy but gullible, easily intimidated, and fast to excuse his behavior," Lemmon said of his approach to
the character. "In the end, he changes because he faces up to having rationalized his morals. He realizes he's been a dumb kid, he's been had."
Lemmon invented one of the funnier moments in
The Apartment. Baxter has a bad cold from wandering the streets in the rain while an executive uses
his apartment for an affair. Lemmon was playing with a nasal spray prop in his dressing room and discovered if he gave it a sharp squeeze, it
would squirt ten feet. He filled it with milk to make the liquid visible on black-and-white film, and when Fred MacMurray, as his boss, chastises
him for creating a problem around the use of the apartment, Lemmon gave the container a squeeze. The milk shot out and sailed right past
MacMurray's nose. "He was beautiful; didn't say a word, just gave me a look and went right on with the scene," Lemmon said. Wilder left the
take in. "With Wilder, like with Ford, the best way is to do it rather than talk about it," Lemmon explained.
Lemmon said he learned much about filmmaking from Wilder, particularly the director's use of "hooks," bits of business the audience remembers
long after they've forgotten other aspects of the movie. One such hook was the passing of the key to Baxter's apartment. Lemmon said for years
after the picture's release, people would come up to him and say, "Hey, Jack, can I have the key?"
Wilder and Diamond would allow not even the slightest deviation from their script. Shirley MacLaine drove them crazy with her ad-libbing. She
was forced to do one of the elevator scenes five times because she kept missing one word.
Wilder and Diamond deliberated for 20 minutes when Lemmon insisted he wanted to repeat the word "yes" twice.
Wilder and Diamond did not have an ending to
The Apartment until the completion of shooting. They handed Lemmon and MacLaine wet mimeographed
script pages 20 minutes before shooting the final scene. Quick studies, the two did the scene in one take.
Lemmon related later in life how Wilder kept his film editor, Doane Harrison, on the set with him at all times as associate producer and never
made a shot until they both discussed it. As a result, he was able to shoot sparingly, cutting the film in the camera and eliminating costly
set-ups that might never be used.
Wilder captured the spirit of Christmas office parties - the free-flowing booze and often raucous behavior - by shooting that scene on December
23.
Wilder's sets are known to be easy-going, energetic, and full of humorous interaction. He also adds touches that cater to an actor's need for
small details to make them feel secure. For instance, for MacMurray he created memo pads and stationery with his character's name on them,
even though no one but the actor ever saw them.
Wilder told a story to illustrate the penny-pinching ways of Fred MacMurray, one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood. In an important scene
with MacLaine, MacMurray had to hand her a hundred-dollar bill. Wilder gave MacMurray a real bill to use. When the scene was over,
MacMurray gave the money back to the director. Several minutes later, Wilder claimed the actor never returned the bill. He insisted up to the
point that MacMurray, sweat pouring from his brow (according to Wilder), reluctantly opened his own wallet to pay him back. It was then Wilder
confessed to the prank.
To create the effect of a vast sea of faces laboring grimly and impersonally at their desks in the huge insurance company office, designers
Alexander Trauner and Edward G. Boyle devised an interesting technique. Full-sized actors sat at the desks in the front and dwarfs were used at
tiny desks toward the rear, followed by even smaller desks with cut-out figures operated by wires. It gave the effect of a much larger space than
could have been achieved in the limited studio space.
Wilder often incorporates famous paintings into his film sets. The shot of MacLaine lying unconscious on Lemmon's bed was inspired by the
composition of Rousseau's
Sleeping Gypsy, which hangs in the bedroom.
Wilder and cinematographer Joseph LaShelle were occasionally at odds over the look of
The Apartment. LaShelle, who had worked with directors who
came primarily from television, wanted to use more close-ups, a shot Wilder prefers to avoid.
"In film making, I like the normal set-up, like Wyler uses, like John Ford, like Chaplin," Wilder once said. "I'm against this fancy stuff. It reminds
an audience that artisans have intruded. I don't want them to grab their partner and say, 'My God, look at
that!'"
by Rob Nixon
Behind the Camera - The Apartment
Billy Wilder gave Jack Lemmon free rein to fill in the character of C.C. "Bud" Baxter in performance. He compared the actor favorably to Charles
Chaplin and thought he could do no wrong.
Wilder found Lemmon very professional and cooperative. "He has his own opinion on things, but he's not bullheaded about it," the director said.
"As I saw it, [Baxter] was ambitious; a nice guy but gullible, easily intimidated, and fast to excuse his behavior," Lemmon said of his approach to
the character. "In the end, he changes because he faces up to having rationalized his morals. He realizes he's been a dumb kid, he's been had."
Lemmon invented one of the funnier moments in The Apartment. Baxter has a bad cold from wandering the streets in the rain while an executive uses
his apartment for an affair. Lemmon was playing with a nasal spray prop in his dressing room and discovered if he gave it a sharp squeeze, it
would squirt ten feet. He filled it with milk to make the liquid visible on black-and-white film, and when Fred MacMurray, as his boss, chastises
him for creating a problem around the use of the apartment, Lemmon gave the container a squeeze. The milk shot out and sailed right past
MacMurray's nose. "He was beautiful; didn't say a word, just gave me a look and went right on with the scene," Lemmon said. Wilder left the
take in. "With Wilder, like with Ford, the best way is to do it rather than talk about it," Lemmon explained.
Lemmon said he learned much about filmmaking from Wilder, particularly the director's use of "hooks," bits of business the audience remembers
long after they've forgotten other aspects of the movie. One such hook was the passing of the key to Baxter's apartment. Lemmon said for years
after the picture's release, people would come up to him and say, "Hey, Jack, can I have the key?"
Wilder and Diamond would allow not even the slightest deviation from their script. Shirley MacLaine drove them crazy with her ad-libbing. She
was forced to do one of the elevator scenes five times because she kept missing one word.
Wilder and Diamond deliberated for 20 minutes when Lemmon insisted he wanted to repeat the word "yes" twice.
Wilder and Diamond did not have an ending to The Apartment until the completion of shooting. They handed Lemmon and MacLaine wet mimeographed
script pages 20 minutes before shooting the final scene. Quick studies, the two did the scene in one take.
Lemmon related later in life how Wilder kept his film editor, Doane Harrison, on the set with him at all times as associate producer and never
made a shot until they both discussed it. As a result, he was able to shoot sparingly, cutting the film in the camera and eliminating costly
set-ups that might never be used.
Wilder captured the spirit of Christmas office parties - the free-flowing booze and often raucous behavior - by shooting that scene on December
23.
Wilder's sets are known to be easy-going, energetic, and full of humorous interaction. He also adds touches that cater to an actor's need for
small details to make them feel secure. For instance, for MacMurray he created memo pads and stationery with his character's name on them,
even though no one but the actor ever saw them.
Wilder told a story to illustrate the penny-pinching ways of Fred MacMurray, one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood. In an important scene
with MacLaine, MacMurray had to hand her a hundred-dollar bill. Wilder gave MacMurray a real bill to use. When the scene was over,
MacMurray gave the money back to the director. Several minutes later, Wilder claimed the actor never returned the bill. He insisted up to the
point that MacMurray, sweat pouring from his brow (according to Wilder), reluctantly opened his own wallet to pay him back. It was then Wilder
confessed to the prank.
To create the effect of a vast sea of faces laboring grimly and impersonally at their desks in the huge insurance company office, designers
Alexander Trauner and Edward G. Boyle devised an interesting technique. Full-sized actors sat at the desks in the front and dwarfs were used at
tiny desks toward the rear, followed by even smaller desks with cut-out figures operated by wires. It gave the effect of a much larger space than
could have been achieved in the limited studio space.
Wilder often incorporates famous paintings into his film sets. The shot of MacLaine lying unconscious on Lemmon's bed was inspired by the
composition of Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy, which hangs in the bedroom.
Wilder and cinematographer Joseph LaShelle were occasionally at odds over the look of The Apartment. LaShelle, who had worked with directors who
came primarily from television, wanted to use more close-ups, a shot Wilder prefers to avoid.
"In film making, I like the normal set-up, like Wyler uses, like John Ford, like Chaplin," Wilder once said. "I'm against this fancy stuff. It reminds
an audience that artisans have intruded. I don't want them to grab their partner and say, 'My God, look at that!'"
by Rob Nixon
The Apartment - The Apartment
While it may be hard to imagine now,
The Apartment (1960) actually shocked some moviegoers upon its initial release. The problem wasn't the central premise - an ambitious office worker performs dubious favors in exchange for career advancement - but the actual treatment of it. In the hands of writer-director Billy Wilder and his collaborator, scenarist I. A. L. Diamond,
The Apartment became a razor-sharp farce that equated corporate success with immorality. Actually, filmmakers in communist Russia viewed it as an indictment against capitalism. The central character, "Bud" Baxter, is actually little more than a pimp for upper management while the girl of his dreams, elevator-operator Fran Kubelik, is a demoralized working girl whose solution to a failed love affair is to commit suicide. These are not the most wholesome characters in the world and we're talking about the hero and heroine! However, as played by Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, Bud and Fran not only win the audience's sympathy but also charm them in the process. The most astonishing thing about
The Apartment is how Billy Wilder manages to keep the tone light and playful while exposing the worst aspects of Manhattan corporate life, from the drunken office parties to the casual adultery committed by married employees. Despite these controversial elements, the film racked up ten Oscar nominations and won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director of 1960.
The Apartment marked the first time Shirley MacLaine had worked with Billy Wilder and she quickly discovered that her habit of occasionally improvising or changing dialogue was not welcome. For example, she delivered a wonderful take of a scene set in the company elevator but it had to be re-shot when Wilder discovered she had omitted one word of dialogue. Still, Wilder was sufficiently impressed with her acting to cast her in the lead role of
Irma la Douce in 1963.
The Apartment also won MacLaine her second Oscar nomination as Best Actress (the first time was for
Some Came Running, 1958) and she found herself competing against Deborah Kerr, Greer Garson, Melina Mercouri, and Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960 Academy Award race. (She lost to Taylor for
Butterfield 8).
Unlike MacLaine, Lemmon was already used to the way Wilder operated, having recently completed
Some Like It Hot (1959) for him. In fact, Wilder developed such trust and respect for Lemmon's instinctual gifts as an actor that he gave him the freedom to improvise certain bits like the bachelor spaghetti dinner scene where Lemmon strains the pasta through a tennis racket or some physical comedy routines involving a nasal spray. Lemmon later commented, "Working with Billy I began to understand 'hooks' - those little bits of business that an audience will remember, sometimes long after they've forgotten everything else about the picture. The key was a 'hook.' For ten years after that film, people would still come up to me on the street and say, "Hey, Jack, can I have the key?"
Paul Douglas was originally cast in the role of J. D. Sheldrake, the heel who dumps MacLaine rather than end his loveless marriage. Unfortunately, Douglas died two weeks prior to production on
The Apartment and Wilder coaxed Fred MacMurray to take the role. Not only was MacMurray completely convincing as the despicable company boss, his performance was so realistic it inspired an avalanche of hate mail from female moviegoers who begged him to play sympathetic roles in the future. He did just that, signing on as the amiable father figure in the popular TV-sitcom
My Three Sons (1960-1972) and scoring leads in Walt Disney flicks like
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961).
Director: Billy Wilder
Producer: I.A.L. Diamond, Doane Harrison, Billy Wilder
Screenplay: I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
Cinematography: Joseph LaShelle
Editor: Daniel Mandell
Art Direction: Alexandre Trauner
Music: Adolph Deutsch
Cast: Jack Lemmon (C.C. Baxter), Shirley MacLaine (Fran Kubelik), Fred MacMurray (Jeff D. Sheldrake), Ray Walston (Joe Dobisch), Jack Kruschen (Doctor Dreyfuss).
BW-126m. Letterboxed. Close captioning.
by Jeff Stafford
The Apartment - The Apartment
While it may be hard to imagine now, The Apartment (1960) actually shocked some moviegoers upon its initial release. The problem wasn't the central premise - an ambitious office worker performs dubious favors in exchange for career advancement - but the actual treatment of it. In the hands of writer-director Billy Wilder and his collaborator, scenarist I. A. L. Diamond, The Apartment became a razor-sharp farce that equated corporate success with immorality. Actually, filmmakers in communist Russia viewed it as an indictment against capitalism. The central character, "Bud" Baxter, is actually little more than a pimp for upper management while the girl of his dreams, elevator-operator Fran Kubelik, is a demoralized working girl whose solution to a failed love affair is to commit suicide. These are not the most wholesome characters in the world and we're talking about the hero and heroine! However, as played by Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, Bud and Fran not only win the audience's sympathy but also charm them in the process. The most astonishing thing about The Apartment is how Billy Wilder manages to keep the tone light and playful while exposing the worst aspects of Manhattan corporate life, from the drunken office parties to the casual adultery committed by married employees. Despite these controversial elements, the film racked up ten Oscar nominations and won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director of 1960.
The Apartment marked the first time Shirley MacLaine had worked with Billy Wilder and she quickly discovered that her habit of occasionally improvising or changing dialogue was not welcome. For example, she delivered a wonderful take of a scene set in the company elevator but it had to be re-shot when Wilder discovered she had omitted one word of dialogue. Still, Wilder was sufficiently impressed with her acting to cast her in the lead role of Irma la Douce in 1963. The Apartment also won MacLaine her second Oscar nomination as Best Actress (the first time was for Some Came Running, 1958) and she found herself competing against Deborah Kerr, Greer Garson, Melina Mercouri, and Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960 Academy Award race. (She lost to Taylor for Butterfield 8).
Unlike MacLaine, Lemmon was already used to the way Wilder operated, having recently completed Some Like It Hot (1959) for him. In fact, Wilder developed such trust and respect for Lemmon's instinctual gifts as an actor that he gave him the freedom to improvise certain bits like the bachelor spaghetti dinner scene where Lemmon strains the pasta through a tennis racket or some physical comedy routines involving a nasal spray. Lemmon later commented, "Working with Billy I began to understand 'hooks' - those little bits of business that an audience will remember, sometimes long after they've forgotten everything else about the picture. The key was a 'hook.' For ten years after that film, people would still come up to me on the street and say, "Hey, Jack, can I have the key?"
Paul Douglas was originally cast in the role of J. D. Sheldrake, the heel who dumps MacLaine rather than end his loveless marriage. Unfortunately, Douglas died two weeks prior to production on The Apartment and Wilder coaxed Fred MacMurray to take the role. Not only was MacMurray completely convincing as the despicable company boss, his performance was so realistic it inspired an avalanche of hate mail from female moviegoers who begged him to play sympathetic roles in the future. He did just that, signing on as the amiable father figure in the popular TV-sitcom My Three Sons (1960-1972) and scoring leads in Walt Disney flicks like The Absent-Minded Professor (1961).
Director: Billy Wilder
Producer: I.A.L. Diamond, Doane Harrison, Billy Wilder
Screenplay: I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
Cinematography: Joseph LaShelle
Editor: Daniel Mandell
Art Direction: Alexandre Trauner
Music: Adolph Deutsch
Cast: Jack Lemmon (C.C. Baxter), Shirley MacLaine (Fran Kubelik), Fred MacMurray (Jeff D. Sheldrake), Ray Walston (Joe Dobisch), Jack Kruschen (Doctor Dreyfuss).
BW-126m. Letterboxed. Close captioning.
by Jeff Stafford
The Critics' Corner - The Apartment - The Critics Corner: THE APARTMENT
AWARDS & HONORS
In 1994,
The Apartment was chosen by the National Film Preservation Board to be preserved in the Library of Congress National Film
Registry.
The Apartment won Academy Awards® for Best Picture, Director (Billy Wilder), Screenplay (Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond), Editing (Daniel
Mandell), Black-and-White Art Direction/Set Decoration (Alexander Trauner, Edward G. Boyle).
Wilder became the first person to win three Oscars® in the same year.
The Apartment also received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (Jack Lemmon), Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Supporting Actor
(Jack Kruschen), Black-and-White Cinematography (Joseph LaShelle), Sound (Gordon Sawyer).
Other awards for
The Apartment include:
- Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture Comedy, Best Actor Comedy, Best Actress Comedy and a nomination for Best Director.
- British Academy Awards for Best Film from Any Source, Foreign Actor, Foreign Actress.
- Directors Guild of America Award to Wilder and Assistant Director Hal W. Polaire.
- Golden Laurel Awards (Motion Picture Exhibitors) for Top Comedy, Female Dramatic Performance, Male Comedy Performance.
- New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Film, Director, Screenplay.
- Venice Film Festival Best Actress Award.
- Writers Guild of America Award for Best-Written American Comedy.
The Critics Corner: THE APARTMENT
"Mr. Wilder has done more than write the film. His direction is ingenious and sure, sparkled by brilliant little touches and kept to a tight, sardonic
line." - Bosley Crowther,
New York Times, 1960
"Wilder handles his players superbly. He holds an amazingly tight rein on actress MacLaine, which gives her performance a solidity she seldom
achieves. Yet it is actor Lemmon, surely the most sensitive and tasteful young comedian now at work in Hollywood, who really cuts the mustard
[sic] and carries the show." -
Time, 1960.
"Not to beat around the bush,
The Apartment is a very funny movie that can take a place among the finest comedies Hollywood has
turned out." -
Newsweek, 1960
"In none of his films has Mr. Wilder come closer to a Lubitsch theme and style than he did in his brilliant
The Apartment. In my
estimation, it is one of the finest comedy-dramas that has ever come out of Hollywood. Here Mr. Wilder, well established and comfortably settled
in with his new scriptwriter, I.A.L. Diamond, achieved that rare thing in cinema culture, a funny movie containing a serious statement. And he
helped to advance Jack Lemmon, the picture's star, as one of the truly fine actors of our time." - Bosley Crowther,
Reruns: 50 Memorable
Films (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1978)
"The happy ending was met with surprise by some critics who did not feel that protagonists who transgressed sexually deserved to find
happiness. But Wilder has created human beings, not stereotypes, and they are capable of developing some self-recognition and capacity for
growth. The question the movie does not successfully answer is why five supposedly well-paid executives are so totally dependent upon using
Bud's rather dingy little flat." - Anne Louise Lynch,
Magill's Survey of Cinema, Series I, Vol. 1 (Salem Press, 1980)
"The movie has been photographed in widescreen black and white. The b&w dampens down any jollity that might sweep in with the decorations
at the Christmas parties, bars and restaurants where the holidays are in full swing. And the widescreen emphasizes space that separates the
characters, or surrounds them with emptiness. The design of Baxter's apartment makes his bedroom door, in the background just to the left of
center, a focal point; in there reside the secrets of his masters, the reasons for his resentments, the arena for his own lonely slumber, and
eventually the stage on which Miss Kubelik will play out the crucial transition in her life." - Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times, July 22,
2001
"Along with Ernst Lubitsch's
The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Billy Wilder's 1960 Oscar-sweeper
The Apartment elevates the
workplace romance into a sublime erotica of officious addresses (the omnipresent Mister and Miss) and economic conundrum. ... The
triangulation keeps its edges with on-your-toes dialogue and a fine-tuned critique of corporate culture. Lemmon navigates the line between
simpering and sympathetic with nervous WASP-ish energy, George Bush, Sr. visited by the facial contortions of Jim Carrey. Most indelibly,
MacLaine gives us a gamine with the whole gamut of emotions, a cursed capacity to love, and a limit to her own self-pity." - Ed Park,
The
Village Voice, December 25-31, 2002
Compiled by Rob Nixon
The Critics' Corner - The Apartment - The Critics Corner: THE APARTMENT
AWARDS & HONORS
In 1994, The Apartment was chosen by the National Film Preservation Board to be preserved in the Library of Congress National Film
Registry.
The Apartment won Academy Awards® for Best Picture, Director (Billy Wilder), Screenplay (Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond), Editing (Daniel
Mandell), Black-and-White Art Direction/Set Decoration (Alexander Trauner, Edward G. Boyle).
Wilder became the first person to win three Oscars® in the same year.
The Apartment also received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (Jack Lemmon), Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Supporting Actor
(Jack Kruschen), Black-and-White Cinematography (Joseph LaShelle), Sound (Gordon Sawyer).
Other awards for The Apartment include:
- Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture Comedy, Best Actor Comedy, Best Actress Comedy and a nomination for Best Director.
- British Academy Awards for Best Film from Any Source, Foreign Actor, Foreign Actress.
- Directors Guild of America Award to Wilder and Assistant Director Hal W. Polaire.
- Golden Laurel Awards (Motion Picture Exhibitors) for Top Comedy, Female Dramatic Performance, Male Comedy Performance.
- New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Film, Director, Screenplay.
- Venice Film Festival Best Actress Award.
- Writers Guild of America Award for Best-Written American Comedy.
The Critics Corner: THE APARTMENT
"Mr. Wilder has done more than write the film. His direction is ingenious and sure, sparkled by brilliant little touches and kept to a tight, sardonic
line." - Bosley Crowther, New York Times, 1960
"Wilder handles his players superbly. He holds an amazingly tight rein on actress MacLaine, which gives her performance a solidity she seldom
achieves. Yet it is actor Lemmon, surely the most sensitive and tasteful young comedian now at work in Hollywood, who really cuts the mustard
[sic] and carries the show." - Time, 1960.
"Not to beat around the bush, The Apartment is a very funny movie that can take a place among the finest comedies Hollywood has
turned out." - Newsweek, 1960
"In none of his films has Mr. Wilder come closer to a Lubitsch theme and style than he did in his brilliant The Apartment. In my
estimation, it is one of the finest comedy-dramas that has ever come out of Hollywood. Here Mr. Wilder, well established and comfortably settled
in with his new scriptwriter, I.A.L. Diamond, achieved that rare thing in cinema culture, a funny movie containing a serious statement. And he
helped to advance Jack Lemmon, the picture's star, as one of the truly fine actors of our time." - Bosley Crowther, Reruns: 50 Memorable
Films (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1978)
"The happy ending was met with surprise by some critics who did not feel that protagonists who transgressed sexually deserved to find
happiness. But Wilder has created human beings, not stereotypes, and they are capable of developing some self-recognition and capacity for
growth. The question the movie does not successfully answer is why five supposedly well-paid executives are so totally dependent upon using
Bud's rather dingy little flat." - Anne Louise Lynch, Magill's Survey of Cinema, Series I, Vol. 1 (Salem Press, 1980)
"The movie has been photographed in widescreen black and white. The b&w dampens down any jollity that might sweep in with the decorations
at the Christmas parties, bars and restaurants where the holidays are in full swing. And the widescreen emphasizes space that separates the
characters, or surrounds them with emptiness. The design of Baxter's apartment makes his bedroom door, in the background just to the left of
center, a focal point; in there reside the secrets of his masters, the reasons for his resentments, the arena for his own lonely slumber, and
eventually the stage on which Miss Kubelik will play out the crucial transition in her life." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, July 22,
2001
"Along with Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Billy Wilder's 1960 Oscar-sweeper The Apartment elevates the
workplace romance into a sublime erotica of officious addresses (the omnipresent Mister and Miss) and economic conundrum. ... The
triangulation keeps its edges with on-your-toes dialogue and a fine-tuned critique of corporate culture. Lemmon navigates the line between
simpering and sympathetic with nervous WASP-ish energy, George Bush, Sr. visited by the facial contortions of Jim Carrey. Most indelibly,
MacLaine gives us a gamine with the whole gamut of emotions, a cursed capacity to love, and a limit to her own self-pity." - Ed Park, The
Village Voice, December 25-31, 2002
Compiled by Rob Nixon
TCM Remembers - Billy Wilder
A FOND FAREWELL TO ONE OF HOLLYWOOD'S MOST GIFTED DIRECTORS - BILLY WILDER, 11906-2002
Billy Wilder had the most deliciously dirty mind in Hollywood. The director dug into racy, controversial subjects with cynical wit and rare candor; he set new standards for film noir, sex comedies and the buddy film and his movies continue to inspire new generations of filmmakers.
Cameron Crowe, screenwriter and director of contemporary hit films such as Jerry Maguire(1996), was one of those moved by Wilder's film sense. The struggling filmmaker struck up a friendship with the 93-year old veteran and found a friend and a mentor. Their conversations were recently chronicled in a book by Cameron Crowe entitled Conversations with Wilder(published by Knoft).
Billy Wilder might have been born in Vienna, but American culture influenced him from the earliest days. Given the name Samuel, Wilder's mother called her son 'Billy' in honor of Buffalo Bill Cody. The name stuck.
Billy was as restless as his namesake and left law school to become a journalist. While grinding out articles for a Berlin newspaper, Wilder joined with future film directors Fred Zinnemann, Robert Sidomak and Edgar G. Ulmer to make a short film, Menschen Am Sonntag (1929). By the mid-1930s, he had written seven scenarios and even tried his hand at directing. After Hitler's rise to power in 1934, Wilder fled his homeland. Once in Hollywood, Wilder and roommate Peter Lorre had to learn English quickly if they wanted to join the American film industry. Together the German expatriates learned the language and began staking their territory in the Dream Factory.
As a writer, Wilder could craft realistic relationships with sharp dialogue; he proved this in his scripts for Ninotchka (1939) with Greta Garbo and Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire(1941). As a filmmaker, Wilder was well acquainted with the shadowy, brooding style of German Expressionism. He brought these two gifts together to create a landmark film noir - DOUBLE INDEMNITY(1944). He followed this cinematic triumph with a risky project, the story of an alcoholic on a three-day binge. Not the usual subject matter for a Hollywood studio, THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) nevertheless claimed the Academy Award for Best Picture. By the end of the decade, Wilder dared even to paint a portrait of Hollywood stardom gone awry in Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Each of these films is an undisputed classic today, but even at the time, his films were lauded. Six of his screenplays were nominated for Oscars between 1941-1950. Three of his eight Best Director nominations also came during this period. Billy Wilder claimed the American Dream; he was successfully playing by his own rules.
By the end of the '50s, as censorship guidelines were easing, Wilder's projects became even more daring. Sex was central to Wilder's world and Hollywood celebrated his candor. He directed Marilyn Monroe in two of her most sensuous roles, The Seven Year Itch (1955) and SOME LIKE IT HOT(1959). More often than not, Wilder liked pointing his finger at the hyprocrisy of people's sexual mores. In THE APARTMENT(1960), Wilder took an incisive look at corrupt businessmen exploiting their employees for sexual favors. In IRMA LA DOUCE (1963), the world of a Parisian prostitute was lovingly painted in Technicolor tones. In Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), Wilder finally stepped over the line with the story of a struggling composer willing to offer his wife to sell a song.The film, which seems so innocent today, was scandalous in its own day. Critics called Kiss Me, Stupid pornographic smut and buried the picture. Audiences ignored it. Today, the film is a risque farce with great performances by Dean Martin and Kim Novak. The critical lambast deeply affected Wilder; this would be his last sex comedy.
In 1966 Wilder brought together the dynamic combination of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau with THE FORTUNE COOKIE. Director and stars teamed again for The Front Page (1974), a remake of the newspaper classic; and Buddy, Buddy (1981), the story of an assassin and a sad sack ready to commit suicide.
Wilder's many years in Hollywood produced an amazing string of hits. From sarcastic and cynical social commentary to outrageous sex farce, Wilder pushed his audiences to look at their own values and morals. He was an outsider who wasn't afraid to point out the follies of his fellow man or the worst aspects of American culture. He will be sorely missed.
By Jeremy Geltzer
TCM Remembers - Billy Wilder
A FOND FAREWELL TO ONE OF HOLLYWOOD'S MOST GIFTED DIRECTORS - BILLY WILDER, 11906-2002
Billy Wilder had the most deliciously dirty mind in Hollywood. The director dug into racy, controversial subjects with cynical wit and rare candor; he set new standards for film noir, sex comedies and the buddy film and his movies continue to inspire new generations of filmmakers.
Cameron Crowe, screenwriter and director of contemporary hit films such as Jerry Maguire(1996), was one of those moved by Wilder's film sense. The struggling filmmaker struck up a friendship with the 93-year old veteran and found a friend and a mentor. Their conversations were recently chronicled in a book by Cameron Crowe entitled Conversations with Wilder(published by Knoft).
Billy Wilder might have been born in Vienna, but American culture influenced him from the earliest days. Given the name Samuel, Wilder's mother called her son 'Billy' in honor of Buffalo Bill Cody. The name stuck.
Billy was as restless as his namesake and left law school to become a journalist. While grinding out articles for a Berlin newspaper, Wilder joined with future film directors Fred Zinnemann, Robert Sidomak and Edgar G. Ulmer to make a short film, Menschen Am Sonntag (1929). By the mid-1930s, he had written seven scenarios and even tried his hand at directing. After Hitler's rise to power in 1934, Wilder fled his homeland. Once in Hollywood, Wilder and roommate Peter Lorre had to learn English quickly if they wanted to join the American film industry. Together the German expatriates learned the language and began staking their territory in the Dream Factory.
As a writer, Wilder could craft realistic relationships with sharp dialogue; he proved this in his scripts for Ninotchka (1939) with Greta Garbo and Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire(1941). As a filmmaker, Wilder was well acquainted with the shadowy, brooding style of German Expressionism. He brought these two gifts together to create a landmark film noir - DOUBLE INDEMNITY(1944). He followed this cinematic triumph with a risky project, the story of an alcoholic on a three-day binge. Not the usual subject matter for a Hollywood studio, THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) nevertheless claimed the Academy Award for Best Picture. By the end of the decade, Wilder dared even to paint a portrait of Hollywood stardom gone awry in Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Each of these films is an undisputed classic today, but even at the time, his films were lauded. Six of his screenplays were nominated for Oscars between 1941-1950. Three of his eight Best Director nominations also came during this period. Billy Wilder claimed the American Dream; he was successfully playing by his own rules.
By the end of the '50s, as censorship guidelines were easing, Wilder's projects became even more daring. Sex was central to Wilder's world and Hollywood celebrated his candor. He directed Marilyn Monroe in two of her most sensuous roles, The Seven Year Itch (1955) and SOME LIKE IT HOT(1959). More often than not, Wilder liked pointing his finger at the hyprocrisy of people's sexual mores. In THE APARTMENT(1960), Wilder took an incisive look at corrupt businessmen exploiting their employees for sexual favors. In IRMA LA DOUCE (1963), the world of a Parisian prostitute was lovingly painted in Technicolor tones. In Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), Wilder finally stepped over the line with the story of a struggling composer willing to offer his wife to sell a song.The film, which seems so innocent today, was scandalous in its own day. Critics called Kiss Me, Stupid pornographic smut and buried the picture. Audiences ignored it. Today, the film is a risque farce with great performances by Dean Martin and Kim Novak. The critical lambast deeply affected Wilder; this would be his last sex comedy.
In 1966 Wilder brought together the dynamic combination of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau with THE FORTUNE COOKIE. Director and stars teamed again for The Front Page (1974), a remake of the newspaper classic; and Buddy, Buddy (1981), the story of an assassin and a sad sack ready to commit suicide.
Wilder's many years in Hollywood produced an amazing string of hits. From sarcastic and cynical social commentary to outrageous sex farce, Wilder pushed his audiences to look at their own values and morals. He was an outsider who wasn't afraid to point out the follies of his fellow man or the worst aspects of American culture. He will be sorely missed.
By Jeremy Geltzer
TCM Remembers - Jack Kruschen
Jack Kruschen (1922-2002)
He may have not been a household name, yet his career consisted of over seventy-five films, spanned over six decades, and displayed a strong versatility in playing either dramatic or comic roles with equal effectiveness. He was the definitive, "I can't quite remember the name, but I remember the face" character player who enlivened many films with his robust frame, cherubic face and infectious smile. His name was Jack Kruschen, a superb performer who died on April 2, 2002 at the age of 80, leaving behind a strong body of work that was impressive as any character actor of his generation.
Kruschen was born on March 20, 1922 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The son of a watchmaker who later set up shop in Hollywood, he was performing in an operetta at Hollywood high school when a talent scout for CBS radio discovered him. Kruschen was soon doing voice characterizations on popular network programs such as Dragnet, The Danny Thomas Show and Sam Spade. With his gift for dialects (he was most adept at playing ethnic types like Greeks, Yiddish or Italians - a skill finely honed in his radio days), Kruschen was a natural for the movies and soon made his film debut with a small role in the Betty Hutton comedy Red, Hot and Blue (1949).
Kruschen's early career is peppered with a variety of roles like a comical gangster in both Abbott & Costello Go to Mars (1953) and Money from Home (1953) starring Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin; a hard-nosed police detective in Confidence Girl (1952) and Julie (1956), an underrated Doris Day thriller; or doomed victims to alien prey in Sci-fi cult classics: the 1953 version of War of the Worlds (fans remember him as Salvatore, one of the first earthlings to be killed by the invading Martians) and The Angry Red Planet (1959). The roles offered steady work, but not much critical recognition. All that changed when Billy Wilder cast him in the key role as Jack Lemmon's bemused but caring neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss in The Apartment (1960). As the man who observes the steady stream of women in and out of Lemmon's apartment and the one who saves Shirley MacLaine from a drug overdose, Kruschen offered a wonderful performance - viewing his neighbor's proceedings with a jaundiced eye, yet never letting his disdain overtake his humor and humanity. He was justly rewarded with an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor.
From this point on, Kruschen was seldom out of work, appearing in over 40 films (including a terrific dramatic turn in the original Cape Fear (1962) as Dave Grafton, a corrupt southern bigot) and nearly 60 guest roles on television for the next two decades. Kruschen would later find fame toward the end of his career when he was cast as Papa Papadapolis in the hit sitcom Webster (1985-1987) and would show pleasant variations of the "kindly old codger" throughout the remainder of his career - like his final role in the romantic comedy 'Til There Was You (1997). His death in April this year may have gone largely unnoticed by the movie-going public, but for those of us who treasure the art of the character player, Kruschen's passing was a loss that is fortunately compensated by his strong body of work that will be enjoyed for fans of the late show for many years to come.
By Michael T. Toole
SIGNE HASSO, 1910-2002
Actress Signe Hasso died June 7th at the age of 91. She was best-known for starring in A Double Life (1947) but played numerous Europeans in films during the 1940s. Hasso was born on August 15, 1910 in Stockholm, Sweden and began acting on stage at the age of 13. Ten years later made her first film appearance as Signe Larsson. She was married in 1936 and adopted the last name of her husband, cinematographer and later director Harry Hasso. After a dozen Swedish films, Hasso moved to Hollywood in 1940 where her first screen appearance was an uncredited role in Journey for Margaret (1942). A brief stint at RKO didn't lead to any more promising film parts so Hasso concentrated on her stage career in New York City. Eventually, her film career became more active, thanks to a quick succession of roles, most notably in Fred Zinnemann's The Seventh Cross (1944), Douglas Sirk's A Scandal in Paris (1946) and Henry Hathaway's The House on 92nd Street (1945). However it was her portrayal of Ronald Colman's wife in the Oscar-favorite A Double Life that solidified her fame. But as Hasso continued to act on the stage and TV, her film work began to taper off. She appeared in high-profile thrillers like Crisis (1950), several made-for-TV movies, a few European productions and even the cult murder mystery, Bert Gordon's Picture Mommy Dead (1966). In 1972, the king of Sweden decorated Hasso for her work. Her final appearance was in a 2001 documentary about Greta Garbo.
HERMAN COHEN, 1927-2002
One of the key producers of B-movies, Herman Cohen, died June 2nd at the age of 76. Like most producers, his name wasn't generally known outside the industry or the realms of film buffs but most people never forget the titles of his films: I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) and the not-quite-immortal Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952). Cohen was a Detroit native, born August 27, 1927. He entered the film business in the smallest possible way, as a 12-year-old janitor, often accepting passes for his family and friends instead of wages. Cohen served in the Marine Corps (several articles incorrectly say the Army) before becoming a publicist at Columbia Pictures. By 1951 he was working as a producer's assistant on low-budget independent films, mostly for Realart Pictures run by another Detroit native Jack Broder. Soon Cohen was producing his own movies, including Westerns and mysteries, until hitting big with the famous I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Starring a then-unknown Michael Landon (under personal contract to Cohen who later tore it up so Landon could appear in Bonanza), the film was made for $100,000 but in just a few months grossed over $2 million. Cohen didn't hestitate to turn out I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and Blood of Dracula by Thanksgiving of that same year and before long had made several films that continued to earn money for years to come. (One TCM writer remembers Horrors of the Black Museum turning up in a small Alabama town in the early 70s, over a decade after its initial release. The film is scheduled for a DVD release with a Cohen commentary from VCI Entertainment.) Cohen also made several films in England including The Headless Ghost (1959) and the cult favorite Konga (1961) where Cohen even paid RKO $25,000 for the rights to use the title King Kong in publicity for his own film. Cohen's later movies included a spaghetti Western and Joan Crawford's final acting role Trog (1970). In the 1980s Cohen ran a company, Cobra Media, that distributed some films and licensed material such as Teenage Werewolf to Landon for use in one of his Highway to Heaven episodes.
By Lang Thompson
TCM Remembers - Jack Kruschen
Jack Kruschen (1922-2002)
He may have not been a household name, yet his career consisted of over seventy-five films, spanned over six decades, and displayed a strong versatility in playing either dramatic or comic roles with equal effectiveness. He was the definitive, "I can't quite remember the name, but I remember the face" character player who enlivened many films with his robust frame, cherubic face and infectious smile. His name was Jack Kruschen, a superb performer who died on April 2, 2002 at the age of 80, leaving behind a strong body of work that was impressive as any character actor of his generation.
Kruschen was born on March 20, 1922 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The son of a watchmaker who later set up shop in Hollywood, he was performing in an operetta at Hollywood high school when a talent scout for CBS radio discovered him. Kruschen was soon doing voice characterizations on popular network programs such as Dragnet, The Danny Thomas Show and Sam Spade. With his gift for dialects (he was most adept at playing ethnic types like Greeks, Yiddish or Italians - a skill finely honed in his radio days), Kruschen was a natural for the movies and soon made his film debut with a small role in the Betty Hutton comedy Red, Hot and Blue (1949).
Kruschen's early career is peppered with a variety of roles like a comical gangster in both Abbott & Costello Go to Mars (1953) and Money from Home (1953) starring Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin; a hard-nosed police detective in Confidence Girl (1952) and Julie (1956), an underrated Doris Day thriller; or doomed victims to alien prey in Sci-fi cult classics: the 1953 version of War of the Worlds (fans remember him as Salvatore, one of the first earthlings to be killed by the invading Martians) and The Angry Red Planet (1959). The roles offered steady work, but not much critical recognition. All that changed when Billy Wilder cast him in the key role as Jack Lemmon's bemused but caring neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss in The Apartment (1960). As the man who observes the steady stream of women in and out of Lemmon's apartment and the one who saves Shirley MacLaine from a drug overdose, Kruschen offered a wonderful performance - viewing his neighbor's proceedings with a jaundiced eye, yet never letting his disdain overtake his humor and humanity. He was justly rewarded with an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor.
From this point on, Kruschen was seldom out of work, appearing in over 40 films (including a terrific dramatic turn in the original Cape Fear (1962) as Dave Grafton, a corrupt southern bigot) and nearly 60 guest roles on television for the next two decades. Kruschen would later find fame toward the end of his career when he was cast as Papa Papadapolis in the hit sitcom Webster (1985-1987) and would show pleasant variations of the "kindly old codger" throughout the remainder of his career - like his final role in the romantic comedy 'Til There Was You (1997). His death in April this year may have gone largely unnoticed by the movie-going public, but for those of us who treasure the art of the character player, Kruschen's passing was a loss that is fortunately compensated by his strong body of work that will be enjoyed for fans of the late show for many years to come.
By Michael T. Toole
SIGNE HASSO, 1910-2002
Actress Signe Hasso died June 7th at the age of 91. She was best-known for starring in A Double Life (1947) but played numerous Europeans in films during the 1940s. Hasso was born on August 15, 1910 in Stockholm, Sweden and began acting on stage at the age of 13. Ten years later made her first film appearance as Signe Larsson. She was married in 1936 and adopted the last name of her husband, cinematographer and later director Harry Hasso. After a dozen Swedish films, Hasso moved to Hollywood in 1940 where her first screen appearance was an uncredited role in Journey for Margaret (1942). A brief stint at RKO didn't lead to any more promising film parts so Hasso concentrated on her stage career in New York City. Eventually, her film career became more active, thanks to a quick succession of roles, most notably in Fred Zinnemann's The Seventh Cross (1944), Douglas Sirk's A Scandal in Paris (1946) and Henry Hathaway's The House on 92nd Street (1945). However it was her portrayal of Ronald Colman's wife in the Oscar-favorite A Double Life that solidified her fame. But as Hasso continued to act on the stage and TV, her film work began to taper off. She appeared in high-profile thrillers like Crisis (1950), several made-for-TV movies, a few European productions and even the cult murder mystery, Bert Gordon's Picture Mommy Dead (1966). In 1972, the king of Sweden decorated Hasso for her work. Her final appearance was in a 2001 documentary about Greta Garbo.
HERMAN COHEN, 1927-2002
One of the key producers of B-movies, Herman Cohen, died June 2nd at the age of 76. Like most producers, his name wasn't generally known outside the industry or the realms of film buffs but most people never forget the titles of his films: I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) and the not-quite-immortal Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952). Cohen was a Detroit native, born August 27, 1927. He entered the film business in the smallest possible way, as a 12-year-old janitor, often accepting passes for his family and friends instead of wages. Cohen served in the Marine Corps (several articles incorrectly say the Army) before becoming a publicist at Columbia Pictures. By 1951 he was working as a producer's assistant on low-budget independent films, mostly for Realart Pictures run by another Detroit native Jack Broder. Soon Cohen was producing his own movies, including Westerns and mysteries, until hitting big with the famous I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Starring a then-unknown Michael Landon (under personal contract to Cohen who later tore it up so Landon could appear in Bonanza), the film was made for $100,000 but in just a few months grossed over $2 million. Cohen didn't hestitate to turn out I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and Blood of Dracula by Thanksgiving of that same year and before long had made several films that continued to earn money for years to come. (One TCM writer remembers Horrors of the Black Museum turning up in a small Alabama town in the early 70s, over a decade after its initial release. The film is scheduled for a DVD release with a Cohen commentary from VCI Entertainment.) Cohen also made several films in England including The Headless Ghost (1959) and the cult favorite Konga (1961) where Cohen even paid RKO $25,000 for the rights to use the title King Kong in publicity for his own film. Cohen's later movies included a spaghetti Western and Joan Crawford's final acting role Trog (1970). In the 1980s Cohen ran a company, Cobra Media, that distributed some films and licensed material such as Teenage Werewolf to Landon for use in one of his Highway to Heaven episodes.
By Lang Thompson
