“Ya 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?"

-      J.D. Shaldrake

“No, sir, it’s very unfair…especially to your wife."

-      C.C. Baxter

CRITIQUE

Infidelity. Suicide. Corporate indiscretion. Moral corruption. Tell me these aren’t just the seeds one would initial think of to craft one of the greatest romantic comedies of all-time? Hot off of the success of Some Like it Hot Billy Wilder thought all of these ideas and more would be just perfect for that particular genre, he and frequent collaborator I.A.L. Diamond using them all for their Academy Award-winning masterpiece The Apartment.

This is the kind of movie they not only don’t make anymore, they also just as rarely made back then, studios not at all comfortable with the thought of one of their most trusted craftsmen crafting a story where a woman admits to three (or is that four – check those fingers) affairs with married men to a guy who has made his corporate mark by allowing his superiors a home base for their own adulteress indiscretions. There are points in this film where you almost can’t believe you’re laughing, can’t fathom that you’re falling in love with characters as flawed and as fractured as these, all the time wishing them to wake up and realize their need to be together is genuine even though you’re fearing they’ll just eventually succumb to the insecurities and moral cynicism tearing them apart.

Has Jack Lemmon ever been better? Has Shirley MacLaine? I’m fairly positive Fred MacMurray never was, and how he wasn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actor (the film was nominated for ten overall, winning five including Best Picture) while costar Jack Kruschen (who is admittedly excellent as well) kind of blows my mind. Wilder and Diamond craft fully developed, deeply flawed human beings who are as pitiable as they are relatable, and even the most despicable of them display traits similar to even the most pure and unvarnished of viewers. In many ways the film is more of a comedic noir than it is a romance, everything building to a coda that is as melancholic as it is rapturously profound.

Wilder was fearless; all you have to do is look at his body of work to know that. But anyone that would center a pivotal plot point around a main character’s attempted suicide and then use said attempt as a vehicle to increase the romantic attachment of one person to the other is something else indeed. The fact it works so well? That’s a testament to the writer/director’s skills (as well as Diamonds) as well as that of his actors, all of them embracing the darker aspects of the material in as fearless a manner as anything ever put to celluloid.

A case could be made The Apartment is Wilder’s best film. It’s certainly up there, and as comedies go it’s easily one of the greatest of all-time, equaling Some Like it Hot for laughs and besting it as far as emotion is concerned. Impossible not to love, this is a daring, inspirational and intelligently winning romantic comedy that rewrote the book as far as what this particular genre could accomplish and be, and to say it plays just as magnificently today as it did back in 1960 is as monumental an understatement as any I could ever think to utter.

THE VIDEO

The Apartment is presented on a dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video with a 2.35:1/1080p transfer. Stunning, simply stunning, Fox and MGM have done an astonishing job bringing this timeless classic to the world of high-definition. Director of Photography Joseph LaShelle did some of his finest work for Wilder on this motion picture (which is saying something considering he shot Laura), and this beautiful Blu-ray presentation is as lush and as film-like as any I could have hoped for. Shadows ripple throughout, black levels are steamy and natural, shades of grey are steady as can be and whites are dreamily authentic. Grain permeates the screen naturally, at reasonably levels, while there isn’t a hint of aliasing or copious amounts of noise reduction to be found anywhere.

THE AUDIO

The Apartment comes to Blu-ray in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French and Spanish Dolby Digital Mono and includes optional English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Extras here include:

·         Commentary by film historian Bruce Block

·         Featurette: 'Inside The Apartment' (29:35)

·         Featurette: 'Magic Time: the Art of Jack Lemmon' (12:47)

·         Original Theatrical Trailer (2:19)

None of these extras are new, but that doesn’t make them any less delightful. Block’s commentary can get a little repetitive but is still otherwise excellent, while the two featurettes are close to must-watch material. Not a lot, but still fulfilling, and I’m sure devotees of The Apartment won’t be even remotely disappointed.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Apartment is arguably Billy Wilder’s greatest achievement, which is saying something, while MGM/Fox’s Blu-ray presentation of this classic motion picture is remarkably close to perfection.