The Apartment (1960)

Rating: 50%
Well it's been a bit since I last reviewed a winner from the 60's so let's take another look at that decade with The Apartment.

Plot: Baxter is a lonely office drudge who at a national insurance cooperation. But as a way to get higher in the cooperate ranks, he allows some of the company managers to borrow his apartment for when they are picking up women. Eventually the personal director Sheldrake find out when he interviews Baxter for a promotion, and he give him the promotion along with tickets for The Music Man on the condition that he can use his apartment too. Baxter convinces a elevator operator named Fran whom he's had his eye on for a while to come to the show with him, but before she does, she meets an old fling of hers who turn out to be Sheldrake. Sheldrake tells her that he intends to divorce his wife for her and so they spend the night at Baxter's apartment. 

I'm afraid this is another one of those films that despite getting really good praise during it's time, it was just okay to me. The concept of the story I sort of liked with how specifically this office drudge is helping his superiors so he can go higher up the cooperate ladder in return. And the second half of the film was a little interesting with how they kept the story going. But may main problem is I didn't really care for the characters. It's not that they were horribly acted, but I couldn't help not really caring for them. Baxter especially I didn't find him really being more then a guy who is really just a "doormat" (as critic Mary Ann Johanson put it) and kind of creepy when it comes to how he has specifically been eying on Fran. He even openly admits some of how he's been doing that right in front of her and I'm left being a little curious what he was thinking and why she wasn't really weirded out about it. This film also got negative reviews for how it has themes of infidelity and adultery. To that I say that while I wasn't super disturbed at the fact that it did have that, it did seem a little surprising that they would have those themes in a movie from around the 60's I don't claim to be an expert as to when those kind of things were less of a big deal in film as time went on, it's messed up that they have it in this film from only 1960. To which I"m glad that based on those reviews, I'm glad I'm not the only person who feels that way. To be fair it's not like this film has any sex scenes or anything like that, but they still touch on those themes which I think is enough considering the time. 

And That's my review for The Apartment. It has an okay story, but it has characters like Baxter who are not very memorable or particularly interesting, and it has themes that are questionable considering the film's time. Altogether, The Apartment wasn't that great for me, so I wouldn't really recommend it.