In the past couple of decades, there’s been an increase in oddball romantic comedies – a sort of successor to the screwball comedy and most commonly disguised at the Indie comedy. No matter what you call them, there’s one common thread between them. They share influence from one movie: Harold and Maude. But Harold and Maude is at least partially influenced by The Apartment, Billy Wilder’s film after Some Like It Hot. After working together on that film, Wilder and Jack Lemmon reteamed for The Apartment and several others after that. Jack Lemmon is the unsung greatest actor of all time. He had excellent comedic timing, but he was also a very dramatic actor and shined in films such as Days of Wine and Roses, Save the Tiger and Glengarry Glen Ross. That ability to handle both made him the prime star for The Apartment – a hilarious romantic comedy steeped in pathos. He and Shirley MacLaine star as the two leads with Fred MacMurray as the sleazy guy in between them. MacMurray, at this time, was known for family-friendly Disney films, so even though he had played another scumbag in Wilder’s Double Indemnity roughly 15 years prior, he received plenty of hate mail for the role of Sheldrake.

C.C. Baxter is a lowly office worker at an insurance company in New York City who wants to climb the corporate ladder. He does this by offering up his apartment to the managers above him for their extramarital affairs. He receives glowing reviews from his superiors, which then go to Jeff Sheldrake, the personnel director, who promises Baxter a promotion, but needs the apartment that very night. He gives Baxter two tickets to the theater that night and he invites an elevator operator he really likes, Fran Kubelik. She agrees to go but says she must first put an end to a previous relationship. Baxter waits for her outside the theater, but she doesn’t show. Her “former fling” is with Sheldrake who convinces her not to break up with him and promises that he intends to leave his wife. At the Christmas party, Sheldrake’s secretary, Miss Olsen, informs Fran that Sheldrake has had several affairs with coworkers including herself. Fran confronts Sheldrake, but he claims to love her and gives her $100 as a Christmas present before heading home for the holidays. Baxter realizes Fran is the woman Sheldrake meets up with and goes to a bar and spends way too much time there.

On his return home, he notices Fran in his bed, having taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Baxter hurriedly calls his neighbor, a doctor, over for help. The doctor, who already views Baxter as a playboy with all the women coming around, scolds him for being the cause of Fran’s suicide attempt. Baxter lets him believe it. While Fran recuperates, she and Baxter spend time together and grow close. He cooks spaghetti for her, but then her brother-in-law shows up demanding she comes home. Baxter takes the blame, and then a punch to the face, for why Fran hasn’t come home yet. Sheldrake learns Miss Olsen is the one who told Fran about his other affairs, and so he fires her, but she retaliates by spilling the beans to Sheldrake’s wife. Sheldrake is kicked out of the house, but is now “free” to pursue Fran. He demands access to Baxter’s apartment, but instead, Baxter quits, refusing to ever let him bring Fran over again. Sheldrake indignantly tells Fran all of this at a New Year’s Eve party, causing Fran to realize Baxter loves her. She abandons Sheldrake and goes to Baxter’s apartment where they bring the New Year in playing cards.

The Apartment seems rather tame compared to some of the romances that come out these days, but at the time it was released, it was considered taboo. The topics of sex, affairs, depression and suicide were definitely not common in the 50s and 60s. There’s even a scene where a character openly reads a Playboy. I guess maybe some of that would still be scandalous today. I don’t know. But the film at least uses these things in earnest, not as gimmicks. These are sad characters. These are cynical characters. They run right along the edge of being cartoons, but they’re surprisingly real. The comedy comes from just how real they are. Sheldrake truly believes he can do no wrong, so it’s funny to us just how selfishly delusional he is. Most of us know someone like Baxter, ambitious yet completely incapable of taking care of themselves, so when we see him strain spaghetti with a tennis racket, it’s funny to us. The Apartment, all around, is hilarious, charming, and surprisingly heartwarming.

Bonus Review: Four Weddings and a Funeral

Four Weddings and a Funeral is another one of those films that just hits at the exact right time and somehow becomes an overnight sensation. It made Hugh Grant a star and British sex symbol (in America), and it became Richard Curtis’ first majorly successful screenplay. Since then, the two have worked together on four other major films – Notting Hill, the two Bridget Jones movies, and Love, Actually, which was also Curtis’ directorial debut. Like The Apartment, Four Weddings and a Funeral is a quirky romantic comedy with some surprising deep and somber moments. I guess the title gives that away. But it also helped popularize British humor in America.

It’s the day of Angus and Laura’s wedding and a group of unmarried friends gather together. There’s Charles, Scarlett, Fiona, Tom, Gareth, Matthew, and David. Charles is the best man at the wedding and, as usual, he arrives late and without the rings. He borrows rings from people in the congregation to get by and gives a rather risqué speech at the reception. He sees an American woman, Carrie, and is immediately smitten. They spend the night together, but in the morning, Carrie reveals she’s returning to the US. The next wedding is Bernard and Lydia’s, who got together at Angus and Laura’s wedding. Charles is excited at Carrie’s return, but dismayed to meet her fiancée, Hamish. The third wedding is Carrie and Hamish’s, and Charles, trying to be a good friend, struggles at finding a gift for the couple. He runs into Carrie while shopping and they talk wistfully of their previous romances, including each other. At their wedding, Gareth has a heart attack and dies. Matthew, Gareth’s partner, is distraught and the friends listen to him read a poem. The last wedding is Charles’ own to Henrietta. Carrie arrives and confesses she and Hamish have split up, causing Charles to get confused. He admits to loving Carrie at the altar, which gets him punched out by Henrietta. Later, Carrie comes to apologize to Charles and Charles confesses his love for her and promises a life of happiness, but they don’t have to get married. Carrie agrees.