The Apartment (1960)

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125 min – PG – view video trailer

Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray

Genres: Romance, Comedy, Drama

IMDB 8.4 / Amazon 4.6 / MRQE 83 / Tomatometer 93%

Oscars: nominated for 10, won 5 (Best Picture, Director, Writing, Editing, Art)

Ranked #27 Greatest Movies Through 1960

A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue. IMDB 8.4 rating from over 54,641 users

Romance at its most anti-romantic–that is the Billy Wilder stamp of genius, and this Best Picture Academy Award winner from 1960 is no exception. Set in a decidedly unsavory world of corporate climbing and philandering, the great filmmaker’s trenchant, witty satire-melodrama takes the office politics of a corporation and plays them out in the apartment of lonely clerk C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon). Amazon 4.6 stars from over 158 users

Widely regarded as a comedy in 1960, The Apartment seems more melancholy with each passing year. Jack Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, a go-getting office worker who loans his tiny apartment to his philandering superiors for their romantic trysts. He runs into trouble when he finds himself sharing a girlfriend (Shirley MacLaine) with his callous boss (Fred MacMurray). Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 93% Audience 93%

MRQE 83% from over 82 reviews

Madison Public Library

Double Indemnity (1944)

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107 min – view video trailer

Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Robinson

Genres: Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller

IMDB 8.5 / Amazon 4.7 / MRQE 91% / Zagat 28

Oscars: nominated for 7, won 0 (Best Picture, Actress, Director, Cinematography, Music, Sound, Writing)

Ranked #29 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie, included in 19 of 37 greatest movie lists

An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator’s suspicions. IMDB 8.5 rating from over 52,595 users

Zagat summary snippet: The story of another dumb cluck done in by a woman, it features a fast-talking MacMurray, knockout Stanwyck (love the anklet) and fantastic Robinson, with plenty of plot twists. Best scene: shopping at the supermarket. Zagat Ratings: Overall 28 / Acting 27 / Story 28 / Production 25 / Total 108

As the would-be lovers plot the unsuspecting husband’s murder, they are pursued by a suspicious claims manager (Edward G. Robinson). It’s a race against time to get away with the perfect crime in this heart-racing Academy Award-nominated masterpiece. Amazon 4.7 stars from over 187 users

MRQE 91% rating with over 67 reviews linked

Madison Public Library