Having been weaned in our youth on vintage Hollywood films of the 1950-60s by our Dad, an ardent fan of immortals like ‘Lost Horizon’, ‘Random Harvest’, ‘Gone with the Wind, ‘Roman Holiday’ & ‘An Affair to Remember’,the genrebased on classics and romantic novels and I’ve prided myself as having seen many but a few still remained, as other preoccupations took over in our lives and the era of B&W movies was replaced with glossier, racier, action-oriented kind of cinema emerging in the 70s.
As film buffs, many famous names still linger and when we chanced upon the 1960’s iconic film ‘The Apartment’ on Prime Video recently, I was over the moon, hoping PV wouldn’t take it off. I’ve known it was an acclaimed comedy by Billy Wilder, the famed director of ‘Roman Holiday’ that’s considered one of the most loved films of all time. We now had the chance to savour an old classic (a winner of many Academy awards), to enjoy US of the 60’s and feel that our Dad was chuckling along with us in spirit !To begin with, it had a superb star cast led by Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, two incredible actors who kept us in splits in the film ‘Irma la Douce’ (1963) that was later wonderfully adapted in an Indianized version ‘Manoranjan’ with Zeenat Aman.
This film isin a nutshell about the funny escapades of an insurance clerk Baxter who, in the hopes of climbing the corporateladder, allows more senior coworkers to use his Upper West Side apartment to conduct their extramarital affairs.A dubious theme for those conservative times but shows that men would always be men !Baxter himself is a decent, soft-hearted guy, a do-gooder who feelsthat by helping out colleagues in clandestine liaisons,he isn’t really doing anythingshady though his image is taking quite a beating from suspicious neighbours. He is in a nice way attracted to an elevator operator in his office building, who responds with warm, friendly overtures. But in life, people aren’t what they appear to be and circumstances force everyone to compromise.
What appeals is that despite marital infidelity theme that surroundsthe film, there is certain dignity and a principled uprightness in the protagonist (Baxter) who will never take advantage of others even if it means putting himself in a spot. In fact, none of the office characters look darkly negative but reflect the weakness of moral fibre where illicit relationships thrive in large corporates and machinations and schemes unfold ! Wilder’s deft touches bring out the innate goodness in people, the warmth in human relationships & fellow feelings that extend beyond petty, selfish interests and purityof the chemistry between the lead pair comes out without resorting to explicit love scenes.
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