The Apartment

Billy Wilder directs Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray.

C.C. Baxter is an office clerk who curries favour with the executives in his office by giving them the key to his small apartment for the odd afternoon dalliance. Among them is his callous boss, J.D. Sheldrake, who Baxter eventually learns is using his place to sleep with Miss Kubelik, the sweet elevator operator the clerk has loved from afar. When Sheldrake coldly dumps the vulnerable young woman, she tries to commit suicide, but is saved by the intervention of Baxter. Lemmon and MacLaine both give career performances and Fred MacMurray is memorable as the blandly smiling snake.