The Apartment (1960)

Reviewed by: Jason Lockard

Billy Wilder gave us some of the greatest film in cinema history, including, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some like it hot ans Stalag 17, just to name a few. Many people feel that Billy Wilder's masterpiece was 1960's The Apartment.

This film has been released on home video many times in less than spectacular releases. Enter Arrow Video, they have decided to rescue this film and give it the release it so richly deserves.

The film follows C.C. “Bud” Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lowly Manhattan office drone with a lucrative sideline in renting out his apartment to adulterous company bosses and their mistresses. When Bud enters into a similar arrangement the firm’s personnel director, J.D. Sheldrake, his career prospects begin to look up… and up. But when he discovers that Sheldrake’s mistress is Fran Kubelik, the girl of his dreams, he finds himself forced to choose between his career and the woman he loves.

This is a brilliant satire. It was masterfully written and directed. The performance of Jack Lemmon is stellar. Than there is the supporting cast of Fred MacMurray, Shirley MacLaine, Ray Walston, David White, Edie Adams and Hope Holiday make a perfect assembly. No wonder the film was nominated for 10 Academy awards and won of five for film editing, art direction, screenplay, director and best picture.  


I owned one of the previous releases of The Apartment and while it was an decent picture quality there was a lot of damage to the film print. Well, Arrow Video was not happy with a decent picture release. So they decided to do a 4K restoration from the original 35mm print, cleaning up the damages in the film. The film looks and sounds better than I have ever seen.

This pristine copy of the film would have been more than enough for most film fans, but Arrow Video always goes above and beyond with their releases. They have loaded this Blu-ray bonus features including, an audio commentary by film historian Bruce Block. There is two featurettes with writer/critic Philip Kemp, The Key to the Apartment and select-scene commentary. A video essay by David Cairns called The Flawed Couple, A Letter to Castro is also new, and feature an interview with Hope Holiday, an informal conversation with Billy Wilder, restoration demonstration, theatrical trailer, Magic Time: The Art of Jack Lemmon and finally a documentary Inside the Apartment.

This is one amazing blu-ray release. The quality of the restoration is enough to make this a buy, but when you add all the bonus features with it. One word comes to mind, unbelievable. I can not recommend this release enough for and fans of Billy Wilder, Jack Lemmon, Classic films or 60s cinema.

So if you want to see The Apartment in the most pristine quality possible this blu-ray is a must own! Head over to MVDShop.com and pick up a copy for yourself!



Moral Rating: Adult themes
Audience: Not suitable for small children
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Length: 125 minutes
Blu-ray Released: 2018
Blu-ray Rating: A+