This is the second film in the 2007 AFI top 100 list that I had never seen nor heard of before. It’s way down at number 80, but that belies its greatness. I’d put it ahead of Duck Soup for example.

It stars Jack Lemmon and Shirly MacLaine. Jack plays C. C. Baxter, a schlub who lets his superiors use his apartment for illicit affairs while he either waits patiently outside, or falls asleep on a park bench. MacLaine is Fran Kubelik, a lift operator for the company that Baxter works for. Their “meet cute” (a term I find awkward) happened before the film starts, but their romance doesn’t start until halfway through the film. Baxter goes a bit into creepy awkward stalker mode for a few lines, but it doesn’t seem to bother Kubelik. Maybe that scene needs to be rewritten or something.

Fred MacMurray is the CEO of the company Baxter works for, and in this film he plays a manipulative adulterer. This is the second film now (the first being Double Indemnity) that he’s been in that he doesn’t play the kind of characters I most know him for: benevolent Disney dads. I remember watching MacMurray when I was a kid in films like The Absent-Minded Professor, or The Shaggy Dog, or on TV as the dad in My Three Sons. It’s probably no accident that Billy Wilder was responsible for both The Apartment and Double Indemnity, both as writer and director.

The romance between Baxter and Kubelik is the heart of the film and, aside from the aforementioned creepy bit, is extremely well done, although a bit on the nerd-fantasy side of things. I really enjoyed watching the characters develop as well. Baxter has less of an arc than Kubelik, even though he’s in more of the film, but that’s because he starts off in love with her, whereas she starts off thinking of him as just a nice guy.

Finally, Jack Kruschen does a great job as the neighbor-doctor who helps Baxter out of a tight spot. He balances the nosiness and the helpfulness just right so that you agree with him while at the same time empathising with Baxter. A difficult feat to pull off, but he manages it nicely.