BBBBB
(out of 5)
Jack Lemmon excels as a low-level office worker who, on occasion, lends his bachelor apartment to philandering business superiors to use for trysts with their mistresses. Unbeknownst to him, one of them (Fred MacMurray) is going there with the elevator girl who has caught Lemmon’s eye (Shirley MacLaine in the best American female role of the sixties). The romance is witty and wise, the drama is acidic and dark, and somehow with Billy Wilder’s magic involved, one always seems to complement the other without it ever getting uncomfortable or uneven. Absolute perfection.
USA, 1960
Directed by Billy Wilder
Screenplay by Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
Cinematography by Joseph LaShelle
Produced by Billy Wilder
Music by Adolph Deutsch
Production Design by Alexandre Trauner
Costume Design by Forrest T. Butler, Irene Caine
Film Editing by Daniel Mandell
Academy Awards: 1960
Golden Globe Awards: 1960
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