THE APARTMENT
SHIRLEY MacLAINE JACK LEMMON
Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT blends his customary harsh cynicism with a humane streak that appears only fleetingly in his films. It stars Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter, an office clerk who curries favor with the executives in his office by giving them the key to his small apartment for the odd afternoon dalliance. Among them his is his callous boss, J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), who Baxter eventually learns is using his place to sleep with Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), 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. As the clerk lovingly nurses the young woman back to health he begins to realize, with the help of epigrammatic neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), exactly how much of a fool he has been. Wilder brilliant depiction of the average American office as a place of brutality, coldness, and alienation conjure up Kafka and Marx. The director seduces the audience into what appears to be an unusually frank sex comedy, but turns the tables in displaying the consequences of the executive's cold indifference. Lemmon and MacLaine both give career performances and MacMurray is memorable as the blandly smiling snake.
GOOD CONDITION WITH SLEEVE CUT TO FIT CLEAR PLASTIC BOX
AND....
IRMA LA DOUCE
SHIRLEY MacLAINE JACK LEMMON
Billy Wilder's adaptation of Alexandre Breffort's stage farce stars Shirley MacLaine as the Parisian prostitute of the title. When Nestor Patou (Jack Lemmon) a naïve, uncharacteristically honest young gendarme decides to raid Chez Moustache, the bistro which provides a base of operations for many of the Les Halles streetwalkers, including the popular Irma, his boss Inspector Lefevre (Herschel Bernardi) is among the johns, and Nestor quickly finds himself unemployed. But, smitten with Irma, the former cop returns to Les Halles and after a fight with her extortionate pimp Hippolyte (Bruce Yarnell), Nestor takes over his role. As he and Irma become more involved, he becomes increasingly jealous toward her steady parade of customers, and finally resolves to become one. Posing as impotent British aristocrat Lord X, he offers to pay Irma a sizeable sum simply to spend some time with him on a weekly basis. The plot thickens when, on a trip to England, Irma seduces Lord X, whose sexual malady is proven to have been somewhat overstated. Composer Andre Previn won an Oscar for best score.
GOOD CONDITION W/LITTLE BOX WEAR
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