Oscar Best Picture Winner 1961: The Apartment

BY: ORANGECHAIR

As should already be evident with these Oscar posts, I am going in no specific order or pattern. I have a list of all the Best Picture winners since the Oscar’s started and have been randomly choosing films off the list to watch. For this installment in this series of posts I chose the winning film from 1961, a film called The Apartment. Filmed in black and white and starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, I was skeptical about this film at first but found it to be one of the better films I have seen in the past couple of weeks.

My skepticisms in watching this film did not come from the fact that it was in black and white. My skepticism came from a dumb assumption I made before actually watching the film. Judging by the screenshots I had seen and by the description of the film, I assumed that it was an old romantic comedy, which aren’t always my favorite films. The Apartment taught me pretty quickly not to, pardon the cliché, judge a movie by its cover. Though the majority of the film did have a humorous, light-hearted feel, the movie touched on a number of fairly serious and dark topics.

The plot and drama of the film is fueled by the ambitious C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon), Buddy Boy for short, a man who does not want to become a nameless employee where he works. To climb the corporate ladder at his insurance company, C.C. Baxter allows four of his superiors to use his apartment as a place to enact their extramarital activities. In return, Baxter’s superiors all recommended Baxter for promotion where a fifth higher higher up begins to use the apartment as well. Ignoring the fact that his superiors are taking complete advantage of Baxter, making him leave his own apartment when they need to use it, the real drama enters the film when Baxter falls in love with one of the superior’s mistresses, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine).

Fran and Baxter both have their own plot lines that both converge and diverge multiple times. Both plot lines are incredibly depressing. Fran, who works as elevator operator in Baxter’s building, has fallen in love with the powerful and married Jeff D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) who also happens to be Baxter’s boss. Throughout the film, Fran has to deal with loving a man she must sneak around with and can never truly be with. After suffering endless heartache, Fran falls into such despair that she even attempts to take her own life.

While Fran is dealing with heartache, Baxter spends the film desperately trying to figure out how to stand up for himself. As his superiors continue to take advantage of him and the perks of climbing the corporate ladder do not trump sharing his apartment with five adulterers, Baxter starts to get fed up. Fighting to win Fran’s heart and keep his dignity at the same time, Baxter eventually finds a way to stand up for himself and be happy with his own life.

This film is full of great performances. Lemmon brings the eager to please yet inherently sad C.C. Baxter to life and MacLaine is absolutely charming as Miss Kubelik. The adulterous superiors are represented by a hilarious crew of fast talking actors including Ray Walston and David Lewis. Jack Druschen gives a hilarious performance as Doctor Dreyfus, Baxter’s judgmental and scolding neighbor. The film was directed by the extremely talented Billy Wilder, winning him Oscars for both Best Director and Best Writing. The film also won the 1961 Oscar for Best Picture beating out the Alamo, Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers and the Sundowners. I give this film a 9 out of 10. With great acting, directing and writing, this film made you care for the characters from beginning to end.

Oscar Best Picture Winner 1946: The Lost Weekend

BY: ORANGECHAIR

One’s too many an’a hundred’s not enough.

Billy Wilder’s film The Lost Weekend takes the audience and throws it directly into the mind of a severely alcoholic man. A film so grippingly real that it is at times hard to watch, Wilder attributes this as the film that put him on the map. Not only did this film start to make the career of the extremely talented director, it also changed the way alcoholics were portrayed in film.

Don Birnam (Ray Milland) is a man with a drinking problem and when the film starts, he is well aware of it. In fact Don’s brother Wick Birnam (Philip Terry) and Don’s girlfriend Helen St. James (Jane Wyman) both know it as well. While preparing for a weekend away with his brother, Don convinces his girlfriend to take his brother to a show. While the two are worried about leaving Don home alone, Don says he needs time by himself to think. The minute Don is alone he finds a way to get some alcohol, starting a bender that lasts the entire film. Don purposely misses his train the next day, messing up his brother’s weekend away and forcing Wick to give up on Don. Don spends the rest of the film drinking and analyzing his past through a series of flashbacks. As the alcoholism takes over, the audience is forced to hit rock bottom with Don as he continues to do whatever it takes to get alcohol including lying, stealing and eventually ending up in the hospital’s alcoholic ward.

Don Birnam and his character represented an overwhelming change in the way alcoholics were portrayed on screen. Prior to this film most films used the idea of alcoholism as a comedic device, showing characters falling over themselves, slurring their speech into comedic lines and comically leering at women. There was absolutely nothing comedic about Don Birnam. In fact, watching Don’s lost weekend was something that was very difficult to do. Wilder took a risk by portraying the painful truth about alcoholism, portraying Don as a good man with a disease that turns him into a bad person.

I have mentioned multiple times before that this is not the easiest film to watch but that in no way means a person should not watch it. The Lost Weekend is a brilliantly shot and excellently acted film. Wilder’s method of directing drops the audience directly into the middle of an alcoholic’s bender. Rather than making Don a character that the audience roots for or feels bad for, Wilder attaches the audience to Don, making them travel to rock bottom with him. As Don continues to drink, the city streets that were once bright and hopeful turn bleak and dreary. Shadows seem to stretch out forever, enveloping Don in darkness. As each moment passes the film seems to get darker and darker leading up to two absolutely terrifying scenes. The first is Don’s evening spent in the alcoholic ward as a room full of alcoholics begin their descent into the delirium tremens and the second is when Don suffers through the DT’s himself.

The Lost Weekend beat Anchors Aweigh, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Mildred Pierce and Spellbound for the 1945 Oscar Best Picture. Billy Wilder took home his first Oscar for Best Director and Ray Milland won for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Billy Wilder also shared a second Oscar with his writing partner Charles Brackett for Best Writing. Though it was hard to watch, this was an absolutely brilliant film that is completely worth seeing. This is a 8 out of 10 film for me, if I have convinced you to give it a chance, just heed my words and make sure you know what kind of film it is.