The Silver Screen Oasis

skimpole wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 4:56 pm I thought The Apartment was a comedy. In fact, I'm quite sure it is.

The Apartment is unique. I can't classify it as belonging to any one genre. E.g. can a comedy have a suicide that clearly wasn't intended to provoke laughs? While there are some comic moments, I believe there are more serious moments in the film than humorous ones.

That is the essence of Wilder's brilliance.

I've always liked The Apartment, motion picture-wise, as much for its observations about the corporate culture
of the times as for its romantic story, and there is an overlap between the two. I don't find most of the characters
that bad. Lemmon is just trying to get ahead and finds a way of standing out among his hundreds of co-workers, though
he likely has to spend many cold nights outside. Yes, Fran is going with a married man, but that's nothing new or unusual.
I've always found Sheldrake to be the creepiest character, an almost master manipulator who gets a taste of his own medicine
in the end, though he'll likely bounce right back before too long. A most excellent movie.

jamesjazzguitar wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 6:10 pm

skimpole wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 4:56 pm I thought The Apartment was a comedy. In fact, I'm quite sure it is.

The Apartment is unique. I can't classify it as belonging to any one genre. E.g. can a comedy have a suicide that clearly wasn't intended to provoke laughs? While there are some comic moments, I believe there are more serious moments in the film than humorous ones.

That is the essence of Wilder's brilliance.

Couldn't agree more. Like "Stalag 17", which is staged within a German POW and there is drama and comedy throughout.

Andree wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 9:44 pm I've always liked The Apartment, motion picture-wise, as much for its observations about the corporate culture
of the times as for its romantic story, and there is an overlap between the two. I don't find most of the characters
that bad. Lemmon is just trying to get ahead and finds a way of standing out among his hundreds of co-workers, though
he likely has to spend many cold nights outside. Yes, Fran is going with a married man, but that's nothing new or unusual.
I've always found Sheldrake to be the creepiest character, an almost master manipulator who gets a taste of his own medicine
in the end, though he'll likely bounce right back before too long. A most excellent movie.

It was an interesting piece of casting with MacMurray because he was the avuncular and trustworthy type for most of his career - except "Double Indemnity"!!

Belle wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 11:31 pm
It was an interesting piece of casting with MacMurray because he was the avuncular and trustworthy type for most of his career - except "Double Indemnity"!!

And 'The Caine Mutiny'.

(...where he once again plays a weasel whose comeuppance at the end is a drink thrown in his face courtesy Jose Ferrer)

Belle wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 11:31 pm

It was an interesting piece of casting with MacMurray because he was the avuncular and trustworthy type for most of his career - except "Double Indemnity"!!

Definitely a big change from his usual screen persona. IIRC, in the brief tribute from his daughter that TCM sometimes runs,
people came up to him and were angry about the Sheldrake character, as if MacMurray was like that in real life. His daughter
said he then swore to never play such a negative character again.

Belle wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 11:31 pm

Andree wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 9:44 pm I've always liked The Apartment, motion picture-wise, as much for its observations about the corporate culture
of the times as for its romantic story, and there is an overlap between the two. I don't find most of the characters
that bad. Lemmon is just trying to get ahead and finds a way of standing out among his hundreds of co-workers, though
he likely has to spend many cold nights outside. Yes, Fran is going with a married man, but that's nothing new or unusual.
I've always found Sheldrake to be the creepiest character, an almost master manipulator who gets a taste of his own medicine
in the end, though he'll likely bounce right back before too long. A most excellent movie.

It was an interesting piece of casting with MacMurray because he was the avuncular and trustworthy type for most of his career - except "Double Indemnity"!!

It was casting that really caught some off-guard. After all, MacMurray usually played nice guys, and at the very time this film was opening, he was beginning the TV run of My Three Sons. There is a legendary story that he visited Disneyland with his children shortly after The Apartment opened, and an enranged woman come up to him and slapped him, saying that she dragged her young daughter to the film because he was in it, without checking out the storyline.

Andree wrote: ↑June 17th, 2023, 12:37 am people came up to him and were angry about the Sheldrake character, as if MacMurray was like that in real life

It's astonishing how many people believe actors are the same as the movie characters that have affected them. Really, really stupid people - imagine being so delusional that you would actually accost an actor for playing a role.

Dargo wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 11:22 am [

Well, she's certainly no...wait for it...SALOME JENS!!!

She had a great role in Seconds (1966) she had unusual looks, but very sexy, I think.



Shirley MacLaine had a cute, elfin quality, well suited to her role in The Apartment

Detective Jim McLeod wrote: ↑June 17th, 2023, 7:44 am

Dargo wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 11:22 am [

Well, she's certainly no...wait for it...SALOME JENS!!!

She [Salome Jens] had a great role in Seconds (1966) she had unusual looks, but very sexy, I think.

Yep Jim, and as Intrepid could tell you, the reason I kiddingly brought her name up in this conversation, as I agree with your take on her looks being "unusual" but not so much being "very sexy". The latter of which after I mentioned this a while back during a discussion about Frankenheimer's 'Seconds' elicited a, well lets just say a rather "strong" reply from Intrepid and in defense of his strong attraction to her looks. And thus the reason I started off my first comment in this thread with this little inside joke here to him.

Btw, in that conversation about Miss Jens, I DID tell him that I always thought she had a very sexy voice anyway, and one comparable to Lauren Bacall's.

Shirley MacLaine had a cute, elfin quality, well suited to her role in The Apartment

And on this I absolutely agree with you.

[quote=Dargo post_id=183043 time=1687013754 user_id=349040]
[

Yep Jim, and as Intrepid could tell you, the reason I kiddingly brought her name up in this conversation, as I agree with your take on her looks being "unusual" but not so much being "very sexy". The latter of which after I mentioned this a while back during a discussion about Frankenheimer's 'Seconds' elicited a, well lets just say a rather "strong" reply from Intrepid and in defense of his strong attraction to her looks. And thus the reason I started off my first comment in this thread with this little inside joke here to him.

Btw, in that conversation about Miss Jens, I DID tell him that I always thought she had a very sexy voice anyway, and one comparable to Lauren Bacall's.

[quote]

LOL, it didn't realize that was an inside joke with intrepid. I am going to post some more unusual, sexy actresses on the Musing and Pondering thread.

I didn't think THE OUT OF TOWNERS was all that bad. As for Shirley and beauty;

I find it difficult to NOT think of her as beautiful.




Sepiatone

Be honest, Dargo. The reason I "took you to task" is not because of her looks. It's because when I said I found her "fascinating" you just had to pipe up with "I don't" for some reason. And when I tried to explain why I found her so, you doubled down with the "I don't" crap.

It's one thing to defend someone when a person has been criticized negatively - quite another to respond to an honest personal appraisal with negativity for that personal appraisal. It's rude. What was the purpose of it? To convince me that I'm wrong to find her fascinating?

And still you go on and on with these reminders of your poor conduct. You're not a closet narcissist by any chance, are you?

Sepiatone wrote: ↑June 17th, 2023, 12:23 pm I didn't think THE OUT OF TOWNERS was all that bad. As for Shirley and beauty;

I find it difficult to NOT think of her as beautiful.

She very much resembles my mother - including her hair coloring and complexion.

When the makeup comes off, so does the beauty. That's the way it was with dear old mom (yikes!) and I suspect the same phenomenon with Shirley.

The thought of being romantic with Shirley makes me shudder.

Nowhere in this thread is the word "fascinating" until you mentioned it to Dargo.
Instead, intrepid37, you didn't say anything positive about Shirley MacLaine, until the above post.
Your negative comments about Dargo couldn't be more incorrect.
Until now, I've never seen anyone talk poorly of Dargo.