Billy Wilder’s Oscar winner ‒‘The Apartment’ ‒ is now on Blu-ray

“THE APARTMENT”

Blu-ray widescreen, 1960, unrated

Best extra: “Inside the Apartment,” a 30-minute standard-def documentary

WINNER OF FIVE Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay, Billy Wilder’s ground-breaking follow-up to “Some Like It Hot” is what a romantic comedy ought to be. With stars like Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray, as well as the serio-comic subject matter of the plot, Wilder got everything right. The protagonist, C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) is a cog in a huge New York insurance company who, in return for promised advancement in the ranks, loans out his apartment for hours at a time to various office executives and their extramarital dates. But when he discovers that the adorable elevator operator (MacLaine) he likes is the main squeeze of his big boss (MacMurray), everything changes.

In gorgeous black and white, the Blu-ray transfer is excellent offering a great variety of silky grays with just the right amount of contrast. The details and artifacts of the office and the apartment (Wilder was famous for specifying every inch of every set) are perfect and the close-ups are all they should be. The HD audio is also flawless, with dialogue (and what dialogue!) always clear and the score and additional music effective and appropriately calibrated.

The extras are all fine, including a tribute to Jack Lemmon (in SD) and an informative commentary by film historian and producer Bruce Block. Most comprehensive and enjoyable is the documentary about the film, in which those interviewed include Lemmon’s son Chris, the son of I.A.L. Diamond (Wilder’s co-writer), MacLaine, Edie Adams, and film critic Molly Haskell. She calls the “The Apartment” a “bellwether of changing times,” in terms of its risqué subject matter and the treatment thereof.

— Peggy Earle

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