The Apartment 1960

Wanda Hale, New York Daily News: Production and direction wise, Wilder sustains his usual excellence. But his story is controversial and I am not one of those who can quite see The Apartment as the great comedy-drama he evidently intended it to be. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: I wouldn't call this 1960 picture one of Billy Wilder's best comedies -- it's drab, sappy, and overlong at 125 minutes. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Wilder, a bilious and mercurial wit, here becomes a wide-screen master of time ... Read more

Bosley Crowther, New York Times: A gleeful, tender and even sentimental film. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: With tremendous performances by the two leads (Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine), this is yet another "must see" title to be found on Wilder's resume. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There is a melancholy gulf over the holidays between those who have someplace to go, and those who do not. The Apartment is so affecting partly because of that buried reason. Read more

TIME Magazine: A comedy of men's-room humours and water-cooler politics that now and then among the belly laughs says something serious and sad about the struggle for success, about what it often does to a man, and about the horribly small world of big business. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: Directed by Wilder with attention to detail and emotional reticence that belie its inherent darkness and melodramatic core, it's lifted considerably by the performances. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Most of the time, it's up to director Wilder to sustain a two-hour-plus film on treatment alone, a feat he manages to accomplish more often than not, and sometimes the results are amazing. Read more

Ed Park, Village Voice: Elevates the workplace romance into a sublime erotics of officious addresses (the omnipresent Mister and Miss) and economic conundrum. Read more