Some Like It Hot

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

In Some Like It Hot (1959), director and co-writer Billy Wilder tells us in the title that his comedy will be a sexy film, possibly even a rebellious one in the face of prudish standards. The movie also comments on the roles males and females play in society and uses the theme that appearances can be deceiving. It probably shares the prize for the best film of a man in drag with Tootsie, and as of now, it is still rated the best comedy ever by the American Film Institute.

The opening has tough looking guys in a hearse with a coffin covered by flowers who are chased by cops. The hoodlums have guns hidden in the roof above the casket. The gangsters’ gunfire causes the police car to crash (a highly effective action scene in the absence of present-day special effects). Liquid flows out of bullet holes in the casket. The occupants open it up and there are many bottles of booze inside, some of which have been hit by bullets. The movie immediately shows that what appears to be upstanding is a fake facade.

A note says it is Chicago, 1929, during the Prohibition era. The thugs deliver the coffin to Mozarella’s Funeral Parlor, whose name reminds one of the Italian dairy product. Fittingly, the Big Cheese, Spats Colombo (George Raft), a gangster boss, is there, hat in hand, pretending to mourn the nonexistent deceased. Detective Mulligan (Pat O’Brien) is outside with a snitch, whose comical nickname is Toothpick Charlie (George E. Stone) because he always has one of the food dislodging objects in his mouth. Charlie tells Mulligan the password so the cop can pretend to be an authorized guest that will allow him to enter the speakeasy party that is hidden inside the funeral parlor (deceptive appearances on both sides of the law here). Spats shows up and a drunk fellow spills his spiked coffee onto the gangster’s fancy footwear (from which his nickname derives). The shoes are supposed to add a refined look to the seedy criminal. You don’t dare upset Spats, as his henchmen drag the clumsy drunk outside. 

Girls in skimpy costumes dance (objectification here, but hey, it still goes on since the Rockettes still perform at Rockefeller Center) in front of the band which includes two of the main characters, Joe (Tony Curtis) playing saxophone, and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) plucking his bass fiddle. During a pause, they discuss how much in debt they are. Practical Jerry wants to use some of their paychecks to reimburse all their lenders. But risky Joe has a tip on a dog race and wants to gamble all their money, hoping for a big payoff. Joe says they have a longstanding gig there, so they can afford the bet. Jerry says suppose it gets cut short. Joe says that Jerry is always negative, and someone can suppose many things that will not happen, like the stock market crashing and the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn (of course these things do actually happen which undermines Joe’s judgment). Jerry’s concern about the job ending turns into a reality when he sees Mulligan put on his badge. Joe and Jerry calmly stow away their instruments and escape as the police raid the joint. Mulligan confronts Spats, who is safely drinking buttermilk and denies being the real owner of the building, Mozarella only being a front man (another bit of fakery). 

Joe and Jerry can’t even pay their rent now, but Joe still bets their overcoats on the dog race. Of course, his “sure thing” turns out to be totally unsure, and they shiver as they walk through freezing Chicago, getting turned down for gigs. The incurable gambler, Joe, wants them to pawn their sax and bass for another bet. Jerry is funny as he sums up Joe’s recklessness when he tells him, “we’re up a creek and you want to hock the paddle.” (There are a ton of funny lines in the script). At one of the music booking offices, Nellie (Barbara Drew) complains that Joe stood her up after she bought a brand new “negligee.” Nellie’s use of that word was daring at the time the film was made, since it suggests that extramarital sex was supposed to take place. Joe comes up with a lame excuse about taking care of Jerry’s bad tooth and says he’ll “make it up to her.” She smartly says, “You’re making it up pretty good so far,” which adds to the theme of presenting a false front. The scene also demonstrates the uncaring way Joe uses women.

Nellie plays a joke on them, getting their hopes up, by saying her boss is looking for bass and sax players for a three-week job with all expenses paid in sunny Florida. What she doesn’t let on is that the job is for an all girls’ band. Joe is angry at Nellie, but Jerry thinks they can fake it by dressing like women. Joe dismisses the idea outright and instead takes a job playing at a St. Valentine’s Day dance. It is fitting that the incident that sets the rest of the plot in motion revolves around that day since the movie deals with love and lust. Reason goes out the window when romance enters since Joe is able to use his good looks and seductive ways to get the already disrespected Nellie to lend the two musicians her car to drive out of town to the gig. 

They go to the garage where the car is parked. Men appear to be playing a friendly game of cards, but it is another inaccurate scene. Toothpick Charlie and other hoodlums are the men there and they pull out guns and aim them at Joe and Jerry when they approach. Once satisfied they are only musicians, the garage owner takes Joe and Jerry to Nellie’s car. Then a car speeds into the garage and men with machine guns order the card players up against the wall. Spats then exits the car as Joe and Jerry hide. What follows mimics the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The men are shot because Spats assumed correctly that Toothpick Charlie betrayed him, and the others are eliminated so there will be no witnesses. The day is supposed to encourage the union of lovers and the procreation that eventually follows romance. Instead, the mobsters turn it into a life-depriving slaughter. The hoods discover Joe and Jerry, but Toothpick isn’t dead yet and reaches for a telephone, knocking it over. As Spats and his men are diverted, Joe and Jerry escape and duck into a cigar store (Why cigars? Wilder uses phallic symbols often in this movie). Given their desperate situation, Joe makes a phone call and imitates a woman’s voice, saying they can play in the girls’ band.

Phony appearances become the center of the story as Joe becomes Josephine and Jerry turns into Daphne as the musicians pretend to be women. At the train station Jerry has trouble walking in high heels, and wonders how women walk in those types of shoes (which reminds us of Spats’s footwear, which, although flat, still contain a hint of femininity in their decorative appearance, adding to the gender blending of the film). The high heels illustrate how females feel required to accentuate the physical appearance of their legs and rear at the expense of safety and comfort. Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe) appears now, her renowned beauty and shapeliness on full display, contrasting markedly with the attempted recreation of the female form attempted by the men. As she walks by the side of the train, steam shoots out at her, as if this mechanical phallic symbol (remember the end of North by Northwest?) is getting excited by her passing by, showing that some, indeed, like it hot. Jerry describes her bouncy gait with the memorable line that she looks like “Jell-O on springs.” Jerry rants that it’s impossible for them to imitate Sugar’s movements. Joe says Jerry shouldn’t worry because nobody is asking him “to have a baby,” a foreshadowing comment. 

They meet the band’s leader, Sweet Sue (Joan Shawlee) and her assistant, Beinstock (Dave Barry). Joe, when asked about their musical background, says they studied at a conservatory. Sue says the other women will have to make sure “to watch their language,” a reversal of what usually is required of men to hide their libido in the presence of women. It also shows women, too, can be sexual in their speech, as is shown when one of the band members starts to tell a dirty story. As Joe and Jerry pass through the car carrying the women, one says to Jerry to take off her “corset” and relax a little. The remark shows how women have to artificially alter their bodies by constraining themselves to put on sexually appealing appearances. Here is a safe space where they don’t have to conform to males-prescribed standards. 

Joe and Jerry come upon Sugar secretly drinking, and then hiding her flask in her stocking, which, again, creates a deceptive action. She says all the women drink, but she has been the one who gets caught. If her drinking is discovered again, she’ll be thrown out of the band. She says she always gets the “fuzzy end of the lollipop,” another phallic reference, but also points to the fact that she has been relegated to the lower end of the social class structure. At this time men can drink openly because it is a macho badge they wear, but women pretend not to enjoy alcohol because it is not seen as being ladylike. “Sugar” refers to something sweet to taste, and eating is linked to satisfying sexual appetites, as Jerry says he used to dream about being alone in a pastry shop, tasting everything. He connects that image to lust when he says he would like some of that “Sugar.” But Joe reminds him that to ensure their safety, they must abstain from indulging their sexual appetites because they are “on a diet.”

While rehearsing, Sue wants “Josephine” and “Daphne” to “heat” up their playing, another reference to passion. Sugar plays the ukulele (a shapely instrument to suggest her curves) and sings while shaking her body, causing Jerry to not even realize which side is the front of the bass. While pressing the strings on the neck of the instrument he possibly suggests it is like stroking the male member. The bass combines the curves of a woman with the neck that is phallic, and echoes the fact that Jerry joins both genders in his character. Unfortunately, the whiskey flask falls out of Sugar’s stocking. Jerry saves Sugar from expulsion by claiming that the bourbon belongs to “Daphne” (another deception). Sue says, next to alcohol, she doesn’t want her girls associating with men. Joe and Jerry say they would never get involved with men, which is actually true, since that would mean they would have to be gay. Jerry’s stated disgust with men as he assumes the role of a woman here becomes ironic later in the movie. 

There is a sexy scene as the women get ready for sleep and Wilder shows a good amount of skin considering the era, including Monroe’s ample cleavage. Jerry is salivating while Joe tries to cool off his partner’s hot libido. Jerry keeps repeating that he is “a girl,” for this trip, but his body seems to be rejecting his trying to be something he is not. He repeats the phrase as there is a contrasting shot of the masculine symbol of the train plunging ahead. Sugar visits Jerry’s bunk to voice her appreciation for pretending the flask belonged to “Daphne.” She hops into bed with him so Sue, who is walking through the car, will not see her up late. Of course the closeness to Sugar thrills Jerry. He gets some booze out of the sleeping Joe’s berth and says this might be a “surprise party,” which implies when Sugar has drunk enough he might reveal that he is really a man. But the other women see that there is alcohol being shared and they want to expand the fun. Jerry’s berth becomes so crowded it appears Wilder is trying to recreate the Marx Brothers’ crowded ship stateroom scene in A Night at the Opera. Jerry delivers a sexually funny line when he warns that they should watch what they are doing with the “corkscrew.” One of the women brings a salami. Need I say more? Also, the cramped quarters here echo other confining scenes, such as the elevator, the train, and Joe later as Junior sitting in a cramped chair on the beach. It suggests that society dictates strictly defined behaviors for males and females and upper- and lower-class people, and there is a desire to break those imposed molds.

The women wake up Joe who finds he can’t control the situation. Sugar gets a block of ice and goes to the bathroom to chip it up for the drinks as she talks to “Josephine” about how she used to play in male bands. She joined Sue’s group because she and the other women are running away from something (that confinement?). In this way they are like Joe and Jerry who are also trying to escape a bad situation. She admits to being attracted to saxophone players because their music arouses her. Sugar says that just when she thinks she has found true love, these men used her to acquire her money for gambling and other women. Of course Joe plays that instrument, which links him with those unsavory characters. Sugar described what Joe has been doing, so she is unknowingly indicting him for his past actions with women. (This scene is similar to the one between “Dorothy” and Jessica Lange’s character in the later Tootsie). Sugar says one morning she wakes up and the guy is gone and leaves her with a used tube of toothpaste with the contents squeezed out (yes, another sexual image here suggesting a man leaving after he has finished his self-gratification). But Sugar is not a feminist because she is going to Florida to land a rich guy who owns a yacht. She admits she would like a nerdy type who wears glasses because he reads the Wall Street Journal. So even though she is pursuing one of the few paths to gain economic security at the time for a woman, she does not seek the typical macho male, represented by the gangsters. Joe, who urged refraining from making any moves on the women, reverses himself when he thinks he has a chance with Sugar, and will use the information she provided later to try and win her over. 

Jerry now is enjoying the company of women and is almost feeling like one of the girls, which shows the beginning of a role reversal that is more than just clothes deep. The women drop ice down his concealing nightgown, and then put their hands down his back because they want to tease “Daphne” with tickling. Not wanting to be discovered, he pulls the emergency cord, and the train comes to a jarring stop. But the women all get back to their berths before being discovered by Sue. In this way, they act as if they have been following the rules set down for them as compliant women. These are all literal and figurative cover-ups. 

They arrive at a swanky hotel near the ocean in Florida where a bunch of rich old men await in rocking chairs to use the only leverage they have, their wealth, to win over young women. Among them is Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), who is taken with “Daphne,” which adds a gay subtext to this comedy. It also continues Jerry’s transition to immersing himself more deeply into the role of being a woman. Walking up the steps of the building, Jerry loses one of his shoes and Osgood gets down on a knee to place the shoe back on the foot. The shot presents a comic version of Prince Charming placing the glass slipper on Cinderella, which is confirmed by “Daphne” referring to herself as “Cinderella the second,” after Osgood says he is the third with his name. Osgood has been married many times and admits to liking feisty women (more masculine ones?). Multiple witty double entendres ensue, such as Osgood saying he likes “deep sea fishing,” followed by “Daphne” telling him to pull in his “reel,” another male sexual organ reference. The two enter the elevator, and all we see is the sexually throbbing movement of the shaft-like pointer designating the floors, followed by the exiting “Daphne” slapping Osgood for making advances. Jerry says, “What kind of girl do you think I am?” which would fit the typical response of a woman at the time defending her sexual reputation, but “Daphne” is far from a typical female. 

The next scene amplifies how both Jerry and now Joe see how men sexually harass women. The exaggerated macho posturing of the short (suggesting he is also meager sexually) bellhop (Al Breneman) is on display as he makes unwanted advances on “Josephine.” Although Joe sees how repugnant male sexual pressure is, he is planning to be deceptive by playing an additional role to deceive Sugar to satisfy his own male carnal desires. Jerry complains to Joe that he was pinched in the elevator, and Joe says that they are now seeing “how the other half lives.” Jerry says he doesn’t even look attractive, and Joe points out the indiscriminate male sex drive when he says all that is necessary to arouse men is that one is wearing “a skirt.” Males are so taken over by their sex drive that they even chase a man that looks like a woman. Jerry wants to leave now that they are in Florida, but Joe argues they aren’t free from Spats yet, and plays up the current gig’s monetary benefits. Jerry has already figured out that Joe is after Sugar. Joe has stolen Beinstock’s suitcase and puts on nautical clothing to impersonate the owner of a yacht. He even acquired nerdy eyeglasses to fit Sugar’s stated preference. In the course of the movie Joe is rarely himself, which stresses the roles people play in life to hide their true selves under false appearances for personal gain or protection.

On the beach, the girls, which at this point includes “Daphne,” swim and throw a ball around. It is interesting that Jerry as a woman is somewhat offended when Sugar, who is trying to complement “her,” says that “Daphne” doesn’t have large breasts which allows clothes to “hang” on her better. Jerry is experiencing the emphasis on looks that society has placed on physical appearance when it comes to women. When the beach ball rolls past Joe he covertly trips Sugar and then says he hopes she is fine since many people sue him. That way he quickly shows he is rich. He calls himself “Junior,” since he is the heir to the Shell Oil Company, and that is why he likes collecting seashells. He reads the Wall Street Journal, which Sugar also stated was a male must, but he originally has the newspaper upside down which shows his fakery. Joe adopts a Cary Grant accent to stress his playing a charming romantic lead, but it also makes him sound like he is higher up on the socio-economic ladder. Sugar, trying to match Junior’s supposed status, also puts on a false front by saying those with whom she plays are society girls. When Joe discovers her band plays jazz, he announces the film’s title by saying he guesses “Some like it hot,” but he prefers classical music. Which of course he doesn’t, because he also plays jazz, and that music here becomes synonymous with physical passion. Sugar pretends she is on the same footing as the rich person, and acts as if she is rebelling against her upper-class family. Wilder is satirizing how people try to connect romantically by hiding supposed deficiencies instead of just being honest with each other.

Jerry wanders by and recognizes Joe in his new costume, but Joe issues a suggested threat about squealing. However, Jerry wants to tell “Josephine,” who is supposed to be in the bathtub in their room, right away about Sugar’s finding such a wonderful man. He wants Sugar to discover that Junior is a phony as he walks into their room. But that would mean “Josephine” is also a phony, and Jerry doesn’t seem to realize that also exposes him. Joe has outsmarted, and out run, Jerry, and is in the tub in a bubble bath. In telling “Josephine” about how Junior collects shells, Jerry, in a sideways comment, says, “you know, the old shell game.” The line is a humorous way of again stressing deception. After Sugar leaves, the duplicitous Jerry hypocritically lectures Joe on his pretend act. Joe rises from the tub, still wearing the male clothing, and he menacingly drips toward Jerry. The image literally and figuratively illustrates how there is more going on underneath than what appears on the surface. 

The phone rings, and Joe answers in his own voice, then quickly switches to Josephine. He has been so dishonest he loses track as to who he is supposed to be in the moment. It is Osgood calling, who seems to get a thrill out of being dominated by women, as he enjoys recounting being slapped by “Daphne.” Osgood wants “Josephine” to pass on the message that he has sent the crew of his yacht, the New Caledonia, on shore leave so he can have a quiet supper with Daphne. As payback for trying to expose him, Joe tells Jerry that “Daphne” will stay on shore with Osgood while Joe continues his charade as Junior by entertaining Sugar on Osgood’s yacht. 

After the evening show, Joe changes from Daphne into Junior (he’s like a human chameleon). He switches so often he almost forgets to remove his earrings. He hijacks Osgood’s motorboat but makes lame excuses as to why he has trouble using it, and can only drive backwards. He is literally out to sea in this identity. He doesn’t even know anything about the yacht. As if all these ruses weren’t enough, Joe as Junior acts as if he has a mental block about women, saying they don’t excite him since the woman he loved fell into the Grand Canyon as they were about to kiss. (He says that he gave her transfusions because their blood type was “O.” Wilder uses the blood type as a running gag throughout the film whenever something dangerous is mentioned). He says that he and his family tried everything, but nothing worked to cure him. This strategy allows him to kiss Sugar, saying how he feels nothing, which makes Sugar want to prove that she can overcome his lack of passion. He says if he could find a woman who could revive his interest in romance he would marry her immediately. That is plenty of incentive for Sugar, who plants a passionate kiss on Joe while he lies on the couch. Her large breasts are prominently accentuated in the dress she is wearing, and Joe’s left leg rises, comically symbolizing an erection. 

There are then cuts back and forth between the two couples. While Sugar and Joe/Junior are on the yacht, Jerry/Daphne is at a Latin American club dancing the night away with Osgood. Jerry is just going through the motions at first and Osgood complains that his disguised male companion is leading while they tango. Back on the boat, Joe says, after numerous kisses, that it feels “like someone is barbecuing” his toes. Sugar says, “Let’s throw another log on the fire,” an additional line with a sexual innuendo. While dancing, “Daphne” and Osgood switch having a flower in each other’s mouths, and eventually enjoy themselves so much that they continue dancing even after the club closes. Meanwhile, “Junior” says Sugar has overcome his problem as they keep kissing.

In the morning, Joe and Sugar arrive at the dock just as the drunk Osgood goes to his boat still voicing the music of the night. Joe escorts Sugar to the hotel, then climbs back up to his room after she is inside. Jerry is still singing, too, shaking maracas (symbolic of breasts?). He/she tells Joe that he is engaged. After Joe asks who is the lucky girl, Jerry says, “I am.” He has temporarily transformed into Daphne, switching gender roles, and says Osgood asked to marry Daphne. Jerry says he’s getting married for “security,” like other women of the era (including Sugar). He says he will get a financial settlement after the marriage is annulled. Since women aren’t allowed financial and cultural independence, Wilder is commenting on how society turns romance and marriage into a business arrangement for women, who exchange sex for cash, which constitutes a sort of legal version of prostitution. Joe tries to bring Jerry back to the reality of the time when men couldn’t marry men, and, in a reversal of his previously prescribed mantra, tells him to repeat, “I’m a boy,” in order to do a gender reboot. Sugar shows up at the door to talk about her night and in accordance with the film’s theme, Joe performs a literal cover-up by putting on Josephine’s wig, and jumping under the covers of the bed. 

In a bit of plot contrivance, there happens to be a gangster meeting at the same hotel hosted by the mobster boss, Little Napoleon (Nehemiah Persoff), whose name sounds redundant given the French leader’s height. We again have a facade erected since the crooks are supposed to be attending an Italian opera fan convention, a move that again stresses class distinction and legitimacy. Spats is there with his gang, as is Detective Mulligan, who tells Spats that when they find the two witnesses who were present at the St. Valentine’s killings, Spats will be arrested. Joe and Jerry see Spats and his thugs in the lobby, try to escape on the elevator, but the mobsters get in the same car. Even though they appear as Josephine and Daphne, one of the hoods asks if he met them before in Chicago. “Daphne” says, with a double meaning, that they “wouldn’t be caught dead in Chicago.” As the elevator door closes, Spats gives the two pretend women a hard look as if he is trying to see below the disguises to find the truth. 

Joe and Jerry quickly start to pack, planning to escape again. Jerry says they will sell the diamond bracelet Osgood gave him and head to South America. But, he picks up the maracas and remembers what a great night he had and says, as if he is a woman, that he’ll never find another man who is so good to him. When Joe picks up the hat he wore as Junior, he feels he must at least say goodbye to Sugar. Jerry says Joe usually just left women without a word. Joe says that was when he was the saxophone player, like the jerks who left Sugar without caring about her. He says he isn’t that person anymore, and wants to be like the millionaire gentleman he portrayed, which additionally emphasizes social class differences. They both seem to be internally taking on the characteristics of what they appeared to be on the surface. Joe as Junior calls Sugar and still lies by saying he has to go to Venezuela to firm up an oil merger and marry the other company head’s daughter for the sake of the stockholders. He puts the diamond bracelet in the box of orchids that Osgood gave to “Daphne” and slides them over to Sugar's room, saying she should have received his present, which her roommate finds outside the door. Joe is thinking more about Sugar than himself now.

Joe and Jerry try to sneak out by way of the balcony and down the side of the building, but the gangsters see them through their room window. Joe and Jerry had said they were musicians when they were in the garage in Chicago, so Spats suspects they are the witnesses since the disguised men are carrying instruments. Joe and Jerry are able to avoid the mobsters by climbing back up, but the crooks get the bass fiddle and find the bullet holes which confirms Spats’s suspicions. 

Spats and his men rush to the lobby. Joe and Jerry assume more disguises (additional fraudulent appearances) as Joe pretends to be an old man in a wheelchair and Jerry, dressed as a bellboy, pushes the chair. They head through the lobby but Spats sees that Jerry didn’t take off Daphne’s high heels. Jerry is symbolically male and female now in his appearance at the same time to stress the gender blending. 

The two evade the gangsters, hiding under the dinner table where the gangsters are meeting (another example of outward appearance not revealing what is truly happening). Spats is angry at one of his men and starts to pick up a grapefruit to smash into his face (a reference to James Cagney’s performance in Public Enemy). Little Napoleon arrives and he uses large hearing aids (exposed to too much gun noise, or does he not care about hearing what others have to say?) He wants to remember those that were killed on St. Valentine’s Day. Apparently, Little Napoleon was a friend of Toothpick Charlie, and is angry about his death. Little Napoleon has a man with a machine gun inside a huge birthday cake in order to kill Spats (a benign appearance hiding danger underneath). After Spats and his men are shot, the shooter runs off. Joe and Jerry are again witnesses to murders, and run out. Mulligan shows up after hearing the gunshots to arrest Little Napoleon. 

The gangsters, who were able to leave the party before Mulligan arrived, look for Joe and Jerry as the two again disguise themselves as Josephine and Daphne. Joe plans on getting away on Osgood’s yacht and has Jerry, as Daphne, call him. But Joe hears Sugar singing how she’s through with love. He is moved and goes up to the stage and kisses Sugar as Josephine. He tells her that no guy (which includes himself) is worth the pain, so it is appropriate that he kisses her as a woman. 

The thugs see Joe/Josephine kiss Sugar and chase after him, knowing Joe is in disguise. After the kiss, Sugar realizes that Josephine is Junior and is happy to discover he didn’t leave. Joe and Jerry again go literally undercover, hiding beneath the gurney wheeling out Spats’s body. They meet Osgood at his motorboat, and “Daphne” says that “Josephine” will be a bridesmaid. But Sugar chases after them, and despite Joe admitting that he’s one of those selfish saxophone players that hurt her in the past, and says she deserves better, Sugar chooses the new Joe who realizes his own faults. 

The story concludes with a conversation between “Daphne” and Osgood which leads to one of the great last lines in the history of movies. Jerry is trying to convince Osgood that they can’t marry. When he says she smokes, he says he doesn’t care. He says he has a scandalous past because he has been living with a saxophone player (how true), but Osgood says he forgives her. When “Daphne” says she can’t have children, Osgood says they can adopt. Jerry finally takes off the wig and admits to being a man, to which Osgood responds, “Well, nobody’s perfect.” As we have seen in this film, men are nowhere near perfection, but after walking in women’s shoes (and wearing their dresses), there may be reason to hope for improvement.

The next film is Adaptation.

The Apartment

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Here is a different Valentine’s Day story. The Apartment won Best Picture and its director and co-writer Billy Wilder received Oscars for the screenplay and directing. The story was inspired by the movie Brief Encounter, where characters meet at an apartment for their love affair. Wilder wondered about the person who lent the man and woman his place, and that is how Wilder’s film was born. One has to hold back one’s outrage, although not one’s judgment, in the current #MeToo world at the way some women are depicted in this film. But the movie does expose the demeaning way men treat women and the limited roles offered to females. It also addresses the situation of the average worker compared to the privileged lives of corporate executives. 

The first shot echoes the title since it is of the apartment exterior of C. C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon, at his jittery sad/comic best).  His nickname is Bud and he narrates over an aerial shot of New York City while providing statistics about the number of people living there. He knows the statistics because he works for a large insurance company, Consolidated Life. The name itself sounds restrictive. Insurance is sold as a tool to provide economic protection, which implies concern for people. But we discover that the corporate bosses do not exhibit that positive attribute toward others. There are over 31,000 employees at the home office. They are arranged in multiple long rows on numerous floors. Bud says he is in the Premium Accounting Division, Section W, desk number 861, which presents him as just one of the seemingly endless cogs in the vast machine. Bud continually provides numerical information, like Harold in Stranger than Fiction, another character who is more comfortable with figures than people. Bud has a huge calculator on his desk, showing the importance of numbers over people. The building operates like clockwork, staggering the time periods of each floor to accommodate the elevators carrying multiple floors of worker bees in its vast hive. 

Bud stays alone for two hours at work on his empty floor after his shift as “a way of killing time,” because he has a “little problem with his apartment.” One of the important questions that this film poses is how do we view Bud, either as a basically decent person who succumbed to pragmatism, or a conspirator in wrongful behavior? We already see that he is a loner, and his lending out of his place has already been going on for some time. He says it’s a “cozy” apartment for a bachelor, which also fortifies the isolated aspect of Bud’s life. The dingy appearance of his rental shows the film’s focus on the ordinary lives of people and contrasts with the bright expansive company building, the best that money can buy. The executive, Al Kirkeby (David Lewis), from Bud’s office, has used Bud’s place for a romantic encounter with a woman (the story here was groundbreaking in its presentation of adultery). The man tries to get the woman he is with to leave because the “schnook” who rents it will be coming home. Obviously Bud is not held in high regard despite the favor he is doing. Bud hides in the dark so as not to cause any embarrassment for Kirkeby and probably himself, stressing how he doesn’t want his association in the activity to be exposed. Kirkeby leaves with the girl (who by the way sounds like an airhead, which does not provide a positive representation of a woman in this 1960 film Although, as the story progresses, there is a feeling that women are not given the opportunity to fulfill their potential). When she wants him to get her a cab, he complains that all the “dames” live in the Bronx. She questions whether he has brought other women to the apartment. His funny comment, which he does not realize contrasts with his adulterous actions, is, “Certainly not. I’m a happily married man.” 

Bud lives alone, but ironically his place is often occupied by others, dispossessing him of his solitary solace. He is thus doubly punished, being a loner while suffering to endure the intimate encounters of others in the place where he should be enjoying companionship. Bud has to tell a neighbor he stood outside in the rain because he was waiting for a friend. This is just the first of the numerous lies that populate this story. He then has to pretend that he dropped his key when he encounters another neighbor while he is actually retrieving it from under the carpet where Kirkeby left it. His life is built on falsehoods to others and himself. In his apartment, he must clean up the mess that the couple left behind, another indication of his subordinate role, a janitor for the indiscretions of others. Kirkeby comes back to get the woman’s galoshes, and Bud politely complains how he had to wait in the rain and hadn't had dinner because the man was late in leaving (Bud heats frozen TV dinners for one, and when he takes a drink he says, “Cheers,” but he is alone so it is a toast to himself). Kirkeby reassures Bud he “put in a good word” for Bud with Sheldrake in Personnel about how they are looking for young executives. He reassures Bud that he is on his way up the ladder, but then treats him like a waiter, ordering food and drink for his next visit even though he hasn’t reimbursed Bud for the booze from before. It seems that just being a good worker isn’t enough to get ahead, so Bud has to resort to unsavory methods.

Bud must continue to hide the covert activities that occur in his place as he encounters Doctor Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), another neighbor, who sees him carrying out numerous empty bottles of liquor following the night’s liaison. Dreyfuss notes that he can hear the goings-on on various nights, and says that unless Bud slows down, he may have a short life. In a humorous comment, he even says Bud should donate his body to science, implying that it would be interesting to study the impact of the extreme decadent lifestyle of such a person. It’s all an illusion as Bud is viewed as a wild playboy, the opposite of what he is, which hints at the phony facade that life can become. While he eats his defrosted dinner, Bud puts on his TV, and Grand Hotel is about to play, the title of the movie contrasting with Bud’s meager dwelling, but which also hosts numerous guests. Several commercials interrupt the start of the movie, so Bud can’t even enjoy a film as the importance of business denies him pleasure in his work and leisurely life. He rejects action shows on other channels, which accentuates Bud’s dull life. Another boss, Dobisch (Ray Walston), wakes up Bud to say he has a woman to use the place. She also appears as a ditsy blonde drunk, who Dobisch likens to Marilyn Monroe (who Wilder did not enjoy working with in previous films). Dobisch threatens Bud with a poor evaluation unless he can have the apartment so Bud is tossed out into the night. Dobisch tells his female escort that it’s his mother’s apartment, another lie. (Hotel detectives at the time would keep a hotel’s good reputation intact by evicting those that booked rooms for those brief encounters, so that is why a private apartment was a desirable place for an affair).

Bud meets Kirkeby on the way to the elevator at work the next day and the man innocently asks if they are keeping Bud “busy.” Bud says, “yes indeed,” but his response is not about how the bosses are wearing him out at the office, but instead refers to his after-hours life. Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) is the elevator operator. The only way she can “rise” at work is in the elevator. As Kirkeby exits the elevator he smacks Fran on the behind with his newspaper, an act that would be grounds for a sexual harassment violation today. Despite her lowly work position, she does not take his action lightly, and smartly says that one day she will close the elevator door on him, leaving him handless. Kirkeby complains to Bud that no man can get Fran to sexually play along, and asks what’s the matter with her. Bud respectfully says she is the best operator there and maybe she is just a decent woman. This respect for a woman’s refusal to submit to sexual pressure is met with a dismissal by Kirkeby, with him saying Bud is acting like an innocent child. Decency is considered a liability in this manipulative world.

Bud calls Dobisch because the man left the wrong key under the mat, so little does the boss care about how his actions affect a subordinate. It turns out the key he left was for the executive washroom, emphasizing the two tiers of the economic hierarchy. Dobisch says he will be sending paperwork about Bud getting a promotion to the personnel department. Bud has a cold (mirroring his decline in his immunity to immorality?) and is sleepy from the prior evening's deprivations. Bud wants to use his place for the night to recuperate. But to be able to remain in his own place he spends a great deal of time rescheduling all of the men who have reserved his place for their adulterous activity. The scene is a mockery of what is supposed to be happening, which is conducting legitimate business instead of monkey business. 

Bud gets a call from Sheldrake in Personnel and Bud’s co-worker at the next desk wonders if Bud is getting promoted even though he has been there longer than Bud. This fact points to the inequity of a system that rewards illicit favors instead of loyalty to the company. On the way up, literally and figuratively, in the elevator Fran compliments him for being a gentleman who always took his hat off in the elevator. He earlier complimented her on her shorter hairstyle which she felt it didn’t work. He asks if they could talk sometimes so she could tell him her elevator stories. Although he considers her a decent person, she says, “Just because I wear a uniform doesn’t make me a girl scout.” Her comment adds to the number of false fronts that people present which cover up their morally compromised lives. She changes the discussion, probably wary of always trying to be propositioned. She does offer Bud a flower for his lapel, showing some kindness toward him.

Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) rhetorically asks why Bud is so “popular” with the bosses of the company’s departments. He says that he knows what goes on everywhere (he is the Director of Personnel, but despite his title, he exploits and controls the workers, another example of a false exterior). Sheldrake says that there was an employee recently who was also “popular” because he was running a gambling operation, and Sheldrake had the police vice squad shut it down. On the surface he appears to want to operate a legitimate organization. But, he knows about Bud’s apartment use and Bud doesn’t deny it. He explains that one man said he needed a place to change his clothes and Bud wasn’t aware of the man’s true intentions. Bud says the word circulated around, and others asked to use his place and he couldn’t grant one boss while denying another, which implies that it would have meant a loss of job security. Bud says there are only four men involved and swears he’ll shut down the situation, thinking that Sheldrake wants him to clean up his act. But, Sheldrake asks many questions that hint that he is interested in getting in on the action. Sheldrake receives a phone call from his wife, so we know he is also married. He says he can’t come home early because he is going to a show (a lie). He then gives the tickets to Bud as a trade to use his apartment for the evening. Earlier Sheldrake said they can’t have “four bad apples” in the company when he was trying to intimidate Bud. As Bud hands him the key to his place, he says compliantly, but tellingly, that it doesn't matter whether there are four or five apples, implying a link to the word “bad,” which now includes Sheldrake.

Bud waits for Fran at the end of the day to ask her to go to the show since Sheldrake gave him two tickets. She says that she is meeting a man who she once thought was serious about her, but feels that the relationship is over. She says she can meet him later at the theater. Bud knows everything about her, including her height, weight, Social Security number, and even that she has a small scar from an appendectomy. He looked up her information in the company records. In this context she finds it a bit flattering that he cared about her enough to find out about her. Nowadays we would consider this a creepy stalking and invasion of privacy that could lead to identity theft. How times have changed. 

For the first time we have a scene that does not include Bud. It turns out that the man Fran has been carrying on with is Sheldrake. He says he liked her hair long, which contrasts with Bud complimenting her short hairstyle, and showing his approval of her exercising her own will. They haven’t seen each other for six weeks, and he says he missed her, but doesn’t want anyone to hear her say his name (more covering up). She says they are in the same place and are hearing the same song, and she is hearing him say the same things again, which translates to her suggesting nothing has moved forward between them. She mentions there's the same “sweet and sour sauce” on the table, which may mean she is implying the tastes sum up their relationship. He tries to seduce her back (after all, he already has secured Bud’s apartment). She sadly recounts what happens historically to the “other woman” who pretends that while she is with the man, he is single, but then he looks at his watch and has to hurry back to his home, and then she eventually sees through the self-delusion and finds what she is doing is “ugly.” Fran is not portrayed as the mentally lightweight women carrying on with the other men. However, the film generally shows that women at this time don’t have many career opportunities open to them. Sheldrake tells her that he saw his lawyer about ending his marriage. She says that she never asked him to leave his wife, and he says that it wasn’t because of her. This line has the effect of not making her feel guilty. When asked, she says that she does love him, and he says the same about her. When they leave, Sheldrake’s secretary, Miss Olsen (Edie Adams), sees the two together, which we know will lead to trouble for them later. As they drive to the apartment, poor Bud, sniffling and out in the cold, as usual, in front of the theater, gives up hope waiting for Fran, and heads off dejected and still alone. 

Bud now moves up to the front of the seemingly endless rows of sardine-packed workers into his own office. The four men to whom he is lending time at his home arrive and say that they don’t like being denied access to his place lately. Obviously, Bud is giving priority to Sheldrake who has the power over job placements. Sheldrake wants a key for himself so that his secretary won’t see the two men passing it back and forth. Bud found a makeup compact in his apartment and gives it to Sheldrake to return to his girlfriend. He notes that the mirror is cracked, and Sheldrake opens it. We see his reflection in the glass, and the crack symbolizes Sheldrake’s broken morality. Sheldrake admits that the woman threw it at him. He says it’s so unreasonable that when you go out with a woman briefly that she wants a guy to leave his wife. (So we realize Sheldrake told another of the many lies in this story when he said to Fran that he saw his attorney about a divorce). He asks Bud, “Now I ask you, is that fair?” Sheldrake’s idea of fairness doesn’t even consider how unfair he is being to his wife and Fran. Bud dutifully replies, “No, sir. It’s very unfair. Especially to your wife.” His response can be taken two ways, that it would be unfair for Sheldrake to leave his wife, or its terrible the way the man is violating the loyalty to his marriage. But, it’s difficult to have unqualified sympathy for Bud at this point, despite his lack of sleep, upper respiratory illness, inconvenience, and the pressure placed upon him, because of his complicity in the unethical behavior. 

Six weeks go by and there is a carefree Christmas party on Bud’s floor. The short, festive season is a happy exterior painted over the extended sadness in the lives of the unhappy workers. Bud brings a drink to Fran as the elevator door opens. He admits that he was hurt by her not showing up at the theater, but says she did the “decent” thing since it would not be ethical to have a drink with one man and then go see another. It is ironic that morality is at issue, since he is lending out his place for secret affairs, and she is the one using it as she meets a married man there. Fran encounters Olsen, Sheldrake’s secretary. She is inebriated and lets Fran know that she had a fling with Sheldrake and he took her to the same restaurant where she saw Fran and Sheldrake. She says Sheldrake has had numerous affairs and would tell all the women about how he was getting a divorce. She notes Sheldrake is quite a salesman, the remark commenting on the deceitful nature of these businessmen who make empty promises (A musical was later made based on this film called Promises, Promises).

In his office, Bud says to Fran he is the youngest executive there, outside of the “grandson of the Chairman of the Board,” which shows beside providing a place for illicit sex, nepotism will bring you success in a company. Fran is devastated now after what Olsen said, and says she has to get back to her job, feeling that is all she has left. Bud says he has influence with Sheldrake and she doesn’t have to worry. Sheldrake sent Bud a Christmas card that shows a family picture which adds to the death of any holiday joy for Fran when she looks at it. Bud bought a hat and asks Fran how it looks on him. She hands him her compact to view himself and when he sees the broken mirror (which also reflects how his character is damaged, too) he realizes that it is Fran who has been seeing Sheldrake at his place. When he notes that the mirror is broken, she says, “I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.” She already has insight into her flawed character. At that moment Sheldrake calls and there is now a hard edge to Bud’s voice because he sees that he has contributed to the damage of a woman he cares about. Bud now has lost the cheerful spirit of the party and begins to walk out as a woman on a desk pretends to do a striptease, which again shows how men expect a woman's job is to sexually excite them. 

Bud goes to a bar and is miserable about learning that the woman he feels for is another of the females connected to his cheating bosses. He washes his sorrow in alcohol. An inebriated woman, Margie (Hope Holiday), another female who sounds ditzy as she talks about her husband jailed in Cuba for doping horses, asks him to buy her a drink. The music in the background is a religious holiday song, which contrasts with the sins of these two outsider characters who have no real family to be with. At Bud’s apartment the “comfort and joy” of the Christmas tree also stands in opposition to Sheldrake’s trying to sell his “good” intentions to Fran after she has shown him she knows about his many affairs. She sarcastically says that there is a lucky girl at the office who will follow her as Sheldrake’s next conquest. He spins the situation, saying a man chases other women because he isn’t happy at home. He promises that she is the one for him and has stopped “running.” But hedges his commitment by arguing he can’t bring up divorce during the holidays when the whole family is present. She bought him a record album which has music associated with the restaurant they frequent, but he can’t take it home because it would raise questions. He undermines his voiced affection for Fran by saying he didn’t know what to buy her, which demonstrates what little effort he puts into caring about her feelings. Instead he gives her a hundred dollars, and the look on Fran’s face is a bitter one since she sees he is treating her like a prostitute. He says he has to get home to “trim the tree” which just adds to how he will never leave his family, and stresses how he has a home of his own to go to. When she warns him not to kiss her lips because it will leave lipstick marks, she is being sarcastic, which he does not realize and sees it as being practical. His wishing her a “Merry Christmas” is like sticking a knife in her heart and twisting it. After he leaves she plays a song on the record player that is entitled “Jealous Lover,” which fits how she is envious of a life with a man she can’t have. As was noted in other posts on this blog, mirrors are used in films to betray other, usually darker sides of ourselves. Mirrors again are symbolic here, as Fran looks at her desperate self in one, and views a bottle of Seconal sleeping pills reflected in another. 

Meanwhile Bud and Margie are drunk and dance at the bar until closing time. She asks to whose place they should go, and he humorously says his since that’s where everybody else goes. In this case she’s the married one, whereas the men are the cheaters in the other instances, which casts Bud in the role previously assigned to the females. Bud, as an inside joke inspired by the reputation assigned to him by his neighbors, says he is a notorious lover. He probably thinks in his drunken state that he has been living a lie for so long he might as well reap the benefits of his infamy. 

At his place he finds Fran passed out on his bed. He is gruff with her because she hurt him, but does not yet realize she has attempted suicide with his pills. When he sees the empty bottle, he gets rid of Margie and calls Dr. Dreyfuss. The doctor gets her to vomit and pumps her stomach, then administers medicine. He uses smelling salts, smacks her about the face to arouse her (which is a bit disturbing despite the good intentions) and Bud brews coffee. Bud still lies as he says he had a lover’s quarrel with Fran and says her overdose was just an accident, as he most likely is attempting to lessen the chance that Dreyfuss will report the incident. He is protecting the bosses so they won’t be exposed. Fran wonders why Bud is there, not knowing it is his apartment. They keep her walking to counter the immediate effects of the pills and then she must sleep off the residual effects. It is not easy to pull off a story that has many comic elements in it and then introduces the element of suicide. Wilder and his co-writer, I. A. L. Diamond, subvert the romantic comedy genre here and make it work.

The landlady confronts Bud about the uproar of the previous night. She wonders if he disturbed the doctor, and he continues to cover up the truth, saying the doctor was not at home. Sheldrake is at his house on Christmas while not even thinking about the damage he has caused. Bud calls him. Even though he is still hiding Sheldrake’s guilt for his selfish reasons, Bud still has concern for Fran. He is worried that the doctor warned that many try to take their lives again if they fail. Sheldrake however takes no responsibility and declines wanting to see Fran or find out about the contents of the envelope which she left for him (which turns out only to contain the $100 bill he used to try and buy her continued submission). He wants Bud to handle the problem which happens to be a human being. Fran wakes up and apologizes. Out of worry, Bud removes his shaving razor blades. Fran wants to call her family so they won’t worry about her not being there for Christmas, but he is concerned about divulging her situation. He tries to calm her by lying, saying that Sheldrake was concerned about her, which Fran recognizes as untrue. She is miserable because, she says, she still loves him, even though he has treated her badly. It is difficult to move on when one’s feelings have been heavily invested and the past and the future offer no hope of anyone better to get close to.

Mrs. Dreyfuss shows up like a Jewish mother hen with chicken noodle soup telling Fran to find a good man to be with. Bud’s lack of confidence comes through when he says to Fran he’s actually flattered that the woman thinks he could possibly drive such a lovely woman as Fran to such desperate ends. She can’t eat, so Bud wants to play cards. He likes the company, revealing his lonely life because last Christmas he had an early dinner alone, went to the zoo, and helped clean up after another person’s party at Bud’s apartment. Everybody has fun at his apartment except Bud. He wants to play gin and the counting of the scores show him retreating to his safe place among the definiteness of numbers. She says that she was cursed from the beginning when it came to love. Her first kiss was in a cemetery and the guy dumped her for someone else. It was sort of like her initiation into romance was dead on arrival. She says she always gets involved with the wrong guy at the wrong place and time. She tried secretarial school, but was not able to spell. (Is it really her fault, or is it that because she has not been given the tools to rise up the ladder of success that she is relegated, because of her good looks, to being an object for sexual exploitation?) She asks if Sheldrake was upset about her and Bud lies yet again saying he was, but here Bud is trying to protect Fran’s feelings. Fran wants to believe it, saying she will write a letter to Sheldrake’s wife to explain the situation. Bud tells her it would not be a good idea because she would later hate herself for causing pain. Her disgust with her actions is obvious when she says she hates herself already. 

Kirkeby shows up with his girlfriend since it’s his designated day. Bud starts to throw him out when Kirkeby sees a woman’s dress hanging up. The boss believes Bud is just another guy on the sexual prowl. His date is outside the apartment as Dreyfuss comes home, and the doctor thinks Bud is still up to his old tricks. Everything turns out to be a deception. When Fran says nobody would care what happens to her, Bud says he would, and in her somewhat sedated state wonders why she can’t seem to “fall in love with someone nice” like him. Her statement reveals how these two yearn for a connection to someone who is intrinsically decent in a world of duplicity.

After having found out that his secretary divulged his affairs to Fran, Sheldrake fires Olsen. Without any legal or social media support against such an unjust action, a woman at that time was vulnerable to the power of the employer. Olsen does point out that he actually let her go emotionally four years prior and subjected her to seeing several “new models” pass through. Her remarks stresses that Sheldrake views women as objects to use and then discard. Being unselfish and worrying about Fran’s mental health, Bud calls Sheldrake and asks him to be nice and comfort her. Instead Sheldrake tells Fran he should be mad at her for scaring him, as he makes it about himself. He says they should pretend it didn’t happen. She counters with why not forget they ever met and that she fell in love with him as well as forgetting about her suicide attempt. Her response shows how self-serving and pitiless Sheldrake is. On her way out, Olsen eavesdrops on the phone call between Fran and Sheldrake. After seeing how his abuse of his power must be stopped, and because she no longer has anything to lose, she sets up an appointment with Sheldrake’ wife. She appropriately tells the elevator attendant that she is “going down,” suggesting she is basically taking the fall for trying to help a member of the sisterhood.

There is the smell of gas coming from Bud’s apartment as he comes back from shopping. He jumps to the conclusion, understandably, that Fran may be trying to kill herself again. She actually just didn’t know she had to light the stove to boil some water. But the scene shows Bud’s worrying about her. She also started to wash his socks, which illustrates how they could be domestic partners, because she is a housekeeper and he is a cook, when he has someone to make a meal for. She found several items that belonged to women, and he says he just couldn’t say no. She realizes he means he couldn’t refuse people like Sheldrake. She says Sheldrake is a “taker” and, “some people get took. And they know they’re getting took and there’s nothing they can do about it.” She is talking about both of them. But Bud shows some hope when he says, “I wouldn’t say that,” which means they can fight being taken advantage of. She wants to go home, but he says the doctor said that she needs forty-eight hours to get rid of the medicine in her system. She wonders how long it takes to get rid of the attachment to someone you love. Bud now brings honesty to the relationship by admitting to his own sad tale of contemplated suicide. He was in love with his best friend’s wife. He realized he couldn’t do anything about the situation, which is a morally different stand than his bosses, who have no qualms about their actions. Bud’s story ends with a darkly funny conclusion because he bought a gun, and then accidentally shot himself in the leg when being stopped by a policeman and trying to hide the weapon. It’s another example of how well the script intertwines the serious with the humorous, as his story makes Fran laugh despite the topic and her recent attempt to end herself.

Karl Matuschka (Johnny Seven), Fran’s brother-in-law, a tough-looking cab driver wearing a leather jacket, shows up at Dobisch’s office when Kirkeby is there. Since Fran hasn’t shown up for the last two days (she lives with him and her sister), he wants to know if anyone knows where she might be. The two men, a bit peeved because they haven’t had as much access to the apartment, believe Fran is shacked up with Bud, and are ready to point Karl at him. These men have no consideration or warmth for their employees, despite saying that they are all one big, happy family.

Meanwhile, Bud is being comical straining spaghetti with a tennis racket and saying he serves the meatballs with the racket. While he gets the dinner table ready he says, “It’s a wonderful thing, dinner for two.” Such simple words that convey the depth of Bud’s longing for companionship. He adds, “I used to feel like Robinson Crusoe. I mean shipwrecked among eight million people. And then one day I found a footprint in the sand, and there you were.” It’s corny, but it reminds us of the John Donne line that nobody can exist as an island. He is suggesting that he has met the person with whom he wants to share his isolated island. He says the only company for dinner before was in his pretending to eat with celebrities, which implies his mind game would lend some imaginary comfort and significance to his life. 

Karl shows up and sees Fran still in a robe and hears the end of Bud’s conversation about playing gin, and now “not taking advantage” of her like he did the day prior “in bed.” We have more deviance from the truth that lead to a comedy of errors. Karl tells Fran her sister is worried about her and tells her to get dressed and come home. Dreyfuss shows up and it comes out that Fran took an overdose of sleeping pills. Bud takes the blame, and Karl punches him. Bud is not telling the truth, but again his motive is a kind one, as he tries to divert Fran’s guilt over an attempted suicide due to involvement with a married man onto himself. He is responsible in part because he allowed Sheldrake to string Fran along, although unknowingly at first. Fran realizes what he is doing, and kisses him on the head before she leaves.

At work, Bud rehearses a speech to Sheldrake saying how he is taking Fran off his hands because Bud loves her. After enjoying the company of someone he cares about Bud can’t see himself being alone anymore. and is making enough money because of his promotion to ask Fran to marry him. His actions are naive because he hasn’t even asked her how she feels. Sheldrake however turns the tables on Bud, saying he is going to relieve Bud of worrying about Fran. He has moved out. But, it is not because of choosing Fran out of love. Olsen told his wife about Fran and she kicked Sheldrake out. Because Sheldrake can now be with Fran and she has demonstrated how much the loss of Sheldrake meant to her, Bud just says she is feeling better and went back to her family. Sheldrake shows his gratitude by making Bud the Assistant Director of Personnel, with an office next to his and the position includes all the executive perks. Bud says Fran deserves to be getting married, thinking Sheldrake will do the right thing. But Sheldrake’s response is he just wants to enjoy being a bachelor for a while, which implies he will just continue to sexually exploit Fran. 

As Bud observes his new position posted in the company lobby, he sees Fran. She says she thought Sheldrake would never leave his wife, apparently not having been told by Sheldrake that his wife gave him the boot (more deception). Bud knows the truth, but makes it appear that Fran’s love was not misplaced because he doesn’t want her to feel hopeless again, and maybe suicidal (a compassionate withholding of information). He says he wasn’t being “took” by Sheldrake but was using the man to get ahead at work, so things worked out for both of them, as he tries to hide emotional deprivation behind financial prosperity. She wants to know if he wants to walk with her to the subway, but he says he has a “heavy date.” He points to a woman near the lobby store, but it turns out she is waiting for someone else. Another lie, but not meant to harm but instead to spare himself grief by not being too close to her, and not trying to put himself between her and the person she supposedly loves. Fran said she wasn’t meeting Sheldrake and decided there wouldn’t be any contact between them until after the divorce. Her action shows discretion, which is another form of misdirection, but since she took chances with Sheldrake before, it may also point to her reluctance now that she knows more about Sheldrake’s womanizing. 

It’s New Year’s Eve, a time for a new start. Sheldrake threw out the duplicate key to Bud’s apartment when he thought he would get caught with incriminating evidence following Olsen’s disclosure. He is staying at a men’s club, so he wants to take Fran to Bud’s apartment to celebrate the evening. Sheldrake is still trying to hide his activities, which means he isn’t serious about committing to Fran. Bud flatly states that Sheldrake won’t be taking anyone to his place, especially not Fran. At this point he can’t tolerate the thought of the sleazy Sheldrake using his place to be intimate with the woman he fell in love with. Sheldrake threatens him with how quickly Bud can wind up on the street. Bud gives him a key, but it is the one to the executive washroom, noting he was “all washed up” there. Bud says he decided to be what Dr. Dreyfuss told him he should be, a “mensch,” a “human being.” His quitting shows he is no longer compromising his ethical, humane side to get ahead, and is finally able to say “no” to unscrupulous requests. 

The next scene has Bud packing up and getting ready to move out of the apartment. He picks up the gun he mentioned earlier, and puts it in a box, and one wonders if he will be thinking of doing himself in again over losing someone he loves. Dreyfuss comes by for ice for his New Year’s Eve party, and Bud offers him a bottle of champagne which the doctor refuses. Bud says he has to give up the apartment. This act reflects that for Bud the apartment is a reminder of a sordid, ethically compromised past which he was a part of and from which he wants to distance himself. Dreyfuss says Bud doesn’t owe him anything for treating Fran because he did it as a neighbor. The doctor’s action stands in contrast to the self-serving bosses at the company. Bud picks up the tennis racket which still has a string of spaghetti on it. He twirls it around his finger, a sort of culinary engagement ring, which implies that he can’t free himself from his feelings for Fran.

Fran and Sheldrake are at a New Year's Eve celebration (which contrasts with the moods of the main characters) and he says he reserved a room in Atlantic City because there was none available in town. He blames the long ride on Bud who refused to give him the apartment, especially if he was bringing Fran, which confuses him, not knowing of Bud’s feelings for her. He tells her Bud quit. She smiles and repeats a line that Bud said which was, “that’s the way it crumbles, cookiewise.” He doesn’t understand, but she states she would spell it out for him, “only I can’t spell,” a witty line for someone who has been wrongfully dismissed as not being smart. As the new year is sung in, Sheldrake realizes that Fran has left. She is starting the new year off by breaking away from the repetitive pain that tortured her.

As what happens at the end of a romantic movie, one of the lovers must run to find the other. Fran is heading up the stairs to Bud’s apartment when she hears a loud pop. She looks worried, obviously thinking about Bud shooting himself. She bangs on his door, but he has that bottle of champagne that is now open, so we know it was the sound of the cork we have heard. She sees the boxes and asks where he is going. He says someplace else because now he’s on his own. She tells him so is she, which lets him know that she is no longer with Sheldrake. He pours her a glass of champagne, which implies a way to celebrate their independence from Sheldrake and his kind, and their togetherness. She gets a pack of cards so they can finish that game of gin they started. He tells her he loves and adores her. She smiles and with no sentimentality tells him to “shut up and deal,” which is exactly what the two of them have decided to do, which is to make the best with the cards dealt them.

Next is the film noir movie Out of the Past.