Humoresque

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

Occasionally I write a shorter post based on a viewing and discussion of a film that is part of a movie class conducted at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. Classes have just resumed following the pandemic, and the first motion picture on the schedule was Humoresque (1946). The story deals with class distinctions, gender roles, and how artistic obsession can lead to problematic interpersonal relationships.

 The film begins with violin virtuoso Paul Boray (John Garfield) emotionally distraught at a concert venue after cancelling his performance. Back at his apartment, Paul’s manager, Frederic Bauer (Richard Gaines), admonishes Paul, saying that he should realize that personal problems can’t get in the way of his music career. He is basically telling him that the show must go on. At this point we don't know what has shaken Paul so badly. Paul’s friend, Sid Jeffers (Oscar Levant) tells Paul that he has always been an outsider. This characteristic exists in most artists, since they become immersed in their work, which leads to detachment from others. Sid says that Paul, as he has gained fame, has lost the joy of the “happy kid” he once was.

 

That remark fits since the rest of the story is told in flashback until the very end. As a child (Tommy Cook), Paul is fascinated when he sees a violin in the store, and asks for it for his birthday. He comes from a working-class family that owns a grocery store, and Paul’s father, Phil (Tom D’Andrea), puts a limit on how much can be spent for his gift. (The story starts during The Great Depression, so economic times are extremely tough). Not only does the violin exceed the amount allowed, but Paul’s dad also shows an aversion to his son’s choice. He most likely sees the pick as effeminate, and he pushes for a baseball bat, which fits the traditional role of what a boy should be interested in. His mother, Esther (Ruth Nelson), however, buys the violin and encourages her son to pursue his passion for music. The film aligns the support for artistic pursuit with the female gender.

 As he grows older, Paul’s male family members criticize him for emphasizing his violin practice and not getting a job, since the male role was seen as being the breadwinner. Paul goes out on his own so as not to be a financial burden to his family. He gets employment with an orchestra that does broadcasts. Here is where he becomes friends with Sid, who plays the piano, who he met when he was a youngster shopping for his first instrument. 

 Sid tells him to come along to a fancy party, something the lower-class Paul is not used to. The party is held at the home of the Wrights. Here we see that Sid is a wise-cracking sidekick who adds humor to the film. For instance, he says to Helen Wright (Joan Crawford), “Tell me Mrs. Wright, does your husband interfere with your marriage.” Of Helen’s self-indulgence, he says to Paul, “She was born with a silver flask in her mouth.” He is also insightful about the narcissism that leads to becoming a highly regarded artist when he tells Paul, “You’ll do alright. You have all of the characteristics of a successful virtuoso. You’re self-indulgent, self-dedicated, and a hero of all your dreams.” Helen’s last name is ironic, since she is not the “right” woman to get involved with for most men. She does not fit in with the traditional role assigned to women, as she is strong-willed and has dominated the men who surround her, including the ones she has married. Her current husband, Victor (Paul Cavanagh), even describes himself as being “weak.” Thus, his first name is also an ironic one.

 

Paul performs at the party, and Helen is at first dismissive of him, as she probably sees him as a social climber. But, he is not a fawning admirer of her. He is ruggedly handsome which contrasts with the usual depiction of an artistic person. He is referred to as a “beast” and a woman says he looks like a “fighter,” a role Garfield portrayed in the film Body and Soul. Victor later calls him a “savage.” He combines both macho and artistic qualities. Helen may actually like those combination of aspects as he is more like her compared to the other men in her life. However, Helen has been using men as her playthings, and there is a shot of Paul as seen through her wine glass, implying that she would like to control him, like a fish in a bowl. She wants to put him in her world of self-indulgence. She begins her attempt to use him the next day as she sends him a gold cigarette case with an apologetic note.

 

Paul’s mother seems to have the correct “vision” in the story about her son pursuing his passion and not getting involved with a married woman. Her view contrasts with the flawed perception of Helen, symbolized by her nearsightedness, which can also reference her inability to see others as they truly are without reference to herself. As our class instructor pointed out, when Paul performs, Helen views him through the eyes of lust, which is shown by the way she gets excited, adjusting her glasses, as she watches him. But, he is playing classical music, so there is an intangible aesthetic at work, too. She wants to own him in a way, molding him to her liking, which he resists. Later, on the balcony, she says that when one sees things too well up close, one sees the imperfections. She lives in a fallen world that is cynical. 

 

At first Helen seems to only want to control Paul as a patron of the arts, and she helps his career skyrocket through her connections. He is ambitious, and the shot from the ground up of the tall building where he goes to secure a manager that will get him acclaim demonstrates his movement out of the lower-class world. At the Wrights’ Long Island house, after Helen goes for a swim, Paul makes a pass at Helen, but she runs away. Later she goes for a horse ride and falls off. As was stated on several occasions on this blog, horses are traditional symbols representing male sexuality. Her spill may suggest that she does not know how to have a meaningful relationship with a man. Paul tries to help her, but she tells him not to touch her. Maybe she is afraid of how attracted to him she really is, a man she is not able to dominate. He kisses her, and she no longer can resist him. She admits that she has fallen in love with him, but she implies that loving her may be hazardous to his mental health.

 Paul's mother is not happy about how her son has spent a great deal of time with Helen, who she reminds him is married. She probably feels he is abandoning his roots, which is epitomized by his missing a date with a girl, Gina (Joan Chandler), from his old neighborhood. The two knew each other since they were young. After his concert debut and going on tour, Paul has lunch with Gina, but Helen shows up and is jealous. This scene shows Paul not willing to succumb to Helen’s control. After Paul and Gina leave the restaurant, Helen slams a drink against the wall. We then see a worker coming by immediately to clean up the broken glass and spilled liquid. It reminds one of The Great Gatsby, where the rich are depicted as careless people who make messes that harm others, which then leads to the less fortunate having to clean up after them.

 

The selfish Helen later tells Paul she doesn’t want to be neglected and wishes to be more involved in his life. She is a powerful person and doesn’t care about society’s rules. So, when he points out that she is a married woman, she says they can do as they choose. (Actually, her husband, Victor, is not deaf to the rumors about the two, and asks for a divorce, telling Helen she can’t change who she is and be happy with Paul). Paul then kisses her, which seals the deal on what a bad influence she is on him. When he gets his own lovely apartment, he has numerous photos of Helen around it. He tells his mother in his new place that he loves Helen, but she warns him of the wrong path he is taking. They argue and she slaps him. Her outrage most likely stems from her wanting an artistic path for Paul which did not entail being corrupted by an amoral, reckless privileged person. The real reason he is drawn to Helen may be because she is someone from the wealthy class who validates his talent. 

 

What Helen didn’t anticipate is that Paul puts his career ahead of her, as he refuses to run to her when she asks him to at one point, and instead continues his rehearsal. She goes to a bar and gets drunk since she can’t have Paul when she desires him. He arrives at the bar to take her home and says he wants to marry her, but obviously he wants the relationship on his terms, which conflicts with her wishes. She says she loves him, but at the same time is realizing their relationship is doomed. Since she is angry with him because he does not indulge her, he says that she “doesn’t think too much of him.” Her response is, “I love you. So I don’t care what I think of you.” Her remark shows the irrationality of love. However, she visits Paul’s mother, trying to gain her support by saying she has insight as to how she has behaved but insists that she truly loves Paul. Esther is rigid in her rejection of Helen as a mate for her son. She tells Helen that if she genuinely cares for Paul the best thing she can do for him is to leave him alone.

 

Neither Helen nor his mother show up at Paul’s next concert. He has alienated the women he cares about because he has allowed his desire for personal fame to prevail over his feelings for both females. Helen, hearing Victor’s words echoing in her mind, and how Paul’s mother told her to set him free, sees herself as hopelessly flawed. She most likely is unable to go on living if she can’t have the one person she truly values. She walks along the beach and then goes into the sea, committing suicide. (Adultery must be punished according to the movie moral code at the time the film was shot).

 

The story returns to the present after Paul has found out about Helen’s death, and he has cancelled the concert. But despite the emotional setbacks, Sid’s assessment of him was on the money. His drive to become a successful violinist propels him forward. However, the last shot is of him walking in his old neighborhood. Will he be able to succeed and still abide by the working-class values he grew up with? The film does not answer that question.

The next film is Black Narcissus.

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.