In the Office World, There Are Two Breeds: Jack Lemmons & Fred MacMurrays

If you’ve never seen Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, you’re a sorry excuse for a film viewer. If you have, then you know right away that the office world is comprised of two types: the nebbish moralist who gets emotionally pummeled by his co-workers and the ruthless boss man who will take advantage of any underling to get what he wants. These models are also known as Jack Lemmon and Fred MacMurray.

Bachelor and insurance man C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) believes that the only way to the top is through hard work and honesty. He also loans out his apartment to higher up executives so that they can bring their mistresses there without a worry, which lends him a somewhat competitive edge in catching the eye of head honcho Jeff Sheldrake (MacMurray). C.C. naively thinks that Sheldrake wants to promote him for merit-based reasons, only to find he just wants to use his apartment like the others–and to take the girl he likes, Fran Kubelik (ShirleyMacLaine), there no less.

The nicer C.C. is, the more he is taken advantage of. And soon, the hellmouth that is Midtown transforms him into someone harder and less trusting, all in the name of money and power.