Trivia / The Apartment

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Jack Lemmon signed onto the film after Billy Wilder told him the story but before he ever saw a line of the script. "I'd have signed even if he said he was going to do the phone book," the actor noted.
• Creative Differences: Billy Wilder and cinematographer Joseph LaShelle were occasionally at odds over the film's look. LaShelle, who had worked with directors who came primarily from television, wanted to use more close-ups, a shot Wilder prefers to avoid.
• Inspiration for the Work: The initial concept for the film came from Brief Encounter, in which Laura Jesson has an affair with Dr. Alec Harvey in his friend's apartment. However, due to the Hays Production Code, Wilder was unable to make a film about adultery in the 1940s. Wilder and Diamond also based the film partially on a Hollywood scandal in which high-powered agent Jennings Lang was shot by producer Walter Wanger for having an affair with Wanger's wife, actress Joan Bennett. During the affair, Lang used a low-level employee's apartment. Another element of the plot was based on the experience of one of Diamond's friends, who returned home after breaking up with his girlfriend to find that she had committed suicide in his bed.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: The 2017 "Limited Edition" Blu-Ray pairs an improved transfer of the movie (sourced from a 4K restoration of the original negative) and all the bonus features from the 2012 Collector's Edition Blu-Ray with over 70 minutes' worth of new or new-to-BD extras, and a 150-page book of production photos and written tributes.
• Playing Against Type: Fred MacMurray as J.D. Sheldrake. At the time, he was mostly known for his good-guy roles in family films (despite having also starred in thrillers such as Wilder's own Double Indemnity). As the trailer boasted, "This is a Fred MacMurray you've never seen before"... and never would again, because of the backlash. According to a commentary by his daughter on TCM, the choice of this role resulted in a severe What the Hell, Hero? tirade by a mother who had taken her children to see the movie (on the assumption that any film starring MacMurray would be family friendly). While he and his family were on vacation at Disneyland. Chastened by the experience, MacMurray never played another character like Sheldrake for the rest of his career.
• Real Song Theme Tune: Originally titled "Jealous Lover" and composed by Charles Williams for the 1949 film The Romantic Age, it went on to become a huge hit for the easy-listening duo Ferrante & Teicher as "The Theme from The Apartment".
• Throw It In!:
  • In the scene, where Karl punches Baxter, Jack Lemmon was supposed to mime being punched, he failed to move correctly and was accidentally knocked down. Billy Wilder chose to use the shot of the genuine punch in the film.
  • Although Wilder generally required his actors to adhere exactly to the script, he allowed Lemmon to improvise in two scenes: in one scene he squirted a bottle of nose drops across the room, and in another he sang while making a meal of spaghetti (which he strains through the grid of a tennis racket).
• What Could Have Been:
  • The studio wanted Groucho Marx for the role of Dr. Dreyfuss, but Billy Wilder said no, stating that he wanted an actor with more dramatic weight for the part.
  • At a party in Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe told Wilder how much she wished she could have played Fran Kubelik.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: According to Shirley MacLaine on her official web site, much of the movie was written as filming progressed. The gin rummy game was added because at the time she was learning how to play the game from her friends in the Rat Pack. Likewise, when she started philosophizing about love during a lunch break one day, this was also added to the script.

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