A New York office worker (Jack Lemmon) falls in love with an elevator operator (Shirley Maclaine), all the while renting out his apartment to his bosses for their extramarital trysts.

This movie is hilarious at the beginning: Jack Lemmon’s physical humor and facial expressions really tug at that part of your brain that says “How awkward” and “Oh, God.” He really puts us in that place, because all of us have been there.

But as the film progresses, and as Lemmon falls for Ms. Cubalick (played by Shirley MacLaine), the story becomes tearful and tragic. Through misunderstanding and the callousness of Lemmon’s executives, Ms. Cubalick attempts suicide in Lemmon’s apartment while Cubalick is on one of Lemmon’s executives’ flings. Lemmon saves her life … but that’s only about half of the story.

The way that the rest of the plot unfolds, the way that the uncaring, unfaithful, incredibly indifferent villains of the story (the corporate executives) get what is coming to them, the way that Lemmon and MacLaine fall in love amidst dire circumstance, it all melds into one of the saddest films we can ever hope to see come from Hollywood.

But it does not make us melancholy — although, that is the tone — but it makes us feel almost satisfied, to be affected by such pathos, such tragedy. Such basic love. It’s staggering, the picture is, and it’s unbelievable. A black-and-white masterpiece.
By: Danny Vopava