5 Star

A Magic Moment in Movie History.

A masterpiece, from writer/ director Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot, Sunset Boulevard, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Spirit of St. Louis) and now brought up to Blu-ray quality with a ton of special features for this limited release (3000), all thanks to Arrow Academy.

Calvin Clifford (C. C.) “Bud” Baxter (Jack Lemmon, Some Like it Hot, 12 Angry Men, The China Syndrome) is a tiny speck in the corporate world of insurance, his prospects are low, but he has ambitions.

He lives on his own in an apartment in Upper West Side New York which is why his bosses keep an eye on him as they are all involved in extramarital liaisons, which are so noisy that his neighbours assume that Bud is a playboy. His managers are Joe Dobisch (Ray Walston, The Sting),
Al Kirkeby (David Lewis, Mean Dog Blues), Mr. Vanderhoff  (Willard Waterman, The Swinging Set) and
Mr. Eichelberger (David White, Brewster’s Millions) and they like nothing better than living it up in “Buddy’s apartment. It is when they give him a glowing report to the big boss Jeff D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray, Double Indemnity) that things start to get complicated for C. C. as Sheldrake want exclusive use of his apartment for the promotion he so desperately wants.

As a sort of compensation for wanting to use the apartment that same night he gives Bud two tickets for the hit musical The Music Man. Bud cannot think of anyone better to take along to the show than Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment, Postcards from the Edge, Steel Magnolias), an elevator operator on whom he has had his eye for a while.

They agree to meet at the theatre after she has had a drink with an old flame of hers. But what Bud doesn’t know is that she is meeting Sheldrake, and he is promising to leave his wife for her. (Yeah Right).

What ensues is a Romantic Comedy that you will remember forever. Awesome.

The Apartment is available on Limited Edition 4K UHD

4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• 4K restoration from the original camera negative
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original lossless mono audio
• Optional lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio remix
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary with film producer and historian Bruce Block
• The Key to the Apartment, an appreciation by film historian Philip Kemp
• Select scene commentary by Philip Kemp
• The Flawed Couple, a video essay by filmmaker David Cairns on the collaborations between Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon
• A Letter to Castro, an interview with actress Hope Holiday
• The Writer Speaks: Billy Wilder, an archival interview from the Writers Guild of America’s Oral Histories series
• Inside the Apartment,, a half-hour making-of featurette from 2007 including interviews with Shirley MacLaine, executive producer Walter Mirisch, and others
• Magic Time: The Art of Jack Lemmon, an archive profile of the actor from 2007
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ignatius Fitzpatrick
• Collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by Neil Sinyard, Kat Ellinger, Travis Crawford and H.V. Hyche