Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960) takes the office politics of a corporation and plays them out in the apartment of lonely clerk C. C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon). By lending out his digs to executives at the insurance company where he works for nightly extramarital flings with their secretaries, Baxter has managed to ascend the corporate ladder faster than even he imagined.

This witty satire takes a turn for the worse though, when Baxter's crush on Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the building's melancholy elevator operator, runs up against her long-standing affair with the big boss (Fred MacMurray). The situation comes to a head when she attempts suicide in Baxter's apartment.

Billy Wilder won three Academy Awards for The Apartment including Best Picture, Directing and Original Screenplay (shared with I.A.L. Diamond). 

1960.  125 min.  Courtesy of MGM.

Academy Award Winners: Art Direction, Black-and-White (Art Direction: Alexander Trauner; Set Decoration: Edward G. Boyle); Directing (Billy Wilder); Film Editing (Daniel Mandell); Best Picture (Billy Wilder, producer); Writing, Story and Screenplay - written directly for the screen (Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond)

Academy Award Nominations: Leading Actor (Jack Lemmon); Supporting Actor (Jack Kruschen); Leading Actress (Shirley MacLaine); Cinematography, Black-and-White (Joseph LaShelle); Sound (Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon E. Sawyer, Sound Director)