No one likes CC Baxter, certainly not the jerks who borrow his apartment for affairs, don't pay him for his booze, kick him out in the middle of the night, and threaten him when he doesn't play ball. And their boss, Sheldrake, is a complete shit, who finds the attempted suicide of his girlfriend - one of a long string - an annoying inconvenience. (His secretary is a bitter bitch). Of his neighbours, Mrs Dreyfuss and the landlady don't think much of him. Which finally leaves Dr Dreyfuss, who is quite amused by Baxter but has totally the wrong idea about who he is. And Fran Kubelik, who likes Baxter because he is polite (he always takes his hat off in the elevator) but who says at one point "Why can't I ever fall in love with someone nice, like you?"
Why did I originally like it? The combination of the sax-led theme tune, the night, the loneliness of the character...
It came from Brief Encounter (Wilder started wondering about the guy whose apartment they borrow), so we have to thank David Lean. Talking of which, when he discovers the suicide attempt, 'Rickshaw Boy' is playing against the mood in upbeat tempo, and it made me think of the jolly music that's playing in the garden scene in This Happy Breed, similarly against the mood....
"Ring-a-ding-ding."
"Octoberwise."
"You'd better get a new refrigerator... I didn't mean right now!"
"I don't want to take advantage of you in bed, like last night" (as he opens the door to her brother-in-law).
"One day I saw a footprint in the sand and it was you."
It's beautifully written and constructed. For example, she goes to the apartment not knowing it's Baxter's. Lemmon dances to Rickshaw Boy because he's never heard it before (that's a separate part of the film). They never kiss - well, she kisses his forehead and he says "It doesn't hurt a bit".
When she puts the Rickshaw Boy album on, it's actually playing the film's incidental music. Have you ever seen that before in a film?
Great Lubitsch touch, when he walks over to meet his "date", who is then perfectly met by her real date - it's beautifully choreographed. Great touch: Sheldrake's new secretary is an old lady. Great touch: Lemmon putting his bowler hat on the head of a cleaner.
Even Miss Kubelik doesn't know Baxter's first name.
When she rushes up to see him at the end: "How's your knee?"
Well I thought I'd said quite enough in the previous review, but clearly, I hadn't!
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