1960 Best Picture:
The Apartment

Competition: The Alamo, Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers, The Sundowners

Other Winners:
Best Actor: Burt Lancaster, Elmer Gantry
Best Actress: Elizabeth Taylor, Butterfield 8
Best Supporting Actor: Peter Ustinov, Sparticus
Best Supporting Actress: Shirley Jones, Elmer Gantry
Best Director: Billy Wilder, The Apartment

Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Edie Adams

Storyline: A 'sophisticated' comedy, this Billy Wilder classic looks at life along the corporate ladder, as an up-and-comer does what he can to get ahead, even if it means lending his apartment key out to top executives so that they can carry on their extra-marital affairs.  He gets more than he bargained for when the elevator girl from the office is found attempting suicide in his bedroom. 

Did it deserve to win: Yes! Yes! Yes!  The Apartment is one of Wilder's best films, an adult comedy that has been copied on many levels since.  While the story is a perfect snapshot of its times,  dealing with married men and young, single women, the film is timeless.  

Elmer Gantry may have been the closest competitor, but The Apartment was just too darned clever.  On top of that, Director, Billy Wilder had provided a decade worth of great films, and this honor was certainly due.  

Critique:  I enjoyed watching The Apartment on two levels.  It's entertaining in the classic sense, that the story line is very good, the actors are both funny and believable, and the cuddly love story, set against the nasty, corporate world, is engaging.  

It is also interesting from a historical perspective.  The opening scene is a narrative of working life, and it's interesting to see how much has changed today.  Lemmon plays Calvin, sitting amidst a sea of desks and typewriters.  In the computer environment of today, that is a rare sight.  And then the office politics, where the boss is to be feared, and if you are the low man on the totem pole, you are treated like it, seems so foreign.  

In the end, however, the film still rings very true in terms of how people treat other people in relationships.  The characters, including Fred MacMurray's callous Mr. Sheldrake, are still very much in existence today.  The relationship is the heart of the film, and its relevance is what keeps this one very fresh.

Best Scene:  "We must keep her awake!"  When Calvin finds Fran in his bed, where she has just swallowed a bottle of pills, the film begins to take off.

Behind the Scenes: Some of the large scale shots of the office pool behind Jack Lemmon included dwarfs and miniature sets.  Of course this would make the smaller space look much larger.  

This was the last black and white film to win Best Picture for 33 years.  Schindler's List would eventually win in 1993.  

The Best Actress race was huge race that year, with excellent performances from Deborah Kerr, Greer Garson and The Apartment's Shirley MacLaine.  It was a tough call for the winner until suddenly, Elizabeth Taylor found herself mysteriously on deaths door.  

Her illness was a mystery, but reports said everything from pneumonia to meningitis.  The details of her illness are still shady, but it was true that she lost her breath, turned blue, and had to have her throat opened up to help her breath.  

In the end, it provided Liz with what she even concedes, was a sympathy vote, and not one of her best performances.  Deborah Kerr, on the other hand, stated that Liz 'deserved the award'.  It's thought that she said this under duress, as the world was anxious for word on Liz's declining health.  Kerr's loss would make her the record hold for the most nominations, without a win, in Oscar history - six!  

The event would lead Shirley MacLaine to comment, 'I lost to a tracheotomy'.

The Alamo was by no means considered Oscar caliber by the film critics, however it was a popular film.  It had a huge campaign behind it, that secured it a nod, and its star, John Wayne was really gunning for it to win.  

It's chances were shattered, however, when its only actor to be nominated, Chill Wills, for Best Supporting Actor, was criticized for his own shameless campaign.  He went as far as to take an ad listing the name of every member of the Academy, with the caption, "Win, lose or draw, you are still my cousins, and I love you all.'  Groucho Marx responded with his own ad, stating, 'Dear Mr. Wills, I am delighted to be your cousin, but I'm still voting for Sal Mineo.'

David Lewis plays another office cad, Al Kirkeby.  Lewis is best known as Edward Quartermaine on General Hospital.