the apartment
Calvin Clifford (C. C.) "Buddy Boy" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lonely office drudge at a national insurance corporation (Consolidated Life of New York - 31,259 employees) in a high-rise building (Desk #861, Section W, Ordinary Policy Department - Premium Accounting Division on the 19th floor) in New York City. In order to climb the corporate ladder, Buddy Boy allows four company managers (Ray Walston, David Lewis, Willard Waterman, and David White) to take turns borrowing his Upper West Side apartment (51 W. 67th St., Apt. 2A) for their various extramarital liaisons, which are so noisy that his neighbors assume that he is bringing home different women every night.
The four write glowing reports about Buddy Boy, who hopes for a promotion from the personnel director, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). Sheldrake calls Buddy Boy to his office but says that he has found out why they were so enthusiastic. He gives Buddy Boy the promotion in return for exclusive privileges to borrow the apartment. He insists on using it that same night and, as compensation for such short notice, gives Baxter two company-sponsored tickets to the hit Broadway musical The Music Man.
After work, Buddy Boy catches Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator on whom he has had his eye. They agree to meet at the theater after she has a drink with a former fling. The man whom she meets is Sheldrake, who convinces her that he is about to divorce his wife for her. They go to Buddy Boy's apartment as Buddy Boy waits forlornly outside the theater.
Calvin Clifford (C. C.) "Buddy Boy" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) and Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), in a still from the film's final scene: "Shut up and deal."
Several weeks later, at the company's raucous Christmas party, Sheldrake's secretary Miss Olsen (Edie Adams), drunkenly reveals to Fran that Fran is just the latest in a string of female employees whom Sheldrake has seduced into affairs with the promise of divorcing his wife with Miss Olsen herself being one of them. At Buddy Boy's apartment, Fran confronts Sheldrake, upset with herself for believing his lies. Sheldrake maintains that he genuinely loves her but then leaves to return to his suburban family as usual.
Meanwhile, Buddy Boy accidentally finds out about Sheldrake and Fran. Disappointed, he picks up a woman (Joyce Jameson) at a local bar. When they arrive at his apartment, he is shocked to find Fran in his bed, fully clothed and unconscious from an intentional overdose of his sleeping pills. He enlists the help of his neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), to revive Fran without notifying the authorities and sends his bar pickup home. To protect his job, he lets Dreyfuss believe that he and Fran are lovers who had fought, which he took so lightly that he was meeting another woman while she was attempting suicide. Fran spends several days recuperating at his apartment, while Buddy Boy tries entertaining and distracting her from any further suicidal thoughts, talking her into playing numerous hands of gin rummy.
Since she has been missing, Fran's brother-in-law comes to the office looking for her. She has not been there and neither has Buddy Boy. The previous day, one of the executives had seen Fran in the bedroom when he came to the apartment hoping to borrow it and mentioned it to the other executives. Resenting Buddy Boy for denying them access to his apartment, the executives direct the man there. Buddy Boy again takes responsibility for Fran's actions, and the man punches him twice in the face.
Sheldrake rewards Buddy Boy with a further promotion and fires Miss Olsen for telling Fran his history of womanizing. However, Miss Olsen retaliates by telling his wife, who promptly leaves him. Sheldrake moves into a room at his athletic club but now figures that he can string Fran along while he enjoys his newfound bachelorhood. When he requests access to Buddy Boy's apartment on New Year's Eve, Buddy Boy refuses and quits the firm. Sheldrake tells Fran, who realizes Baxter is the man who truly loves her, and she runs to his apartment. She arrives there alone and insists on resuming their gin rummy game. When he declares his love for her, her reply is the now-famous final line of the film: "Shut up and deal".
the apartment
Calvin Clifford (C. C.) "Buddy Boy" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lonely office drudge at a national insurance corporation (Consolidated Life of New York - 31,259 employees) in a high-rise building (Desk #861, Section W, Ordinary Policy Department - Premium Accounting Division on the 19th floor) in New York City. In order to climb the corporate ladder, Buddy Boy allows four company managers (Ray Walston, David Lewis, Willard Waterman, and David White) to take turns borrowing his Upper West Side apartment (51 W. 67th St., Apt. 2A) for their various extramarital liaisons, which are so noisy that his neighbors assume that he is bringing home different women every night.
The four write glowing reports about Buddy Boy, who hopes for a promotion from the personnel director, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). Sheldrake calls Buddy Boy to his office but says that he has found out why they were so enthusiastic. He gives Buddy Boy the promotion in return for exclusive privileges to borrow the apartment. He insists on using it that same night and, as compensation for such short notice, gives Baxter two company-sponsored tickets to the hit Broadway musical The Music Man.
After work, Buddy Boy catches Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator on whom he has had his eye. They agree to meet at the theater after she has a drink with a former fling. The man whom she meets is Sheldrake, who convinces her that he is about to divorce his wife for her. They go to Buddy Boy's apartment as Buddy Boy waits forlornly outside the theater.
Calvin Clifford (C. C.) "Buddy Boy" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) and Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), in a still from the film's final scene: "Shut up and deal."
Several weeks later, at the company's raucous Christmas party, Sheldrake's secretary Miss Olsen (Edie Adams), drunkenly reveals to Fran that Fran is just the latest in a string of female employees whom Sheldrake has seduced into affairs with the promise of divorcing his wife with Miss Olsen herself being one of them. At Buddy Boy's apartment, Fran confronts Sheldrake, upset with herself for believing his lies. Sheldrake maintains that he genuinely loves her but then leaves to return to his suburban family as usual.
Meanwhile, Buddy Boy accidentally finds out about Sheldrake and Fran. Disappointed, he picks up a woman (Joyce Jameson) at a local bar. When they arrive at his apartment, he is shocked to find Fran in his bed, fully clothed and unconscious from an intentional overdose of his sleeping pills. He enlists the help of his neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), to revive Fran without notifying the authorities and sends his bar pickup home. To protect his job, he lets Dreyfuss believe that he and Fran are lovers who had fought, which he took so lightly that he was meeting another woman while she was attempting suicide. Fran spends several days recuperating at his apartment, while Buddy Boy tries entertaining and distracting her from any further suicidal thoughts, talking her into playing numerous hands of gin rummy.
Since she has been missing, Fran's brother-in-law comes to the office looking for her. She has not been there and neither has Buddy Boy. The previous day, one of the executives had seen Fran in the bedroom when he came to the apartment hoping to borrow it and mentioned it to the other executives. Resenting Buddy Boy for denying them access to his apartment, the executives direct the man there. Buddy Boy again takes responsibility for Fran's actions, and the man punches him twice in the face.
Sheldrake rewards Buddy Boy with a further promotion and fires Miss Olsen for telling Fran his history of womanizing. However, Miss Olsen retaliates by telling his wife, who promptly leaves him. Sheldrake moves into a room at his athletic club but now figures that he can string Fran along while he enjoys his newfound bachelorhood. When he requests access to Buddy Boy's apartment on New Year's Eve, Buddy Boy refuses and quits the firm. Sheldrake tells Fran, who realizes Baxter is the man who truly loves her, and she runs to his apartment. She arrives there alone and insists on resuming their gin rummy game. When he declares his love for her, her reply is the now-famous final line of the film: "Shut up and deal".