Did you know that Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s perfect screenplay for ‘The Apartment’ was written on the fly while the film was being shot? Can this actually be true? According to Shirley MacLaine, in the above very interesting doc about the making of the film, Wilder started filming with only a small amount of the script written and relied on seeing how the chemistry between her and Jack Lemmon developed to figure out how the rest of the movie would turn out. I don’t believe it. But if she says so, then it must be the true. In some way I don’t want to believe it. I love the thought of that meticulously crafted script being hammered out with great care at Wilder and Diamond’s offices on the Samuel Goldwyn lot, with lots of cigarette smoke choking the dingy but art-filled room. (Wilder’s love of art and sculpture always found its way into his offices as well as his homes). But maybe that method is at least partly responsible for the films unique mix of tones–bittersweet, dramatic, comedic, philosophical–and that only a truly adventurous filmmaker could find such a combination by ‘making it up as they went along.’ Ultimately, who cares? We have the movie, one of three Wilder movies that I can watch anytime it turns up on TCM–‘Sunset Blvd.’ and ‘Double Indemnity’ being the others. (I’ve seen ‘Some Like It Hot’ ten too many times). Were those written on the fly as well? Again, I don’t know why but I hope not…