The famous last line of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, winner of the 1961 Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Screenplay, punctuates a game of gin rummy between Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) and C. C. “Bud” Baxter (Jack Lemmon):
BUD I love you, Miss Kubelik. FRAN (cutting a card) Seven -- (looking at Bud's card) -- queen. She hands the deck to Bud. BUD Did you hear what I said, Miss Kubelik? I absolutely adore you. FRAN (smiling) Shut up and deal!
Although Wilder and screenwriting partner I.A.L. Diamond employed that classic retort to splash some vinegar on what could have been a syrupy ending, it was an earlier line where they left the sentimentality intact that made a more lasting impression on me. Cooking dinner for Fran in the cramped kitchen of his Manhattan apartment, Bud sings operatically as he merrily strains spaghetti with the strings of a tennis racquet.
BUD You know, I used to live like Robinson Crusoe -- shipwrecked among eight million people. Then one day I saw a footprint in the sand -- and there you were -- (hands her martini) It's a wonderful thing -- dinner for two.
It’s a wonderful thing, dinner for two. I’d like to think that with those seven words, Wilder and Diamond informed my approach to food writing more than any restaurant critic or culinary scholar. Because beyond dissecting the qualities of the dining experience and critiquing the nitty-gritty of a chef’s accomplishment or a restaurateur’s vision, the mere fact of dinner for two is a wonderful thing.
And so, when Mario Cacciottolo (@marioSOTM on twitter) asked me to choose something important I had heard in my life to put on his Someone Once Told me (SOTM) website I immediately served him a winner from the tennis racquet of CC “Bud” Baxter.
great post. do I recognize that mystery women behind the menu? More blog photos please–where is it written that food writers always need to use words?
Ah, but what to make for dinner for two, when dinner is most every day . . .
and why is your lovely wife hiding her beautiful face?