Oscars: Every Best Picture Winner Ever Ranked From Worst To Best

9. The Apartment (1960)

Shirley MacLaine Jack Lemmon Billy Wilder The Apartment
United Artists

Even if Billy Wilder's searing comedy hadn't released in a bit of stinker year for the Academy, it would've probably won the Big One regardless.

What really makes The Apartment such a delight to watch even today is how freely it weaves darker and seedier elements into what could so easily have been a more harmless and playful narrative.

The uneasy maybe-romance between Jack Lemon and Shirley McLaine's leads - they're brilliant, by the way - is so deliciously, anxiously twisted that it's genuinely surprising Hollywood hasn't fashioned a remake yet, given how easily the concept would translate to a contemporary setting.

As satire and as genuine, full-bodied romance, it's a wonderful slice of hard-edged Hollywood at the start of an awards decade that played things rather straight-faced.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.