MARK STEYN AT THE MOVIES: Richard Curtis’ 2003 British hit Love Actually, versus Billy Wilder’s 1960 classic, The Apartment. 

A lot of it’s the script, a lot of it’s the chemistry between Lemmon and MacLaine. But, for whatever reason, The Apartment is one of the best, both Yuletide-wise and masterpiece-wise — oh, and uniforms-wise. I’ve never been much of a dress-up fetishist, but I do think Shirley MacLaine’s elevator get-up is awfully cute. If anyone’s minded to send me a specialty strippergram next birthday, that’s my choice. (Last year there was a booking error and I wound up with the open-bathrobed Charlie Rose-alike Chippendale.)

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™