Summary
Later, the doctor is tucking Fran into bed, and tells Baxter that Fran will be sleeping on and off for the next 24 hours and will have a horrible hangover when she wakes up. Sitting down in the living room, the doctor asks for a cup of coffee and asks for Fran’s name. When the doctor asks where she lives, Baxter wonders if he has to report the suicide attempt. “It’s regulation,” the doctor tells him, but Baxter wants to be clear that it was just a mistake, lying that there was no suicide note or anything. “She’s got a family and there’s the people at the office,” he pleads with the doctor, who eventually agrees not to report it, saying that he can’t prove it wasn’t an accident. “I don’t know what you did to that girl in there, but it was bound to happen the way you’re carrying on,” the doctor scolds Baxter, referring to his belief that Baxter is the one carrying on all the affairs in his apartment. “Why don’t you grow up, Baxter. Be a mensch!” he says, before leaving. Baxter goes into the bedroom where Fran is sleeping, sits beside the bed, and looks at her mournfully.
The scene shifts to the following day and we see Baxter’s landlord storming up the stairs and ringing his bell. When Baxter comes to the door, Mrs. Leiberman wants to know what was happening in his apartment the previous night and scolds him for being so loud. Baxter goes back into his apartment and closes the door to the bedroom where Fran is sleeping. He calls up Mr. Sheldrake at home, who is opening presents with his children at home in White Plains. As the phone rings, one of his sons goes and answers. Sheldrake answers the phone and Baxter tells him that Fran took an overdose of sleeping pills the previous night. “What?!” Sheldrake says, just as his wife comes down the stairs. He assures her that it’s just something that’s come up at work. When Baxter invites Sheldrake to come and be there when she wakes up, Sheldrake tells him that’s impossible, that he’ll have to handle it on his own. Baxter pulls out Fran’s suicide note and offers to read it to Sheldrake, but he doesn’t want to be involved with that either. Baxter assures Sheldrake that it will all be kept very quiet, as the doctor is a friend of his.
While Baxter is on the phone with Sheldrake, Fran begins to wake up, and hears the conversation. She listens as Baxter speaks in a conspiratorial way with Sheldrake and comes out of the bedroom. “Isn’t there some sort of message you want me to give her?” Baxter asks, but Sheldrake requests that he make something up. As he hangs up, Baxter notices that Fran is standing in the doorframe, and runs over to help her get back into bed. She apologizes for causing him the trouble, and says she wishes he had just let her die. Baxter lays her down on the bed, but she wants to go back to her house. He goes to get her a toothbrush, and in the bathroom hides all his razors and his sleeping pills, to make sure she has nothing to kill herself with. Baxter runs next door to get some coffee and breakfast items from Mrs. Dreyfuss. She answers the door angrily and confronts Baxter about Fran’s overdose, which the doctor told her about. “For you I wouldn’t lift a finger, but for her, I’ll fix a little something to eat!” Mrs. Dreyfuss says.
Back in his apartment, Baxter finds Fran going to call her sister. He stops her and asks her what she’s going to tell her sister, but Fran doesn’t know. Baxter grills her about what her story’s going to be, but when she quite can’t think of a good story, Baxter decides that it’s best if she doesn’t call anyone. As Fran gets back in bed, he lies to her that Sheldrake is very concerned about her well being. “He’s a liar,” she says, before adding, “And that’s not the worst part. The worst part’s I still love him.” Baxter looks dejected as the doorbell rings. It’s Mrs. Dreyfuss, who brings a tray of food over to Fran in bed, and insists that she eat, even though Fran insists she isn’t hungry. Mrs. Dreyfuss feeds Fran the soup, all the while urging her to find herself a “nice, substantial man” and complaining about the fact that she thought Baxter was a nice guy when he first moved in. When Mrs. Dreyfuss leaves, Fran tells Baxter that his neighbor doesn’t seem to like him very much. Baxter says that he’s flattered that Mrs. Dreyfuss believes that someone like Fran would try and kill herself over a guy like him.
Fran asks Baxter if he found her suicide note and instructs him to open it. Baxter finds the $100 bill that Sheldrake gave her and Fran tells Baxter to make sure that it gets back to Mr. Sheldrake. Baxter takes Fran’s tray away and asks if she wants to play gin rummy. When she tells him she’s not very good at it, he still goes and gets the cards to play. They begin to play cards, when Fran gets contemplative and says, “I think I’m gonna give it all up. Why do people have to love people anyway?” They continue playing, and Fran confides in Baxter that she’s always had bad luck in relationships, wryly noting, “The first time I was ever kissed was in a cemetery.” She tells Baxter more about her bad luck with men and a little more about her biography. She moved in with her sister in New York, went to secretarial school but flunked the typing test, and then became an elevator girl, at which point she met Sheldrake. She begins to cry and asks if Sheldrake was upset when he found out. When Baxter lies and assures her that Sheldrake was sad, Fran says, “Maybe he does love me, but he just hasn’t worked up the nerve to tell his wife!” Struck with an idea, Fran picks up a pad and pen and begins to write a note to Mrs. Sheldrake, feeling sure that she would understand. Baxter grabs the pad from her and assures her that that’s a bad idea. Baxter continues to shuffle and play before noticing that Fran has fallen asleep. After tucking her in, he goes over to the sink and shaves.
We see Mr. Kirkeby and Sylvia pulling up in a car in front of Baxter’s apartment. They go up carrying an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne. At the door, Kirkeby reminds Baxter that he has an appointment for that afternoon, but Baxter tells him he has to leave. As he begins to usher Kirkeby out of his apartment, Kirkeby notices Fran’s dress hanging on the door and laughs about the fact that Baxter has himself a “little playmate.” Meanwhile, Mr. Dreyfuss comes up the stairs, where he finds Sylvia dancing and singing to herself in the hall and promptly runs into his apartment calling for his wife. Inside Baxter’s apartment, Kirkeby peers in the bedroom and notices that it’s Fran who’s asleep in the bed. Kirkeby is excited for Baxter and compliments him on having hit the “jackpot.” When Kirkeby is gone, Baxter goes back into the bedroom and checks on Fran. When she asks him to open the window, he pleads with her not to attempt suicide again. “Who’d care?” she asks, to which Baxter firmly responds, “I would!” Fran looks at him and wonders, “How come I can’t ever fall in love with someone nice like you?” Baxter tells her to sleep some more, before going to the sink and shaving.
The scene shifts to Sheldrake’s office. Arriving at work, Sheldrake asks his secretary, Ms. Olsen, to come into his office. In his office, he scolds Ms. Olsen for telling Fran about all of his affairs, before brusquely firing her. When Ms. Olsen leaves his office, Sheldrake calls Baxter at home. Meanwhile, packing up her things, Ms. Olsen picks up the receiver and listens in on Sheldrake’s call to Baxter. Sheldrake checks up on Fran’s progress, asks Baxter if he needs any money, and asks if there’s anything he can do. Baxter tells Sheldrake that he has $100 for him and that he should talk to Fran. As Fran gets out of the shower, Baxter puts Sheldrake on the phone with her, running out to the grocery store to give them some privacy. Fran walks hesitantly towards the telephone and answers. As Ms. Olsen listens, Sheldrake scolds Fran for attempting suicide and asks if they can continue on as if the whole thing never happened. Fran responds, “Of course I’m still here, because it never happened. I never took those pills, I never loved you, we never even met. Isn’t that the way you want it?” Sheldrake tells her that’s not what he means, that she should get well, and that he’ll see her soon, before hanging up. Ms. Olsen hangs up, then immediately calls Mrs. Sheldrake inviting her to lunch to discuss something.
Analysis
The day after Fran’s suicide attempt has a much different tone than any other moments in the film, and a great deal of tension and drama builds. This is signaled primarily through the music, which becomes suspenseful and ominous now. As Mrs. Leiberman, the landlord, climbs the stairs to confront Baxter about the noise in his apartment the previous evening, a tremulous string arrangement plays. As Baxter calls Mr. Sheldrake at home, we see Sheldrake sitting on the floor playing with his children and their newly opened toys on Christmas morning. This wholesome sight is complicated by the dramatic and scary music underscoring it. The music has the effect of showing the viewer that the stakes have changed, that Sheldrake’s infidelity has had a real effect on Fran, who nearly took her own life the night before, and the situation cannot simply be laughed off anymore. The ominous and forboding music playing under an image of Sheldrake as a warm family man and loving father has the effect of highlighting the hypocrisy in Sheldrake’s character, his unnatural detachment from the consequences of his actions.
Sheldrake’s villainy is confirmed by his response to the news that Fran has attempted suicide. Baxter explains what happened, and he responds with an indignant “What?!” that startles his wife. His surprise seems to be more logistical than emotional, however, and he is more concerned with how they might cover up the incident without being implicated than with how Fran might be doing. He is less concerned about the fact that Fran almost killed herself as a result of his actions than about the fact that, if she had succeeded, it could have ruined his reputation. Thus we see that Sheldrake is a mercenary and unfeeling man, capable of playing with other people’s feelings without a thought about the consequences. Even in the moment when Baxter asks if he has any message he wants to pass along to Fran as she recovers, Sheldrake requests that Baxter make something up. In this crucial moment, Sheldrake—whom we already know to be a rather unfeeling character—proves himself to be a particularly cruel man.
Even though Baxter is a good man, who clearly wants what is best for Fran, in the wake of her suicide attempt, he protects Mr. Sheldrake’s interests and privacy. Baxter’s precarious position within the hierarchy of his office makes him need to protect the privacy and reputation of his bosses in order to protect his own security within the broader corporate structure. By renting out his apartment to his superiors in order to advance his own career, Baxter is essentially buying stock in a corrupt system. As much as he wants to be fully on Fran’s side after Sheldrake mistreats her and drives her to suicide, he knows that if he does so he will complicate his professional position. He even goes so far as to lie to Fran that Sheldrake is very concerned about her, even though he knows for a fact that Sheldrake’s actual response to the news was cold indifference. In this section of the film, Baxter finds himself taking Sheldrake’s side in spite of his love for Fran.
Complicating matters even further is the fact that Fran is still in love with Mr. Sheldrake. In spite of his abysmal treatment of her, Fran is still hooked, and cannot seem to realize that her love for Sheldrake is itself self-destructive. Rather than changing her behavior, she simply bemoans the fact that she can never fall in love with nice guys, like Baxter. This only further highlights the fact that she ought to. Fran proves to be a glutton for punishment, a girl who has been so alienated and broken down by life that she believes that she deserves poor treatment. Even though Sheldrake has demonstrated such poor morals and a horrible track record, Fran still wants to be with him. Fran's helpless romanticism is part of what makes her so charming and singular; she has a unique haircut, wears a flower on her lapel, and knows everyone in the office's name. However, it is also what prevents her from standing up for herself and demanding the respect she deserves.
Ironically enough, the fact that Fran still wants to be with Sheldrake and doesn't know what's good for her highlights a similarity she has to Baxter, even if she doesn't realize it. Baxter, in wanting to be with Fran, also proves to be a person who doesn't quite know what's good for him, a helpless longing everyman who doesn't fight for what he wants, but simply accepts what he's given. Even though Fran broke a date with him and doesn't seem to return his feelings, Baxter still hangs at her every word and gladly steps into the role of caretaker after her overdose. Both he and Fran are portraits in earnest and pure love—they cannot help but care—but they are also both portraits in passivity and share an inability to advocate for themselves.
