Small Apartments

Plot[edit]

Franklin Franklin is a hairless, overweight, eccentric social misfit and compulsive hoarder obsessed with Switzerland. He walks around wearing little more than briefs and mismatching socks and lives on a diet consisting of Moxie soda and pickles with mustard.


Franklin lives alone in an almost bare apartment in a rundown building complex in Southern California. It's populated with other eccentrics, including cynical stoner Tommy Balls, neurotic geriatric recluse Mr. Allspice, and aspiring dancer Simone who lives with her mother – both of whom may or may not be prostitutes.


At an earlier point, Franklin's landlord Mr. Olivetti accidentally died after slipping on spilled mustard caused by sneezing fits when receiving fellatio from Franklin over frequent unpaid rent. In an effort to get rid of Olivetti's body, Franklin takes it to Olivetti's house and tries to stage it as a suicide, implementing an unlikely over-array of suicide methods. Attempting to dump Olivetti's pickup truck in the outskirts of town results in Franklin being robbed (of both his brother's watch and Olivetti's truck) and assaulted by two very dimwitted muggers.


The next day, Franklin wonders why he has not gotten his weekly audiotape from his institutionalized brother Bernard. Franklin almost idolizes him as he is handsome, charismatic and popular and included him in his social life.


Unknown to Franklin, Bernard has died of an inoperable brain tumor and among his effects is an envelope holding a key to a locker. In it, there is a recorded message revealing that Bernard stole from his employer and has left Franklin savings in a Swiss bank account and a passport with a new identity.


Meanwhile, fire investigator Burt Walnut, and other detectives examine Olivetti's body, and quickly conclude that it is staged, and put an APB for his pickup truck. After visiting the apartment complex and meeting Balls and Allspice, he becomes suspicious of Franklin. Walnut is estranged from his wife (who was having an affair with his cousin), and learns that Allspice's wife died around the same time as Olivetti's wife, 13 years ago.


Working at his convenience store, Balls shatters Simone's dancing dreams with his brutal honesty; upset, she hides in the restroom. He is then held up by Franklin's muggers, who shoot him in the torso when startled by Simone.


Franklin returns to his apartment, but seeing the police, keeps on driving. Walnut discovers that Allspice has committed suicide, and when answering a phone call by Franklin, is asked to adopt Franklin's dog (also named Bernard). Walnut informs him of the muggers' arrest, calling them Olivetti's murderers, remarking of Olivetti that "some might say that he had it coming to him."


Although innocent, Franklin takes his Switzerland flight, sitting next to Dr. Sage Mennox, a self-help author whom Bernard obsessed over. He tells him that his brother died and was not insane (as Mennox had previously asserted), but had actually been impaired by a fatal brain tumor "the size of a racquet ball". Mennox is taken off guard by this, and Franklin (who has held a grudge against him for belittling Bernard, his hero, in the past), slyly remarks that they would be stuck together, in this awkward situation, for the duration of a very long flight.


Ultimately, Franklin is seen in Switzerland standing in front of the Matterhorn mountain surrounded by three attractive Swiss women in Swiss folk costume.