Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

Welcome back! Another Sunday can only mean one thing. That’s right, it’s time for the next installment in the A-to-Z challenge!

This week we continue with the letter “E”. Picking a movie at random landed me on the French crime thriller from 1958, Elevator to the Gallows.

Title: Elevator to the Gallows

Director: Louis Malle

Released: January 29, 1958

Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes

Available to stream on: HBOMAX

IMDb synopsis: A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) is a businessman who works for an arms dealer by the name of Simon Carala (Jean Wall). What Simon Carala doesn’t know is that his wife, Florence (Jeanne Moreau), and Julien are lovers. This is more than just a fling, in fact Florence and Julien have decided to carry out a plan to kill Simon.

While at work on a Saturday, Julien wraps up a phone call with Florence in which they proclaim their love for each other. Julien steps out of his office, informs the operator that he is not to be disturbed, and slinks back into his office. Grabbing gloves, a gun, and a grappling hook, Julien steps onto the ledge of the building. He uses the grappling hook to climb up a level and walks through the front door of Simon’s office.

After a brief exchange of words, Julien pulls the gun on Simon. It’s at this moment that Simon realizes he is about to be killed with his own gun. Julien stages the scene as a suicide and hurries down the side of the building back into his office.

Walking out of the building with the operator and janitor, Julien places his coat and gloves in his car, starts the engine, and glances up at the offices when he notices the grappling hook is still hanging on the side of the building. He leaves his car running, with his coat and gloves inside, and races back to the building. Once he’s in the elevator and on his way up the power suddenly goes out. The janitor has cut the power on his final sweep of the building. Julien now finds himself stuck in the elevator. Standing there, he remembers he’s supposed to meet Florence at a nearby cafe but now has no way of getting a hold of her.

Meanwhile, Julien’s car is parked in front of a florist shop and still running. One of the employees of the florist, Véronique (Yori Bertin), and her boyfriend, Louis (Georges Poujouly) both decide to take Julien’s car for a joy ride. While on the joy ride, a Mercedes comes flying up behind them on the road. Louis decides to try and keep pace with the Mercedes in Julien’s car. He winds up following the Mercedes to a motel where he rear-ends the Mercedes as they pull in and park.

Véronique uses the name “Mr. and Mrs. Julien Tavernier” to check-in to the motel. As their luck would have it, they are in the cabin next to the German couple who were in the Mercedes, Frieda and Horst Bencker. Louis tries his best to lie his way through the evening with the Bencker’s and play the role of Julien Tavernier. Horst, however, is a wise man and sniffs out Louis’ lie. This would prove fateful as Louis, using Tavernier’s gun, kills both Freida and Horst Bencker, then steals their Mercedes as his and Véronique’s getaway car.

Back in the city, Florence is at the cafe realizing that Julien isn’t going to show up. She begins to wander the rainy Parisian streets in search for Julien Tavernier. She stops into every store and shop that happens to be open, asking everyone if they’ve seen Julien. However, she comes up empty as nobody has seen him since that afternoon.

As dawn breaks on Sunday morning, Julien Tavernier is now a wanted man for the murder of the Bencker couple. However, he’s still stuck in the elevator with no idea that his car has been stolen, let alone that he’s wanted for murder. The police show up to his office building to search his office. The janitor flips on the power so he and the officers can take the elevator to Julien’s office. Meanwhile, Julien cleans up the inside of the elevator car that he is in and rides it down.

Julien stops into a cafe, orders a large coffee and lots of croissants, and sits at a table outside. While at his table, a father and daughter are seated next to him. The daughter tells her father that the man is the same one in the paper. After the father hurriedly grabs his daughter and leaves the cafe, Julien snatches up the paper and sees his picture on the front page. Before he can finish reading the article, police arrive and place him under arrest.

Now, you might be wondering what happens next. Does Julien clear his name of two murders? Of all three? What happened to Véronique and Louis? And what about Florence? Not only did she have her husband killed, but now her lover is under arrest. Well, if you haven’t seen this before than you’ll have to watch it to find out.

Going into Elevator to the Gallows, all I knew was that it was a French crime thriller with music by Miles Davis. This was definitely a time where going into the movie knowing as little as possible paid off. (Which is why I try not to spoil anything major when doing these reviews.) At a brief ninety-one minutes, the pacing is such that you never find yourself bored.

Personally, I found the cinematography to be incredible. Specifically, when Florence is wandering the rainy Parisian streets at night in search of Julien. Stunning, powerful, and really allows you to get lost in the scene with Florence. The music from Miles Davis elevates each scene it’s used in. I’ll be honest, I bumped up the rating a full half star just because of the music.

It is rather impressive that this was a directorial debut from Louis Malle. Honestly, this is the only movie of his that I’ve seen. But, after watching Elevator to the Gallows, I am definitely willing to seek out some of his other films. Clever writing, great cinematography, and an amazing score from Miles Davis makes Elevator to the Gallows a must-watch.

Well, what do you think? If you’ve seen Elevator to the Gallows, let me hear your thoughts and opinions on it. You can leave a comment below or reach out to me across social media.

You know the drill. Next week will be the letter “F”. Have a suggestion for what I should cover? Get it in by Wednesday morning. I’ll announce on social media Wednesday evening what the movie for the week will be.