Elevator To The Gallows. 1958.

Although made in 1958, I first saw Elevator To The Gallows in 1962 when I was 15 years old dubbed and on the bottom of a double bill at my neighborhood Loew’s movie theatre in Brooklyn. It was probably going by its American title Frantic. I recall that the Friday night audience was not taking to it at all. Me and my friends were also fidgety and bored. I mean what was this strange film. I had never seen a movie like it. But then something clicked for me and I became intrigued with this complex story of illicit love and murder. It stayed with me. Finally many years later I caught up with this tangy little piece of soiled laundry that was Louis Malle’s first film. Although Jeanne Moreau had been doing films and lots of theatre for some years, this was the one that made her famous and put her on her way to international stardom, and started me on my love for her, which has not let up to this day. This is one of the seminal films in the French New Wave, heavily influenced by American noir and crime films of the 1940’s but with a new French twist to it, and a great improvised Jazz score by the American master Miles Davis. The film opens with a beautiful close-up of Moreau breathlessly telling someone how much she loves him. It turns out Moreau who is married is on the phone with her lover played by the sexy and talented Maurice Ronet who works for her dirty big corporation arms dealer of a husband. This short phone conversation is the only moment in the film that the two lovers share any real screen time together one of the many nice twists in this very twisty film. I will say that a murder is planned and that’s all the plot I’m giving away. There are also some plot holes, but one should not let them get in the way of enjoying the film. The beautiful black and white cinematography is by the great Henri Decaë and also in the cast is Lino Ventura & Charles Denner as cops and look for small cameo by Jean-Claude Brialy. It’s amazing that Malle was only 25 when he made this accomplished film. One of the ten best films of 1958.