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ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1957)
Directed by: Louis Malle.
Produced by: Jean Thuillier.
Written by: Louis Malle & Roger Nimier, based on the novel by Noël Calef.
Director of Photography: Henri Decaë.
Edited by: Léonide Azar.
Music by: Miles Davis.
Released by: Rialto.
Language: with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France. 88 min. Not Rated.
With: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly & Yori Bertin.

Thrusting the viewer right into the action, the then-24-year-old director Louis Malle begins his first feature film with a whispered telephone conversation between two conspiring lovers, Julien (Maurice Ronet) and Florence (the regal Jeanne Moreau). Julien immediately puts his plan into action - murdering his boss, Florence's older husband and arms dealer Simon Carala (Jean Wall). The plan proceeds like clockwork, until a telephone call interrupts Julien's concentration and he leaves an important detail literally hanging in the air. Outside of the Hopperesque office building, dreamy shop girl Véronique (Yori Bertin) and her boyfriend, the delinquent-in-the-making Louis (Georges Poujouly), joyride through Paris in Julien's stolen sports car, as the lovers' plot unravels.

Certainly in its plot and sardonic dialogue ("Have some respect for war, it's your family heirloom") Elevator to the Gallows is a conventional film noir set against the singular backdrop of French colonial wars and post-war recovery (motels are all the rage) with convenient coincidences and plot holes; would anyone in daylight climb up from the ninth to tenth floor outside of a building and not expect to be seen? And given the life-and-death circumstances, at times the acting by Ronet and Poujouly is too casual, while the film loses its crackerjack momentum after its fast-paced first act. However, the crisp black-and-white cinematography is the stand out, hugely benefiting from filming on location, especially as Florence, resigned to her fate, wanders throughout the night, searching in smoky late night haunts for her accomplice. Adding to the melancholy is Miles Davis' sparingly used score. Kent Turner
June 24, 2005