Now on
to 1958 France for Louis Malle's first film, the hip and stylish crime flick
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS. Jeanne Moreau stars as the wife of a big businessman
(Jean Wall) who conspires with his employee (Maurice Ronet) to kill her husband
and run away together.
As the
film opens, Ronet, who turns out to be an ex-Foreign Legion parachutist, goes
through an extended, suspenseful plot to scale the outside of his office
building in order to murder his boss and make it look like a suicide. Upon
finishing up, he realizes he left his rope hanging from the outside of the
building, leaves his car running to go inside and clean up, and ends up stuck
in the elevator.
Meanwhile,
a young hood (Georges Poijouly) and his girlfriend who works at the flower shop
on the corner (Yori Bertin) steal the car and go for a joyride.
All the
while, the clock is ticking, and Moreau as the murdered man's wife is waiting
to rendezvous with her lover, who is stuck in the elevator.
The
whole thing has an air of coolness, helped partially by the black and white
cinematography and the stylish direction, but really sealed in by the awesome
Miles Davis soundtrack. He scored a couple movies after this one, but it's a
shame he didn't do more.
As the
film develops there are several coincidences and misunderstandings that add up
to a hell of an ending, but I don't want to give that away here. The movie is
worth it for the opening sequence alone.
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