This kind of work doesn’t call for ragpickers but for angels. A paratrooper is a good angel. – Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
A perfect crime. A locked room. And one tiny mistake that turns everything into a nightmare. What follows isn’t just bad luck… it’s fate tightening the noose.
“So, let’s start at the beginning.”
Hello to all of the classic people who are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors and let you know there will be spoilers ahead. Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on French Film Noir Elevator to the Gallows (1958).
This film is rated at 7.9 on IMDb.com[1]. On Rottentomatoes.com, this film has a 93 percent on the Tomatometer and 91 percent audience approval[2]. These astronomical scores attest to the quality of this movie.
Great film critic Roger Ebert gives this film 3 ½ stars in a September 15, 2005, review. He said in part:
“These 1950s French noirs abandon the formality of traditional crime films, the almost ritualistic obedience to formula, and show crazy stuff happening to people who seem to be making up their lives as they go along.”[3]
Actors – Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
Returning
Jeanne Moreau played the role of unhappy wife Florence Carala. Moreau, who may be the greatest French actress, was first covered in the great war drama The Train (1964).
New
Maurice Ronet was cast as the murderer Julien Tavernier. Ronet was born in France in 1927. Ronet studied at the Paris Conservatoire. He made his stage debut at 20. Ronet was a suave French leading man through the 1950s and 60s. He is best known internationally for today’s film Elevator to the Gallows (1958), as well as The Fire Within (1963) and Purple Noon (1960). He died in 1983.
Story
The movie begins with a close-up of Florence Carala (Jeanne Moreau) on the phone, desperately confessing her love and need to move forward with Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet). Julien professes his love and desire for her.
Miles Davis’ horns begin their work.
Julien is in a high-rise office building. Florence says she will be waiting at the Royal Camee when the deed is done and that Julien should come in his car. She gives details of what will happen when he arrives in 30 minutes.
Julien asks Geneviève (Micheline Bona) to remain at work a little longer on this Saturday evening. The company Julien works for is the Carala Corp., and it is owned by Florence’s husband, Simon Carala (Jean Wall). Julien asks that he not be disturbed, thus setting up his alibi.
Julien puts on gloves, then takes a business plan, a pistol, and a rope with a grappling hook out on to the balcony. He throws the hook to the next floor and then climbs the rope. He enters a window into an empty anteroom outside of Simon’s office.
Julien enters Simon’s office and the man starts raging on he right away for keeping him waiting and delaying his planned trip to Geneva. Simon mentions Julien keeping him waiting during the Indochina War. The Indochina war was a series of conflicts between the French colonizers’ verses the future Vietnam and other countries in the region. The war last from 1945-1954 with a French defeat.[4]
Julien gives a plan to Simon who is quite taken with the covert findings. After calling Julien a true friend, he mentions that Julien is a war hero and a paratrooper. The plan pertains to Algeria, a colony that France would lose about four years after this film was made.
Julien pulls the pistol on Simon. The older doesn’t take the threat seriously. Julien continues that Simon has been a war profiteer from the Indochina War and not from the trouble in Algeria. Simon’s tune changes when he realizes Julien is holding Simon’s gun.
The murder of Simon is not shown, as they cut away to Geneviève sharpening pencils.
Julien places the pistol in Simon’s dead hand to make it look like a suicide. As he picks up the plan, he sees a black cat walking on the railing outside the office.
Julien locks the room from the inside and uses a knife to lock the main lock. This seems like mystery plot featuring a murder in a locked room. Of course, this time it is to make it seem like a suicide.
The security guard, Maurice (Gérard Darrieu), talks to Geneviève about Julien causing him to work late. Although she was instructed not to disturb him, Geneviève calls Julien. There is no answer.
Julien uses the rope to climb back down to his office where the phone is ringing. He answers and says he will soon be out.
Julien, Geneviève, and Maurice ride down in the elevator.
Julien walks toward where his car is parked. There is a young couple, flower shop girl Véronique (Yori Bertin) and teen tough guy Louis (Georges Poujouly) who are having a disagreement. Véronique knows Julien and is quite taken by him. She tells Louis that Julien fought in Indochina before serving as a Legionnaire in North Africa. Also, he has a convertible.
Julien starts his car and lowers the roof. Suddenly, he sees the rope and grappling hook hanging from the balcony. He runs towards the building.
Louis sees the running car and knows this is his opportunity to be a rebel without a cause, in his new leather jacket.
Julien heads up in the elevator, but before he can get to the floor, Maurice turns the power off for the weekend. He secures the exterior grating of the entrance way.
Louis prepares to steal the car even though he doesn’t drive that well. Véronique chews him out but jumps in for the ride. As they get going, Louis raises the roof of the car as it is raining.
Florence is sitting outside at the Royal Camee. Did you know that the chairs in Parisian outdoor cafes generally face outward for optimal people watching?
She sees Julien’s car go by with Véronique as the passenger and thinks Julien has run away with the flower shop girl. She sits back down without any idea what to do. She is pestered by a man who had sold her a car. Florence thinks that Julien lost his nerve for the murder and ran off with the young girl.
Véronique and Louis head for the highway in the stolen car. Véronique finds a miniature camera and a pistol in the glove compartment, thus setting the stage for their Bonnie and Clyde style rampage.
Julien is trapped in the elevator and none of his efforts lead to his release.
Once night has fallen and it is still raining, Florence heads onto the streets, walking without much purpose. Julien futile efforts to free himself are shown. He hears Florence rattling on the gates outside the door. A small girl that should not be out so late asks Florence what she is doing. Florence tells her to go home. The little girl finds the grappling hook and rope and takes it with her. Had it fallen on its own, meaning Julien didn’t really need to go back?
Florence asks a gas station attendant and later a bartender if they have seen Julien. They haven’t and her funk overwhelms her. This is a beautiful walking and jazz music scene. She snaps back for a second after seeing a car like Julien’s.
Véronique is tired of riding up and down the highway with no destination in mind, as the rain continues. They are overtaken by a fast German Mercedes 300SL, driven by an older German couple. Louis gives chase. The Mercedes takes an exit, and Louis follows until they arrive at a motel. Louis bumps the Mercedes, but the driver Horst Bencker (Iván Petrovich) invites the young couple for a drink with him and his wife, Frieda Bencker (Elga Andersen), thinking they are newlyweds.
Véronique really wants to stay in a motel, never having done so before. Louis begrudgingly allows her to register under Mr. and Mrs. Julien Tavernier. The young couple is placed in a cabin next to the Germans. Horst shows Louis the engine of the car and room service brings food in a tuck tuck cart. They drink a lot and Louis acts like he fought in the Indochina War.
Véronique shows Frieda the miniature camera and three shots are left on the roll. She takes pictures of the other three. When Louis sees, he snatches the camera. It is mentioned that the motel has a film processing lab. The party continues with the men smoking cigars.
Julien is shown in the elevator and the debris from his many escape attempts are scattered around.
Looking even more beaten down, Florence is accosted by a man on the street. The man confused her bedraggle look for that of a working lady, a mistake the police will later make as well.
Horst tells Louis that his name is not Tavernier and he has never been a soldier. But the German couple still want to be friends. The two couples each return to their cabins. Everyone is happy except Louis.
Florence is soaked by rain as she continues to look and ask for Julien.
Julien finds a trap door under the carpet in the elevator. He drops some lite paper and sees it is a very long way down. After a moment, he climbs down using a hanging cable.
Outside, another security guard unlocks the grate before checking the inside of the building. He drops his keys, so he turns on the power. Julien is sent rapidly downward, but he is not crushed. He makes it back inside the elevator.
Florence enters an arcade café and wanders around. She asks about Julien but the manager has not seen him. She begins to think that she should have committed the murder herself. A drunken friend of Julien’s from Algeria arrives and begins to drink with Florence. A woman says she saw Julien, giving Florence hope, but is is dashed when the women says it was a week earlier. Louis wakes up and wants to flee the motel. Outside he takes Véronique to the other garage because he is stealing the Mercedes. Véronique goes along. Louis grinds the gears, unable to find 1st in the sports car.
Horst comes outside laughing, thinking the entire situation is comical. Horst points an unlit cigar and tells Louis to put his hands up. Thinking it is a real gun, Louis pulls his gun and shoots Horst. Frieda runs into the garage and Louis shoots her as well.
How many times have I told you, when you hear gunfire, run the opposite way.
Véronique and Louis leave in the Mercedes. Louis makes it back to the city and they abandon the car on a bridge, before heading to Véronique apartment. It’s a cold water walk up. They kind of dump you can’t find anymore. Louis falls into self-pity. They are convinced they are going to jail. Véronique says they will only be together in the newspaper headlines. She is romanticizing their plight, and it evokes Rome and Juliet.
Véronique puts on some music, and they both take an overdose of a barbiturate. They lay in bed and wait for their fate.
Florence is next seen in a paddy wagon with a herd of, I think that’s the right term, Fille de joie (Wah). They are unloaded and taken into the police precent. Julien’s drunk friend is brought in as well. The cop is shocked when she tells him what her husband’s name is. Another cop verifies her story and everything changes. She has them call for car.
While Florence is waiting to be picked up, homicide detective Commissioner Cherrier (Charles Denner) comes down to question her. He asks if she knows Julien. She says she knows him vaguely. When asked when the last time was, she saw Julien, she tells him that she saw him the previous evening with another women in the car. Of course, we know she is mistaken, having only seen Véronique and Louis.
Commissioner Cherrier tells her that Julien killed two German tourists. The police have found Julien’s car at the motel, plus his coat and gun inside the abandoned Mercedes. Only Véronique was seen at the motel check in, so they assume Julien was with the young woman. Florence’s sighting tends to confirm their suspicions.
Florence is driven back to her home where she can pick up her car.
At the motel, the police techs carefully collect information. The Deputy Prosecutor (Hubert Deschamps) is running the investigation. He intimidates a couple of witnesses into saying they saw Julien, even though they did not. The Deputy Prosecutor releases information to the newspaper that the killer is Julien.
Security Guard Maurice and two police arrive at the Carala building to search Julien’s office. When Maurice turns the power on, Julien is released from his elevator prison. However, the police and Maurice ride up in the other elevator and don’t see Julien. Maurice discovers Simon’s body and lets the police know.
On the street, Julien thinks the police towed his missing car. He goes to a small café and calls for Florence, but he is told she is asleep. The people in the café, some of whom know Julien, are looking at him oddly, as his picture is already in the newspaper and has identify him as a murderer. Finally, Julien sees his picture in the newspaper as police with blaring sirens close in.
In the police station, Julien is given the third degree. They know when he left the building and think they know when he drove away with a young female. They also have his coat and gun from the Mercedes. Finally, he tells Commissioner Cherrier about being trapped in the elevator all night. The police dismiss this as ridicules. He is told that Florence is the one who identified him in the car. He says he barely knows her. Commissioner Cherrier thinks the information is credible because they both say they don’t know each other well and it confirms the story as he believes it to be.
At the office, Florence is told of her husband’s death and the future struggle she will have taking control of the business by a business advisor. She finally has time to read the newspaper story. She vows to herself that she will save Julien. Florence goes to the flower shop and obtains Véronique address from the manager.
She drives to the apartment and finds Véronique, asleep in the bed. A groggy Louis enters from the bathroom. She tells the two youth that that drugs they took are not fatal. She says they stole Julien’s car and killed the two German’s. Florence yells that they need to tell the truth and free Julien. She then locks them in the room.
Louis thinks he has been given a reprieve since the police are looking at Julien for the murders. This lasts until Véronique reminds him about the photos from the camera at the motel.
Véronique has a spare key to open the door and sends Louis out to the motel to retrieve the film. It is not clear when they would have dropped it off.
Florence calls the location of Véronique and Louis into the police, who are not very receptive. She sees Louis leave on a moped. Florence follows Louis to the motel.
Louis walks into the photo printing laboratory and is met by Commissioner Cherrier. They have the three photographs of Louis with the German couple, while they were still alive. Louis is taken into custody.
Florence comes into the laboratory and the other pictures on the roll are all of her and Julien. She is told and realizes that she will do more time for the murder of Simon than Julien will. Echoing something that Véronique said earlier, that her and Louis would be together in the photos.
Conclusion – Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
Jeanne Moreau is amazing in this film even though she mostly walks around pouting.
As hard as it is to believe, this was the first feature film for director Louis Malle. He was around 25 when he made this film. He went on to make three more films with Jeanne Moreau, The Lovers (1958), The Fire Within (1963) and Viva Maria! (1965).
Legendary trumpeter Miles Davis watched a screening of the film and recorded the music in a single session. He then brought in a quartet of musicians and improvised each tune in the film. It is alleged that this was done while drinking champagne with Jeanne Moreau and Louis Malle.
Director Malle shot iconic French film star Jeanne Moreau in close-up, with no makeup, and with only natural light during her night walk down the Champs Élysées. He used very fast film and mounted the camera on a baby carriage. It has been reported that processing lab technicians were appalled at how unflatteringly she was photographed and objected to the star being shown like this but eventually agreed to process the film as requested. Once they saw the results, it soon became clear that Malle had captured every subtlety of Moreau’s performance.
World-Famous Short Summary – Never leave photos lying around.
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051378/
[2] Elevator to the Gallows | Rotten Tomatoes
