French Cinema: Elevator to the Gallows by Louis Malle (1958)

(contains spoilers)  This film, whose French title is Ascenseur pour l'echafaud,  is an amazing film, part film noir, and part Greek tragedy.  I am also reminded of the line in Hamlet "What a web we weave when first we practice to deceive."  Clearly   the main characters in this one should not be trusted with firearms or motor vehicles. And Murphy's law not only applies but I am sure was enacted chiefly because of these people.

The story:  Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet)  is a high level executive in an unsavory French arms firm that is having a steamy affair with the wife of the CEO, so late one Friday evening he calmly decides to take a revolver and a grappling hook,

climbs up to the top floor of his building and shoots the boss, carefully staging it to look like suicide.  He locks the executive suite and then climbs back down to his office and walks innocently out with his secretary, while the security man comes by to lock up the building.  So far so good.   But when he gets down to where his car is parked illegally on the street, he looks up and "Merde!" he notices that he left the incriminating grappling hook and rope are still in place.  

   He leaves his car running with the keys in it, and hurries back into the building, takes the elevator in order to remove the grappling hook. He doesn't figure he will be gone long, but boy is he wrong about that. Just as he is riding up in the elevator the security man shuts the power off for the whole building for the weekend and there he is, stuck in the elevator between floors.  Merde indeed. 

Meanwhile his paramour, Mrs. Carala (Jeanne Moreau) is waiting impatiently in a cafe somewhere where they had agreed to meet.   Two young people, a boy and a girl are just standing nearby when Tavernier fails to come back to his car, a fancy sports car convertible.   They are complete idiots as it turns out, which makes one wonder why they were running around loose.  They decide to take a joy ride in Tavernier's car which becomes a jaunt in the countryside.

In the process they are driving past the cafe where Mrs. Carala is waiting and she recognizes the car but thinks her lover has taken up with the young woman.   Hours pass.    On the highway they are offended when a couple in a Mercedes blows their horn at them and they impulsively follow them to a rural hotel.  They are a rich German couple on holiday in France.  They strike up a friendly conversation with the couple and spend a convivial evening with them and taking pictures with a little camera they find in the car.  The boy and girl pose as Mr. and Mrs. Tavernier at the hotel.  The older German tourist, who looks a bit like Walt Disney, listens as the boy spins a tale that is obviously bogus.  Then he humiliates the boy by pointing out the fact.  

The boy gets mad and decides to steal the old German's car and leave in the morning.  The motel is one of those places where each room is a cottage complete with a garage.  The boy and girl sneak into the garage and when they are surprised by the German couple in the garage during their getaway, the boy shoots the two of them dead.

If things haven't quite hit the fan by now, they certainly do now.  The real Tavernier, who is still stuck in the elevator is linked erroneously to the double murder and his picture is splashed across all the front pages in France.    The boy and girl realize they are up to their ears in a horrible mess, decide to commit suicide by taking an overdose of some sleeping pills she happens to have handy in her room. 

Tavernier finally gets out of the elevator when Monday comes by and stumbles off to look at the papers and go "huh?".    Mrs. Carala is wandering around distractedly after having not gotten a whole lot of sleep.  

Inevitably the French police get to the bottom of all this.  The boy and girl don't take enough of the drug whatever it is to finish the job.  Mrs. Carala comes by and scolds them for being so silly.  The police interrogates everyone and gets the true story, which is clinched by developing the film in the camera found in the car, which there in the darkroom under the dim red light the photos tell the rest of the story as pictures of Mrs. Carala and her lover, Mr. Tavernier develop.

This was the first film that Louis Malle made that did not involve fish.  His only previous professional work was to make the first film documentary put out by Jacques Cousteau, the pioneer of underwater exploration.  As such it was a brilliant start to his film directing career.