New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

48 21
80 Band's Visit, The
78 Before I Forget
64 Chronicle of an Escape
46 CJ7
68 Cool School, The
78 Counterfeiters, The
35 Deal
51 Doomsday
58 Felon
59 Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour
57 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
27 How to Rob a Bank
55 Irina Palm
69 Last Winter, The
38 Life Before Her Eyes, The
65 Married Life
33 Miss Conception
63 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
39 Never Back Down
55 Nim's Island
70 Outsourced
22 Postal
17 Prom Night
51 Promotion, The
77 Rape of Europa, The
69 Redbelt
xx Rogue
76 Shine a Light
57 Smart People
55 Street Kings
72 Surfwise
56 Then She Found Me
55 Turn the River
65 Water Lilies
36 What Happens in Vegas...
45 Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
55 Without the King

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Elevator to the Gallows (re-release)
Rialto Pictures

Elevator to the Gallows (re-release) reviews


6.3

based on 11 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin, Jean Wall, Elga Andersen, Sylviane Aisenstein, and Micheline Bona

A re-release of Louis Malle's 1957 masterpiece of suspense and film noir starring Jeanne Moreau, in the role that catapulted her to international stardom. (Rialto Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Classic \| Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Louis Malle Roger Nimier Noël Calef (novel Ascenseur pour l'échafaud)
DIRECTED BY:	Louis Malle
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 25, 2006 Video: July 23, 1996 Theatrical: June 24, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	88 minutes, B/W
ORIGIN:	France
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

Original title "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

A plan for a perfect murder goes wildly wrong in this 1958 melodrama by one of France's great filmmakers.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A consummate entertainment rich with the romantic atmosphere of Paris in the 1950s. Coming at a turning point in French cinematic history, it drew upon several major talents - director Louis Malle, star Jeanne Moreau, cinematographer Henri Decaë, musician Miles Davis - and achieved near-legendary results with all of them.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

As French crime thrillers go, this is about as good as it gets.

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A suspenseful, elegant entertainment.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Malle, only 25 when the film was released, bounces confidently among several threads -- classic French policier, juvenile delinquent film, doomy tale of tragic love, clock-ticking thriller.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Superb.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A tightly structured thriller with a brilliantly moody performance by Jeanne Moreau, and depending on your point of view, it's either one of the few genuine French noir films or an early entry in the New Wave.

The New Yorker David Denby

Moreau's nocturnal wanderings are made unbearably poignant by an exquisite Miles Davis jazz score that became famous in its own right.

Village Voice Melissa Anderson

It's precisely Malle's omnivorous appetite that makes his first feature, adapted from a policier, so delectable, one stuffed with many sumptuous sights and sounds.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The film's look makes a divine accessory for its music, which Miles Davis composed. There's not even 20 minutes of it in the film, yet it still defines the atmosphere, transforming a crime yarn into a bebop noir.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mr. Hankey gave it a10:
I am not hear to rate Elevator to the Gallows but one of my favorite films by Louis Malle because unfortunately it is not in metacritic. Au Revoir Les Enfants is a tale of two boys and their friendship that develops through struggle and understanding. The story is a beautiful and sad meaning that pops out of Louis Malle's somewhat autobiographical film. Because this is German occupied France their is pain and tragedy sweeping across the nation and all that pain is really connected with these two little boys secret and I will guess that you will just have to find out what that secret is. But this movie has made me think since it's story is so meaningful and proud. But yet you still will think that their is no end to this horrible fate that is to come. Becaue you will be saying at the end of the the film Au Revoir Les Enfants( Goodbye, Children ).

Luke gave it a9:
Great Cinema.

Filmfan gave it a10:
Great film. Great cinematography, totally absorbing and entertaining.

MaxL gave it a10:
This was released in England as Lift to Scaffold. I saw it again recently and thought it was just as good as then. The thriller plot is very good but the execution of the movie was great. Miles Davis score (improvised) was amazing and worth seeing the movie just to hear how Miles was playing the score with the scenes. Moreau and Ronet were very good in it and Louis Malle made an excellent movie for his, I believe, second or third movie. The was he uses the shadows and the camera movement was very interesting. Definitely worth watching again and again.

A gave it an8:
Also known as "Frantic" (and completely different and much better than the Harrison Ford picture of the same name), this film's suspense has several step functions built into it -- just at the time you become sensitized to the level of intensity, it's elevated again. The ending is spectacular. Must not miss this one.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page

Elevator to the Gallows (re-release) Rialto Pictures

Elevator to the Gallows (re-release)
Rialto Pictures