Elevator to the Gallows

Ascenseur pour lchafaud is a 1958 French crime film directed by Louis Malle. It was released as Elevator to the Gallows in the United States aka Frantic and as Lift to the Scaffold in the United Kingdom. It stars Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet as criminal lovers whose perfect crime begins to unravel when Ronet is trapped in an elevator. The film is often associated by critics with the film noir style. At the time of the films release, it introduced new narrative and editing techniques. The film is considered an important work of cinema at the base of the Nouvelle Vague and the New Modern Cinema.

Florence Carala Moreau and Julien Tavernier Ronet are illicit lovers who plan to kill Florences husband, Simon Carala Wall, a wealthy industrialist who is also Juliens boss. Julien, an exForeign Legion parachutist officer veteran of Indochina and Algeria, climbs up the office block on a rope, shoots Carala in his office without being seen, and arranges the room to make it look like a suicide.Now past business closing hours, seated at the curb in his convertibleas its top is slowly retractingjust before pulling away from the office building he glances up to its high floors, and he sees a rope hanging over the balcony edge, which is evidence of his crime. He must retrace his steps, and leaving the car running, he rushes back into the building. But while he is ascending in an elevator, the building custodian, or security man, switches off the power to the elevators, and Julien is now trappedas the building is shut down for the weekend. ........

Source: Wikipedia