Restless femme fatale Florence Carala (Jeanne Moreau) recruits her lover, Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet), to murder her wealthy husband, Simon (Jean Wall), in his office and make it appear like a suicide. Tavernier does the dirty deed eagerly, but becomes trapped in an elevator when he returns to remove a key piece of evidence he had accidentally left behind. Tavernier’s unfortunate oversight sets into motion a dark ripple of events that bloodies the cold Paris night, with a now legendary jazz score by Miles Davis. 

“ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS married a new kind of jazz to a new kind of cinema, and created something altogether sublime.” —Tina Hassannia, Village Voice

“This is a movie built around a missed connection, and Moreau’s nocturnal wanderings are made unbearably poignant by an exquisite Miles Davis jazz score that became famous in its own right…. The street scenes, the bizarre, anomalous adventures that Moreau has on her nighttime quest, the anarchic kids who just pick up and go — all this looks forward to the New Wave.” —David Denby, New Yorker

“While the sad trumpet that travels alongside its main characters is genuinely one of the best scores of all time, it’s just one of the many virtues of this masterpiece. The film starts contemplative and almost Bressonian…then it turns into a Hitchcock-style scenario.” —Jaime Grijalba, Brooklyn Magazine