The Elevator

Me loves disaster movies, and me also loves tense & short made-for-television thrillers. And you know what is so great about the 1970s? They had both in one and the same film! Next to boisterous and massively budgeted disaster blockbusters (like "Towering Inferno", "Poseidon Adventure", etc.) there also exist a handful of modest and inconspicuous but nevertheless fantastic disaster films that were part of the legendary "ABC Movie of the Week" series. "Runaway!", "The Day the Earth Moved", and "Heatwave" are splendid examples, and I'm now also adding "The Elevator" to the shortlist.

Simple, straightforward, compelling, and loaded with strong performances from a great cast. That's how you can describe the majority of "ABC Movies of the Week"; - "The Elevator" included. Right before a long holiday weekend, eight people get trapped in an elevator somewhere around the 30th floor of a still unfinished fancy building. The group remains relatively calm and rational, except for one person... And he's an armed robber with briefcase full of stolen money and a severe case of claustrophobia!

James Farentino ("Dead & Buried") is very convincing as the panicky thief Eddie, but some of the supportive characters are even better. There's veteran Roddy McDowall as the uptight real-estate salesman, Myrna Loy as the elderly lady with lots of vivid stories, and Don Stroud as Eddie's psychotic partner who just "missed" the elevator.

The plot of "The Elevator" is incredibly simple. An armed robber is fleeing from his latest job and enters an elevator with several other people (his accomplices use another elevator). The elevator gets stuck...and so it remains for most of the film! This hardly seems like enough plot for a full-length made for TV movie...but apparently some folks thought it was. I suspect it was okayed for production because all sorts of disaster- type movies were the rage in the early to mid-1970s (such as Irwin Allen's "Towering Inferno", "The Poseidon Adventure" and "Earthquake")...and even the dumbest idea seemed like it would work. Plus, they had a couple over the hill actresses who were willing to work...another requisite for such a movie! But these other films had ideas which worked better (not great, mind you) because they weren't confined to one tight space and offered the possibilities of multiple perspectives. Not a recipe for a fantastic film...and a sad waste of Myrna Loy and Teresa Wright. Overall, you could certainly do a lot better than this formulaic and clichéd film. It's not horrible but isn't exactly a shining moment in the history of "The ABC Movie of the Week". It is, however, rather fun to watch near the end as there are several unintentional laughs!

This film could not be more of its era. Old movie stars, good character actors and some unknowns locked in a lift. The problem is that you just know the lift cannot fall and therefore there is no suspense. Good work as usual from Roddy McDowell. Perhaps there is a challenge here for Joel Silver or Scott Rudin, remake this film and make it exciting.

Well, any movie buff will recognize here a pure tribute to Louis Malle's ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHAFAUD, where a criminal is trapped in a jammed elevator just after he committed his murder. Even a blind man could recognize this, only by earing the dialogues !! And this TV movie made in 1974 is also in the line of the disaster movies wave, where we have some former Hollywood stars who happen to be put together in front of the "disaster" just after being separately presented. See AIRPORT, TOWERING INFERNO, POSEIDON ADVENTURE, EARTHQUAKE, THE SWARM and so on...And, it's of course a small budget feature, the perfect TV product setting, cheap and efficient. But not advised for claustrophobic people. And the character study is also interesting. Some unbelievable scenes, such as this one when Farentino's character, after threatening the people with him in the elevator with his gun, gets on the elevator roof without any problem, as if he had a ladder... It was aired in France in the late seventies.

THE ELEVATOR is a simple made-for-TV suspense-thriller about a group of people trapped in an elevator with a claustrophobic criminal. I have to disagree with the negative reviews on here: the movie is suspenseful and does a good job ratcheting up the stakes. The criminal in the elevator is getting frantic, his accomplice trying to rescue him is willing to murder anyone who poses the slightest threat, and the elevator itself grows closer and closer to total collapse with every minute wasted. The characters, while simple, are well-played by the actors and likable enough to where you don't want to see them dead. The standout is Myrna Loy as an initially irritating but ultimately sympathetic and poignant old woman.

The atmosphere is tense-- you can feel the heat and unstated panic brewing in that elevator-- and the storytelling is very tight. The filmmakers establish all of the characters with economy and do not waste time in getting to the good stuff. While it won't blow anyone's mind, this is an underrated little thriller fans of old-school suspense will enjoy.