Agrega una trama en tu idiomaArmed robber Eddie Holcomb flees his latest job and gets trapped with stolen loot and innocent people in a high-rise building's jammed elevator while his accomplice Pete Howarth waits to kil... Leer todoArmed robber Eddie Holcomb flees his latest job and gets trapped with stolen loot and innocent people in a high-rise building's jammed elevator while his accomplice Pete Howarth waits to kill witnesses who pose the slightest threat.Armed robber Eddie Holcomb flees his latest job and gets trapped with stolen loot and innocent people in a high-rise building's jammed elevator while his accomplice Pete Howarth waits to kill witnesses who pose the slightest threat.
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Todo el elenco y el equipo
- Producción, taquilla y más en IMDbPro
Opiniones destacadas
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 begins with two men, "Eddie Holcomb" (James Farentino) and "Pete Howarth" (Don Stroud), casually entering a high-rise building and taking an elevator to one of the top floors while Eddie's girlfriend, "Irene Turner" (Carol Lynley), waits in her car in the underground basement. Once on the 39th floor, the two men quietly break into one of the office spaces; however, they are spotted by the lone occupant, who is immediately shot and killed by Pete. After quickly moving the body out of their way, they proceed to steal a briefcase full of money that had been delivered there earlier that day and, once it's in their possession, quickly head back into the hall to catch an elevator going down. To their dismay, although Eddie manages to secure a place within the crowded elevator, there isn't enough room for Pete, and so he has to catch another elevator a minute or so later. At first, although he is extremely claustrophobic, Eddie manages to control his feelings of anxiety; however, when the elevator gets stuck between floors, his anxiety turns into a full-blown panic. Meanwhile, Pete also becomes concerned when his elevator arrives before Eddie's--and Pete can get extremely violent when things go wrong. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film turned out to be an okay movie for the most part, with all of the participating actors turning in solid performances. Admittedly, the made-for-television format hindered it to some degree, but even so, it managed to pass the time well enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
I agree the movie is of its time - I love the fashions and the snobbery - it's not just Britain that has a class system! But I don't agree there's no suspense. The point of the movie is the claustrophobic atmosphere, it's actually a bit more subtle than you'd think from the blurb.
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.
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.
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaRoddy McDowell and Carol Lynley co-starred together in The Poseidon Adventure (1972) before this.
- ErroresWhen the suitcase falls to the floor in the elevator and the money falls out, there is far less in the suitcase than there was when it was originally inspected and closed earlier.
- ConexionesEdited into Terremoto (1974)
Selecciones populares
Inicia sesión para calificar y agrega a la lista de videos para obtener recomendaciones personalizadas
Detalles
- Fecha de lanzamiento
- País de origen
- Idioma
- También se conoce como
- Fahrstuhl des Schreckens
- Locaciones de filmación
- Productora
- Ver más créditos de la compañía en IMDbPro
- Tiempo de ejecución
- 1h 15min(75 min)
- Mezcla de sonido
- Relación de aspecto
- 1.33 : 1
Contribuir a esta página
Sugiere una edición o agrega el contenido que falta