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.
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drew-12123 April 2003
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Rainey-Dawn3 December 2016The film isn't what you'd call outstanding, it's average at best but it's still interesting and pretty good to watch. Some of the cast you'll recognize while others you might not recall right off the bat - cast is fine.
The story is a bit predictable and not very suspenseful but there is something about it that kept my interest. It's about a thief and murderer who is claustrophobic and scared that gets stuck in an elevator with others. He has two accomplices trying to get to him but building security will not allow them into the building that is closed to the public. Will anyone survive? This is a good early morning film or one for boring afternoon.
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BandSAboutMovies13 July 2023Directed by Jerry Jameson (Trapped on the 37th Floor, Hotline, Secret Night Caller) and written by David Ketchum (Agent 13 from Get Smart; he also wrote ten episodes of Happy Days and The Curious Case of the Campus Corpse) Rhonda Blecker and Bruce Sheeley, The Elevator finds, well, an elevator stuck with the entire cast inside.
There's Eddie Holcomb (James Farentino, Dead and Buried), a hitman on the run from his last contract; Marvin Ellis (Roddy McDowall, always perfect), the building's leasing agent; Dr. Reynolds (Craig Stevens, The Deadly Mantis) and his wife Edith (Teresa Wright, Shadow of a Doubt) and his mistress, Wendy Thompson (Arlene Golonka, who played characters named Millie on The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R. F. D.); Amanda Kenyon (old Hollywood represented by Myrna Loy) and young rich kid Robert Peters (Barry Livingston, Ernie Douglas himself), all trapped inside the small elevator that could drop at any minute.
While Eddie's claustrophobia gets to him, Pete Howarth (Don Stroud, Bloody Mama) and Irene Turner (Carol Lynley, The Poseidon Adventure), are waiting outside in the getaway car. It all gets tense - I mean, would you like to be inside an elevator for a few hours? - and is sort of a mini-disaster movie. -
nb_231 May 2003I 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.
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A shocking waste of the looks and talent of Carol Lynley.
Carol, who started out as a teen model and later in dramatic roles on the New York stage received a seven year contract with 20th Century Fox while still a teenager. She was not only beautiful but a very capable dramatic actress.. She also had a flair for comedy.
Carol had just had a career resurgence by starring in the mega hot The Poseidon Adventure two years earlier. There is no good reason for her film career to have blossomed throughout the 1970s. Instead she made terrible television like this as well as Flood! In 1976 and guest spots on Aaron Spelling shows. -
planktonrules10 March 2017The 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!
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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. -
kidboots28 November 2018Once-great stars were always assured of employment when TV movies were all the rage - especially the "disaster" type ones. This was a pretty small scale one - about a lift!! Agree with the reviewer who said that for all it's averageness, it still packed a punch!! A lift taking "all walks of life" people down to their long week-end becomes stuck between floors and because the block is still being built, the lift is still being fitted out as well ie it doesn't have an emergency phone, I mean who needs one??
There's the irritating lady from Philadelphia (and Myrna Loy is surprisingly good as an irritating lady!!), a doctor's wife (Theresa Wright), a mother and son and Roddy MacDowall as the always having to be sparkling and "on" P.R. man for the building's real estate - not to mention the claustrophobic!! He is Eddie Holcomb (aggressively played by James Farentino) part of a trio who have just committed a payroll robbery. He, clutching a bag of cash, is separated from his trigger happy pal and is destined to be a part of the lift ride from Hell!! No way does this short on characterization, long on screams movie resemble "Elevator to the Gallows". Instantly Eddie panics, putting the whole lift party on edge but midway through there is time for introspection. Loy's character reveals her bragging about her children and grandchildren is all an act- in reality she has no one and MacDowall's character admits that his
The normally luminous Carol Lynley is given nothing to work with here, her role as one of the trio of crooks is a cardboard cut-out!! -
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. -
searchanddestroy-121 February 2016Well, 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.