2freensel I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

happytrigger-64-390517 "Le Monte-Charge" is a hell of hidden treasure in french film noir. And it's the best opus in the Frederic Dard-Robert Hossein cooperation. How can such a nugget be forgotten for so long time? At last, it's available on DVD and blue-ray. Maybe french films noirs need a complete encyclopedia so we can discover such gems."Le Monte-Charge" offers us a real noir crime drama with a diabolical machination. Without telling the story (already told by the other reviewers), the result is an amazing and insane atmosphere, sharply photographed by not so unknown André Bac ("Le Jour Se Lève") with dazzling views by night. A lot of very strong surprises all through the movie. I was stuck in front of this mirage of despair.The main city where the movie is shot is Asnières (next to the station street with the cinema Alcazar).If you love old fine french noir movies with old settings (french restaurants, cars, stores... ), jump on it and enjoy, you will place your disc next to "Les Diaboliques" by Clouzot.

Spikeopath For some time now those film lovers who have a kink for film noir have debated about years – the beginning and ending of this most wonderful style of film making. Rarely is French film noir taken into consideration, daft really since some quite superb French noir can be found in the 1960s, as America tailed off towards the back end of the 50s with their fascination for noir, some French film makers picked up the torch and kept it alight. Le monte-charge (1962) (The Lift/The Hoist/The Elevator…) is a fine exponent of Frenchie noir. Directed by Marcel Bluwal and co-written by Bluwal with Frederic Dard, story pitches Robert Herbin (Robert Hossein) into a murky Hitchcockian labyrinth among the back streets of Argenteuil. Herbin has just served 7 years in prison and is in town breaking his parole requirements out of genuine necessity. Quickly becoming enamoured with Martha Dravet (Lea Massari), whom he meets in a café, Herbin is spun into a sexually tinged game of cat and mouse with the sultry siren. A she-wolf in cat-skin clothing? Pic begins in deathly silence as Herbin moves about the shadow bathed buildings and moist glistening streets, from the off you know we are in noirville. He adorns a trench coat while she is attired in a wild cat skinned coat, noir dude and femme fatale in full effect! She has a child in tow as well, who is quickly dispatched to the apartment bedroom, left to sleep as Herbin and Dravet indulge in sexual frustrations, heartache yearnings and desperations. They often leave the apartment, toing and froing between noir tinted locales, the caged elevator the slow moving MacGuffin a focal point of some considerably visual power and plot importance. Then a body turns up, or does it? It's murky out there, she's fraught, he's confused, and when another man enters the fray, it gets messy and the crafty plot begins to unravel. Leading to a finale that doesn't disappoint the noir faithful. Bluwal and his cinematographer, Andre Bac, gleefully indulge in the staples of noir, with high-angled shots and a ream of murky exterior sequences. The script is a doozy, full of sexual energy, brought to life by the excellent Hossein and Massari, while Georges Delerue's musical score is perfectly pitched amongst the tonal flows of the narrative. Crimble Eve film noir, Gallic style. Splendid. 9/10

mackjay2 Lea Massari makes a memorable femme-fatale in this Hitchcockian venture into nocturnal suspense. "Le Monte-Charge" (Literally, Service Elevator) is a dark, little-known gem of late-period Film Noir. Irony plays a major role right from the start, as Robert (excellent Robert Hossein) returns from prison on Christmas Eve. All he finds is a lonely Paris neighborhood, with people rushing around the streets, shopping and chattering. His mother had died while he was in prison, and her dark apartment is a depressing place to be. Solitary Robert dines alone, but by chance he meets an attractive woman, Marthe (Massari) and her little girl. Eventually, Robert ends up in the woman's apartment, but things don't go quite as he expected. This elevator makes some mysterious and extremely intriguing stops along the way, and it would be unacceptable to spoil any of them. Director Bluwal shows influence of Hitchcock and of some masters of French crime drama, with atmospheric camera work and in particular the use of sound effects. The actors are fully inside their roles. Besides the fine leads, there is Maurice Biraud, very good as Mr. Ferry. Georges Delerue provided a score that is a classic of his particular kind: sparingly used and melancholy. Much of the story is set in a large factory building that contains a private apartment, but Bluwal makes great use of Paris exteriors as well (not the typical, romantic ones, but the quartiers inhabited by ordinary working people). Not just another disposable thriller, this is a meticulously crafted film of startling surprises, revelations and numerous cinematic pleasures.

dbdumonteil On a Christmas night, all doesn't seem to be calm and bright.An ex-convict ,Robert Herbin,(Robert Hossein) meets a beautiful Italian married woman Marthe Drévet ,who has got a lot of things to hide and it's the beginning of a film noir,with a lot of suspense and unexpected twists ,unfairly ignored nowadays.The screenwriter was adapted from a Frederic Dard 's novel,famous in France for his "San Antonio " series -not for every taste-,but who also wrote murder mysteries as compelling as these of Boileau-Narcejac (les diaboliques,Vertigo)Robert Hossein had already adapted his "toi le venin" for the screen,and it seems that he is ,much more than Marcel Bluwal,essentially a TV director,the main auteur of the film.The action takes place in an old house ,the first floor of which is a big workshop.A dark , threatening house,where a service elevator(monte-charge)leads to the flat.Marthe takes Robert to her home for a drink;he puts a small bird he bought on the Xmas tree,and they go for a stroll in the streets;when they come back,there's a dead body in the room(the hubby) and most extraordinary thing,the bird has disappeared.And that's only the beginning!The scenes outside the house show Clouzot's and Duvivier's influence,but also Dard's misanthropy:all through the streets,on that Xmas night,there's nothing really divine:except from the very beginning,when a gendarme buys a plane for his child,all we see is people arguing or fighting.And it's during the midnight mass,when a singer breaks into "minuit chrétiens" (o holy night),that the two heroes meet a despicable bourgeois(Maurice Biraud) puffed up with smugness and vulgarity.A lot of surprises are in store for the audience and I wonder why they've never thought of a remake:the screenplay is strong enough to stand the test of time.The performances (Hossein,Biraud and Léa Massari) are first-rate.