Director Louis Malle made his feature debut in 1958 at age 24 with Elevator to the Gallows (The Criterion Collection; Movie •••½, Picture/Sound •••½, Extras •••½), a coolly controlled tale of a murder plot gone awry.
It combines elements of The Prisoner, The Twilight Zone, and Forbidden Planet with the philosophy of It's a Wonderful Life - that we're all intrinsically intertwined, affecting each other in ways we'll never know. And it continues to chart new TV territory in an extremely addictive way, taking the mystery in unpredictable directions.