The Elevator Murder Case

The stylized treatment of suspense and Suen Lun's outstanding cinematography make the opening sequence of The Elevator Murder Case eye-opening. The elevator's doors open and reveal a corpse. Before the inspector arrives at the crime scene, the corpse disappears. The corpse is identified as songstress Lee Ha (Lee Hong-kum). A photo of a couple leads the inspector to a nightclub to investigate the trumpeter Sze-to Chung (Paul Chu), who is shielded by a nightclub owner's daughter (Ting Ying). The plot of an inspector who goes to a nightclub to investigate while listening to songs anticipates a similar sequence in John Woo's The Killer (1989) 30 years later. However, a "letter sent by a flying dagger" threatens the trumpeter to leave Hong Kong within 48 hours. In the meantime, the trumpeter's younger sister (Wong Oi-ming) is kidnapped to a dilapidated building, which allows Mok Hong-si to orchestrate some brilliant mise-en-scène on location. Ting Ying's role demonstrates outstanding wit and bravery when she saves the trumpeter several times. Is the songstress' appearance toward the end of the film human or ghostly? Maybe realising that his own strength was not in the suspense genre, Mok Hong-si invited suspense specialist Yeung Kung-leong to write the screenplay, which proved to be a winning collaboration.

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