The Elevator is a 1996 drama-comedy film starring Martin Landau

Martin Landau

Martin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...

 and Gabriel Bologna. It was directed Arthur Borman and Nigel Dick

Nigel Dick

Nigel Dick is an English music video and film director, writer and musician based in Los Angeles, California. He directed the Band Aid video "Do They Know It's Christmas?", as well as over 300 other music videos.Nigel Dick should not be confused with the Australian Dr...

. The film also features appearances by Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis (comedian)

-Early life:Lewis was born in Brooklyn, New York City and was raised in Englewood, New Jersey. His father worked as a caterer and his mother was an actress. Lewis is Jewish. He later attended Ohio State University and was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity....

 and Martin Sheen

Martin Sheen

Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...

 in the film within a film sequences.

Synopsis

Movie producer Roy Tilden is on his way to an award ceremony held in his honour when he gets stuck on an elevator with a young screenwriter, David Brochman Junior. Tilden is not interested in his scripts which are all shorts - but as there is no-one to help the two out of the elevator he is finally forced to listen to David as he reads three of the scripts to him.

The first script titled Dahny, Yow tells of a man who wakes up in the middle of the night by a giant transvestite nun and dwarf Rabbi, both named Dahny, who tell him to change his life. The second script titled Painting the Eiffel Tower is set in a police sergeant's office as he has a heart-to-heart talk with an artistically talented street punk. The final script, Typing, Bad Dingo and Crimes Against Humanity tells of an acting student who has to type out a University student's thesis by the following day but ends up cracking under the pressure of her own social life.