''The Wages of Fear'' (french: Le Salaire de la peur) is a 1953 French

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring

Yves Montand Ivo Livi (), better known as Yves Montand (; 13 October 1921 – 9 November 1991), was an Italian-French actor and singer. Early life Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, to Giovanni Livi, a broom manufacturer, Ivo held stron ...

, and based on the 1950 French novel ''Le Salaire de la peur'' (lit. "The Salary of Fear") by

Georges Arnaud Henri Girard (16 July 1917 – 4 March 1987) was a French author who used the pseudonym Georges Arnaud. He was born in Montpellier. He was the author of the novel ''The Wages of Fear'' (french: Le Salaire de la peur). Biography Georges Arnau ...

. When an oil well owned by an American company catches fire, the company hires four European men, down on their luck, to drive two trucks over mountain dirt roads, loaded with

nitroglycerine Nitroglycerin (NG), (alternative spelling of nitroglycerine) also known as trinitroglycerin (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by nitrating ...

needed to extinguish the flames. The film brought Clouzot international fame—winning both the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The win ...

and the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the 1953 Berlin Film Festival and

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

, respectively—and enabled him to direct '' Les Diaboliques'' (1955). In France, it was the fourth highest-grossing film of the year with a total of nearly 7 million admissions.

Plot

Frenchmen The French people (french: Français) are an ethnic group and nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common Culture of France, French culture, History of France, history, and French language, language, identified with the cou ...

Mario and Jo, German Bimba and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Luigi are stuck in the isolated town of Las Piedras. Surrounded by desert, the town is linked to the outside world only by an airstrip, but the airfare is beyond the means of the men. There is little opportunity for employment aside from the American corporation that dominates the town, Southern Oil Company (SOC), which operates the nearby oil fields and owns a walled compound within the town. SOC is suspected of unethical practices such as exploiting local workers and taking the law into its own hands, but the townspeople's dependence upon it is such that they suffer in silence. Mario is a sarcastic Corsican playboy, who treats his devoted lover, Linda, with disdain. Jo is an aging ex-

gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

who just recently found himself stranded in the town. Bimba is an intense, quiet man whose father was murdered by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

, and who himself worked for three years in a

salt mine Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite (commonly known as rock salt), and extracted from evaporite formations. History Before the advent of the modern internal combustio ...

. Luigi, Mario's roommate, is a jovial, hardworking man, who has just learned that he is dying from cement dust in his lungs. Mario befriends Jo due to their common background of having lived in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, but a rift develops between Jo and the other cantina regulars because of his combative, arrogant personality. A massive fire erupts at one of the SOC oil fields. The only way to extinguish the flames and cap the well is an explosion caused by

. With short notice and lack of proper equipment, it must be transported within

jerrycan A jerrycan (also written as jerry can or jerrican) is a robust liquid container made from pressed steel (and more recently, high density polyethylene). It was designed in Germany in the 1930s for military use to hold of fuel, and saw wides ...

s placed in two large trucks from the SOC headquarters, 500 km (300 miles) away. Due to the poor condition of the roads and the highly volatile nature of nitroglycerine, the job is considered too dangerous for the

unionized A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

SOC employees. The company foreman, Bill O'Brien, recruits truck drivers from the local community. Despite the dangers, many of the locals volunteer, lured by the high pay: US$2,000 per driver. This is a fortune to them, and the money is seen by some as the only way out of their dead-end lives. The pool of applicants is narrowed down to four handpicked drivers: Mario, Bimba and Luigi are chosen, along with a German named Smerloff. Smerloff fails to appear on the appointed day, so Jo, who knows O' Brien from his bootlegging days, is substituted in his place. The other drivers suspect that Jo intimidated Smerloff in some way to facilitate his own hiring. Jo and Mario transport the nitroglycerin in one vehicle; Luigi and Bimba are in the other, with thirty minutes separating them in order to limit potential casualties. The drivers are forced to deal with a series of physical and mental obstacles, including a stretch of extremely rough road called "the washboard", a construction barricade that forces them to teeter around a rotten platform above a precipice, and a boulder blocking the road. Jo finds that his nerves are not what they used to be, and the others confront Jo about his increasing cowardice. Finally, Luigi and Bimba's truck explodes without warning, killing them both. Mario and Jo arrive at the scene of the explosion only to find a large crater rapidly filling with oil from a pipeline ruptured in the blast. Jo exits the vehicle to help Mario navigate through the oil-filled crater. The truck, however, is in danger of becoming bogged down and during their frantic attempts to prevent it from getting stuck, Mario runs over Jo. Although the vehicle is ultimately freed from the muck, Jo is mortally wounded. On their arrival at the oil field, Mario and Jo are hailed as heroes, but Jo is dead and Mario collapses from exhaustion. Upon his recovery, Mario heads home in the same truck, now freed of its dangerous cargo. He collects double the wages following his friends' deaths, and refuses the appointed chauffeur offered by SOC. Mario jubilantly drives down a mountain road, while a party is being held at the cantina back in town where Mario's friends eagerly await his arrival, which is expected to be in two hours. Mario swerves recklessly and intentionally, having cheated death so many times on the same road. Linda, dancing in the cantina, faints. Mario takes one corner too fast and plunges through the guardrail to his death.

Cast

as Mario *

Charles Vanel Charles-Marie Vanel (21 August 1892 – 15 April 1989) was a French actor and director. During his 76-year film career, which began in 1912, he appeared in more than 200 films and worked with many prominent directors, including Alfred Hitchcock ...

as Jo *

Folco Lulli Folco Lulli (3 July 1912 – 23 May 1970) was an Italian partisan and film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1946 and 1970. He was the brother of actor Piero Lulli. Selected filmography * ''How I Lost the War'' (1947) * ' ...

as Luigi * Peter van Eyck as Bimba * Véra Clouzot as Linda *

William Tubbs William Tubbs (May 10, 1907 – January 25, 1953) was an American stage and film actor.Bondanella p.156 He appeared in a number of European films in the years after the Second World War, including several by Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gaston ...

as Bill O'Brien * Darío Moreno as Hernandez * Jo Dest as Smerloff * Luis De Lima as Bernardo * Antonio Centa as Camp Chief * Darling Légitimus as Rosa

Reception and legacy

''The Wages of Fear'' was critically hailed upon its original release.

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote "The excitement derives entirely from the awareness of nitroglycerine and the gingerly, breathless handling of it. You sit there waiting for the theatre to explode." The film was also a hit with the public, selling 6,944,306 tickets in France where it was the fourth highest earning film of the year. In 1982,

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

called it "an existential thriller—the most original and shocking French melodrama of the 50s. ... When you can be blown up at any moment only a fool believes that character determines fate. ... If this isn't a parable of man's position in the modern world, it's at least an illustration of it. ... The violence ... is used to force a vision of human existence." In 1992, Roger Ebert stated that "The film's extended suspense sequences deserve a place among the great stretches of cinema."

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...

awarded the film out of 4 stars, calling it a "marvelously gritty and extremely suspenseful epic". In 2010, the film was ranked No. 9 in ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

''s "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema." The website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 47 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 8.90/10. Its critics consensus reads: "An existential suspense classic, ''The Wages of Fear'' blends nonstop suspense with biting satire; its influence is still being felt on today's thrillers."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reports a score of 85 out of 100 based on 15 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The British-American filmmaker

Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&nb ...

was strongly influenced by ''The Wages of Fear'' for his film '' Dunkirk''. The film was drastically cut for its 1955 U.S. release, losing around 35 minutes of its original running time. This included the cutting of several scenes giving a negative portrayal of the fictional American oil company "SOC" after the film was accused of

anti-Americanism Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general. Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...

Restoration and home video

One of the best known and most successful of Clouzot's films, ''The Wages of Fear'' has been widely released on every home video format. However, with the exception of a French DVD (TF1 Vidéo, 2001) featuring the original 153-minute French theatrical version, until recently most releases only contained a slightly edited 148-minute version. A comprehensive 4K restoration, based on the original negative and supervised by cinematographer

Guillaume Schiffman Guillaume Schiffman is a French cinematographer who is known for the films he has made with director Michel Hazanavicius, including '' OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies'' in 2006 and '' OSS 117: Lost in Rio'' in 2009. Schiffman is particularly know ...

, was completed in 2017. It has greatly improved audio and video quality, and has been released on Blu-ray, DVD and DCP in France, (TF1 Vidéo), the UK (

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

) and Japan (IVC). The film was colorized in 1996 with the approval of Clouzot's daughter. It was subsequently broadcast on French television and released on French VHS.

Awards

The film is unique in that it won both the

and the

. * 1953 Berlin Film Festival:

1953 Cannes Film Festival The 6th Cannes Film Festival was held from 15 to 29 April 1953. The Grand Prix of the Festival went to ''The Wages of Fear'' by Henri-Georges Clouzot. The festival opened with '' Horizons sans fin'' by Jean Dréville. During the opening ceremony ...

: Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (Palme d'Or) * 1954 BAFTA Award: Best Film

Remakes

'' Violent Road'' (aka ''Hell's Highway''), directed by Howard W. Koch in 1958, and '' Sorcerer'', directed by

William Friedkin William "Billy" Friedkin (born August 29, 1935)Biskind, p. 200. is an American film and television director, producer and screenwriter closely identified with the " New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in ...

in 1977, are American remakes, although the former is not credited as such. Friedkin described the latter as an adaptation of the original novel. The plot was adapted for an episode of the 1980s American TV series ''

MacGyver Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot. In both p ...

'', ''"Hellfire"'' (S01E08).

References

External links

* * * *
''The Wages of Fear: No Exit''
an essay by

Dennis Lehane Dennis Lehane (born August 4, 1965) is an American author. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including ''A Drink Before the War''. Of these, four were adapted a ...

at the Criterion Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Wages Of Fear 1953 films 1950s adventure drama films 1950s psychological drama films 1950s psychological thriller films French black-and-white films French adventure drama films French thriller drama films 1950s French-language films French adventure thriller films Golden Bear winners Italian thriller drama films Films scored by Georges Auric Films about death Films about friendship Films based on French novels Films based on thriller novels Films directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot Films produced by Raymond Borderie Films set in South America Palme d'Or winners Trucker films Best Film BAFTA Award winners Italian road movies Films with screenplays by Henri-Georges Clouzot 1950s thriller drama films 1953 drama films French road movies 1950s Italian films 1950s French films