The Wages of Fear

Name: The Wages of Fear
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Genre: Crime/detective, Adventure, Drama, Thriller, Action
Released: 1953
Duration: 2 h 10 min
Cast: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Vera Clouzot, Folco Lulli, Peter Van Eyck

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Crime/detective
Adventure

1953
Henri-Georges Clouzot
130 mins
PG

Summary

A quartet of disreputable outcasts in a small South American town are given the job of transporting truckloads of explosives across a mountain range to help extinguish an oil well fire. Action thriller, starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel and Vera Clouzot

IMDB

Review

A star rating of 5 out of 5.

David Parkinson

The tension is unbearable in this nail-biting adventure, as two trucks full of nitroglycerin are driven over 300 miles of inhospitable Latin American terrain in order to help extinguish an oilfield fire. But, for all it says about courage and endurance, this is also a grindingly cynical study of human nature, with each participant willing to sacrifice the others for a bigger payoff. Dramatising Georges Arnaud's novel, director Henri-Georges Clouzot wisely spends time shading in the background detail, which intensifies the excitement of the action by drenching it in a sweaty, anti-Hawksian spirit of rivalry. Unusually winning top prizes at both Cannes and Berlin, this is cinema's most suspenseful condemnation of capitalism.

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8.1/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameMarioYves MontandJoCharles VanelLindaVera ClouzotLuigiFolco LulliBimbaPeter Van EyckO'BrienWilliam TubbsHernandezDario Moreno

Crew

rolenameDirectorHenri-Georges Clouzot

Details

Languages

Available on

video, DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Black and white