Feel like having your nerves utterly shredded by a god-tier filmmaker? Already seen “Inchon?” Then you need to experience the piano-wire-taut suspense of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 masterpiece “The Wages of Fear,” which currently holds the 209 spot on IMDb’s Top 250 list (as voted on by users).
Henri-Georges Clouzot is considered by many cinephiles to be Alfred Hitchcock’s French counterpart (he swiped the rights to “Les Diaboliques” from the maestro), but Hitch never made anything as sweatily terrifying as “The Wages of Fear.” Hitchcock’s films could obviously be kinky, and, in the case of “Frenzy,” downright sleazy, but there was almost always a pure cinematic polish to his work. I don’t think he would’ve ever bothered with a white-knuckler like “The Wages of Fear” (not unless he could’ve expanded the small role of Linda to lure one of his preferred blonde stars); Hitch obviously wasn’t afraid of getting political, but this material was simply too unglamorous and grueling for him. Clouzot, who held a low opinion of humanity, was all too happy to put his audience through the wringer while reminding them in the end that only the cruelest among us get away clean. But the rough ride is worth it because, when it comes to action and suspense, you can’t do it better than “The Wages of Fear.”
Would you want to board a rickety truck and haul one ton of nitroglycerin across 300 miles of rugged road to extinguish an oil-field fire? Of course not. But would you want to watch a crackerjack cast led by the hunky Yves Montand do this while risking their lives for a life-changing payday?
Trust me, you would and you should. ASAP.
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The Wages of Fear and the terror of hauling nitroglycerin
Yves Montand as Mario drives a mortally wounded Charles Vanel as Jo in The Wages of Fear – Cinédis
If you’re experiencing a touch of déjà vu after reading that plot summary, that’s probably because you’ve seen William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer.” That film, a riff on the same story and a masterpiece in its own right, is a clever retelling of this narrative, but Clouzot’s film has a clarity of focus that sets it apart and above Friedkin’s film. At every mile of the way, these men, who’ve taken a job deemed too hazardous for union drivers, know that a simple bump along their unpaved path could blow them sky high. Death is omnipresent. But they’re stuck in a dead-end desert town where the only means of exit is a pricey plane ride out of the local airfield. The money guarantees freedom. Living too many more days in this village, where work is scarce, is a death sentence.
Montand and his co-stars carry this weight as they head out for the oil field, and Clouzot ramps up the tension by throwing in Charles Vanel’s fallen mobster Jo. The last thing you need on an errand like this is a man you can’t fully trust, who might, when the time comes, engineer your death and collect your share of the hazard pay.
“The Wages of Fear” runs a harrowing 153 minutes, and is streamable on The Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and (for free with ads) Tubi. If you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor and fill in a big gap. “The Wages of Fear” has lost none of its anxious power over the last 75 years.
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