THE WAGES OF FEAR (LA SALAIRE DE LA PEUR)

France, 1954, 148 minutes, Black and white.
Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter Van Eyck.
Directed by Henri- Georges Clouzot.

The Wages of Fear is a French classic of the '50s. Set in a seedy outpost in South America, the film tells the simple story of drivers hired to carry nitro-glycerine to a disaster site. The roads and the terrain are in poor condition. The film has been considered a masterpiece of suspense.

The director Henri- George Clouzot gets excellent performances from a cast led by Yves Montand, Charles Vanel and Peter Van Eyck. While some of the sequences in the town are slow, they do provide a setting for the journey and its dangers. There are some marvellous visuals - a classic scene whereby a match is lit and there is a suggestion of fire followed by an explosion.

There was a multi-million-dollar American remake in the mid-'70s with Roy Scheider, directed by William Friedkin (French Connection, Exorcist). It kept close to the original while having spectacular scenery and special effects. However, it was one of the worst box office disasters of its year. The reputation of the original remains classic.

1. The quality of this film? Its status as a classic? Suspense, character sketches, themes?

2. Location photography, black and white, light and dark? Isolated South American locations? The world of drifters, oil workers? Life in the town? On the road? Editing and pace, special stylistic effects? The musical score?

3. The title and the biblical connotations? Sin and fear? Death? The film as a parable, 'What doth it profit .... ?' The title with reference to the men, their work, the difficulties, money, needs and motivation?

4. The importance of the setting: South America, isolation, the hot dull and dusty town, vagrants and drifters, heat and thirst? A lost population? - Seeking opportunities? Rough and tumble? The group, the proprietor of the girl? Drinks and money? Prospects? Interactions, playing games, arguing, bickering, flirting?

5. The arrival of the plane? The small plane, Joe, the style, passport and money, Mario and the bond, flair? The taxi? The proprietor? Joe and O'Brien, the question of jobs and age? Mario in himself, attracted towards the girl?

6. The type of work available, hard, demanding? The workers? The oilfields, the plant, the need for drivers?

7. The crisis and the demand for drivers, the tests, age questions, interviews? Joe and his being rejected? The other man and Joe? Being taken on?

8. The dramatic impact of the journey, danger, the terrain? Experience? The prospect for suspense?

9. The filming of the journey: pace, editing, audiences sharing the experience of the terrain, the roads, the cargo, the skills of the drivers, speed? The rivalries, the ledge, the backing of the trucks out on the ramp, the rotting wood and its collapse? Timing? The boulders and the explosions? The oil leak? The trees and the leads?

10. The fire and its danger, the spectacle, the resolution of the problem?

11. The truck-drivers and their hopes, the background of the war, work, the growing friendships, speed, ingenuity with the rotting wood, the nitroglycerine and the explosion of the boulders, nerve? The cigarette tobacco, the blowing of the match and the transition to the explosion of the truck?

12. Mario and Joe? Tough qualities? The facts, the boulders and the rocks, the oil? The role reversal - especially Joe and his nerves? Running, humiliated, his leg?

13. The end of the journey, the relief, the desire to return and have the drink at the bar, the music playing? The crescendo of the music, the truck swerving? The spectacular death?

14. A film about human nature, hopes and achievements? A fable - what doth it profit to gain the whole world and lose one's life?