Greed in the Sun

A French film set in Morocco. Rocco is a lorry driver. He works for a haulage company and is always in the desert. The company is in trouble. One of the lorries disappears with its load. An insurance claim is made. The owner knows it is a scheme. The lorry was not stolen; it was hidden. Hervé is a new driver. Nobody knows him and why he came is unclear. Rocco suspects him. From there the film is a road story. The lorries move across the desert. The load is valuable. A delivery is to be made and the two men are on the same road. A race starts between them. Who arrives first, who takes the load. Sand, heat, broken road and mechanical failure. The two watch out for each other and deceive each other at the same time. What the narrative is interested in is not theft but rivalry: its idea is that both want the same thing, and that although they like each other neither can let it go. There is a woman as well. Pepa knows them both and takes no side. The lorry sequences carry the film. The narrative builds tension out of speed, balance and road. One section takes place on a mountain road and the brakes fail. There is a reckoning at the end and it is entirely mutual. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura face each other; both were among the biggest draws of the period. It was shot in Morocco on real desert roads. The images are widescreen and colour. The music is by Georges Delerue. Henri Verneuil directed. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier and Reginald Kernan are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1960s French adventure films and two-hander tension. Who it is not for: anyone looking for depth; the plot is thin and the narrative rests entirely on the contrast between its two stars.