The Wages of Fear

Four men stranded in a South American town, broke and with no way out, are offered a job. Nitroglycerine has to be carried to put out a burning oil well; the road is mountainous, the trucks have no suspension and the smallest jolt ends everything. The pay is high because the odds of coming back are not. Henri-Georges Clouzot directed. The production was at least as punishing as the film. It was shot in the south of France, and after the first thirty minutes were finished a financing problem halted it for seven months. Bad weather, a broken ankle for Clouzot and a strike among the Romani extras stretched the schedule further. In 1953 it won both the Golden Bear at Berlin and the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It sold nearly 7 million admissions in France. Bosley Crowther in the New York Times described the tension by saying you sit there waiting for the theatre to explode. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 100 percent. Empire placed it ninth in its 2019 list of the 100 best films of world cinema. Christopher Nolan named it an influence on Dunkirk, praising its focus on pure suspense and mechanical detail. A 4K restoration was completed in 2017 and Criterion released a 4K UHD edition in 2025. Who it is for: viewers who like suspense built out of waiting rather than pace. Who it is not for: anyone measuring the treatment of the local population and the one woman against today's standards. The film shows its age there.