Just perfect...

Excellent adaptation.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Greetings from Lithuania."The Wages of Fear" (1953) is highly involving thriller / drama with very simple story and premise, but because of great movie making from director Henri-Georges Clouzot who also wrote the script, this is a must see. Acting was very good by all involved, especially by the 2 leads and 2 supporting characters although Véra Clouzot overplayed her role a bit in my opinion. But again it is the director who did amazing job in creating tense and very involving movie from not maybe very start but when the "delivery job" begins, it is one very tense ride till the very end which i think was cynical, as it is the world we live in.Overall, "The Wages of Fear" is a great film must see for everyone who loves realistic as possible and tense movies. Everything works here greatly making this a true classic.

In The Wages of Fear, four men in a remote South American town have the enviable task of transporting a metric buttload (technical term) of nitroglycerin across mountainous roads in poor condition. It's a taut, superbly suspenseful thriller, guided with a steady hand by director Henri-Georges Clouzot, who would go on to direct the classic Diabolique in 1955.Yves Montand, in a rare dramatic role, plays Mario, the ostensible protagonist of our tale. He's been stuck in this backwater for some time, but it costs a lot of money to get out – plane fares are through the roof, and there's no train, and there's no neighboring village. In short, you're stuck there until you can buy a ticket – and pay for a passport, of course.Mario spends his days looking for work, wooing tavern worker Linda, and despairing about the lack of work. There's an American oil company in town, but they're no longer hiring. His monotonous lifestyle is interrupted by the arrival of fellow expat Jo (Charles Vanel), a tough-looking older man who quickly wins Mario's favor at the expense of the rest of the men in town.The oil company, in fact, has its own problem – one of their large derricks has exploded, causing a huge oil fire. Company man Bill O'Brien decides to send two trucks loaded with nitro from the town up the mountain to the derrick. (The eventual idea is to set off charges, which will somehow contain or extinguish the fire.) O'Brien has no trouble scaring up volunteers for the task, since the men of the town are largely unemployed. Four men will be selected to take the two trucks. Only one truck is needed; the second is truly just in case there's an accident with the first one. The men will receive $2000 when the work is finished, more than enough to secure passage out of the backwater.Mario and Jo are chosen, as are Mario's roommate Luigi (Folco Lulli) and German expat Bimba (Peter van Eyck). The two trucks depart early in the morning, full of gas and of nitro. Danger awaits.Theirs is not an easy task. The road is full of ruts. In one place, the wooden deck that trucks use to make a sharp turn up the mountain has been damaged from disuse. It's hot and muggy. And one has to be very, very careful, as even the smallest bump might set the whole shebang off. There's also tension among the four drivers – Luigi is unhappy that Mario is spending more time with Jo than with him, Mario is unhappy with what he perceives as Jo's cowardice. Bimba seems to get along with everyone, though.The whole time I was watching this movie, I was certain not all four were going to make it. I will not spoil what is now a sixty-three-year-old movie, but I was still genuinely surprised by the ending. This ain't no fairy tale or sitcom. This is a movie about desperation, redemption, sacrifice, and comeuppance. It's not necessarily about justice.The Wages of Fear is a singularly terrific movie from start to finish, exquisitely shot and expertly written. Its money maker is its tension, something present here in spades. The writing is impeccable; even personality changes make perfect sense within the film's context. There are intricacies within a straightforward plot. This is a must see for lovers of thrillers.

Since becoming a fan of his work after seeing the astonishing 1949 movie Manon,I was thrilled to spot a 3 disc boxset of auteur film maker Henri-Georges Clouzot on Amazon UK. Struggling to decide which one to watch first,I found an excellent review on IMDb's Film Noir board,which led to me putting all my wages on fear.The plot:Stuck in a dead end town, Mario,Jo, Bimba and Luigi try to make ends meet,as a big US corporation (boo!) controls the nearby oil fields. Taking part in "shady" dealings,the company gets a tight grip on the town,which forces the people to stay silent over the abuses,due to it offering the only jobs in town.Discovering that one of the oil fields has erupted,the company decide that the only way to stop it is to use nitroglycerine.Going round town offering a handful of cash,the company grab the attention of ex-gangster Jo,the quiet Bimba,the quick-witted Mario and the warm, hard working Luigi. Getting told that they have to drop the nitroglycerine off to the oil field in trucks,the gang soon discover one major,risky problem:the oil field is 300 miles away on a road of death.View on the film:Flying in at 2 and a half hours,co-writer/(along with Jérôme Géronimi) director Henri-Georges Clouzot (who broke a leg whilst filming) and cinematographer Armand Thirard sink the trucks into an engulfing Film Noir atmosphere,where low-lighting allows the smallest glimmer of hope to be seen in the town. Keeping a close eye on every turning of the wheels,Clouzot brilliantly uses tightly held,lingering shots to build a mood brimming with anxiety over the title.Stomping down the Film Noir road, Clouzot makes every sharp turn land with an unrelenting thump,by blazing down scorching hot whites with mud and grit gathering every drop of sweat,which is burnt away by the oily Film Noir doom being lit on the horizon.Piped down from Georges Arnaud's novel,the screenplay by Clouzot and Géronimi beautifully spends the first hour giving the viewer an opportunity to (almost) interact with each character,from Mario's abrasive,Film Noir loner nature, to Jo's sincere desire to drive by the Film Noir darkness. Expanding on one of his major themes drawn from the very beginning of his credits,Clouzot gives the characters an inability to escape from the Film Noir oil fields that they are driving into,by making each pedal pressed pull them all away from a paternally safe "stop point",into a decaying road of ruthless doom,paved with grubby cash. Grabbing the role after Jean Gabin turned it down for the character being a "coward", Charles Vanel gives an incredible performance as Mario,thanks to Vanel keeping Mario's humble roots shining as the oil of Film Noir streams over Jo and Mario. Crushed into a million pieces, Yves Montand gives an incredible performance as Mario,whose rough edged smile Montand chips away at to hit a Film Noir loner who will roll over anyone who gets in the way of a handful of cash,as Jo and Mario rage with fear.

There's not much else to add to what others have written about this superb thriller, which reminded me of another cracker, Ice Cold In Alex. If getting half crushed by a jeep and then almost drowning in quicksand is bad, imagine getting your bones broken by a lorry and then engulfed in crude oil. Vera Clouzot is stunning and all the guys are perfectly seedy, desperate and selfishHowever, don't believe anyone who tells you that Friedkin's 70s remake Sorcerer is its equal or even superior, it doesn't come halfway close. For anyone to survive this hell is a travesty and the explanations of how the protagonists came to this pretty pass are downright contrived.