Day 41: When Someone Else Is Driving, I'm Scared

THE WAGES OF FEAR (1953)

Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

Starring: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter Van Eyck, Folco Lulli, William Tubbs, Vera Clouzot

In a destitute South American village, an international group of journeymen wait for their next job – and wait and wait and wait some more.  The only game in town is the American Southern Oil Company, and they only hire people with experience.  But a fire breaks out at one of their remote derricks, and Mr. O’Brien (Tubbs) needs several tons of nitroglycerine transported over the roughest terrain in the country.  Naturally, all of the immigrant workers go out for it, and the ones who are chosen are the Frenchmen, Mario and Monsieur Jo (Montand and Vanel), the Italian Luigi (Lulli)* and the Dutch Bimba (Van Eyck).  The job pays them two thousand US dollars each, which is more than enough to get them all out of the slums they’ve been living in.  But they’ve got to complete the job first.

If you say the words “Master of Suspense,” most people will automatically think of Alfred Hitchcock.  But watching The Wages of Fear has led me to bestow that term on H.G. Clouzot.  I don’t think you will ever find a more suspenseful film than this one.  You know from the very first frame that something is going to go wrong (a little slum boy tortures cockroaches with a stick), but it’s almost impossible to guess exactly when and how.  The sword hangs over the heads of all four men, and Clouzot threatens to cut the thread many times.  But he does so when you least expect it.  And when the sword falls, everything goes to hell – literally.

It was interesting to find out that The Wages of Fear was heavily edited before its release in the United States.  This was, of course, during the McCarthy era, and there are several scenes that could be considered as sympathetic to Communism and/or critical of Capitalism.  But the main problem more than likely lay with the Southern Oil Company and the character of Mr. O’Brien.  Mr. O’Brien and his company are portrayed as loud, crude, uncaring monsters who have no qualms about sending men on this suicide mission.  The only thing that matters to them is their bottom line.  Of course, now we know that oil companies would NEVER be so cold and heartless.  Perish the thought!

I recommend this movie to anyone who wants to know how to do suspense right.  But I know I’m going to get the same complaint I get every time I recommend a foreign-language film: “I hate reading subtitles!”  To that, I have two things to say.  First, it would be wise to get over that hatred of subtitles, because you really deprive yourself of some of the better films that have ever been made.  Hollywood isn’t the only place in the world that produces movies, you know!  And secondly, about one-quarter of this film is already in English, so this is a good one to ease into. 

*Yeah, I know. “Mario and Luigi,” hahaha.