As part of our See Change initiative, we strive to showcase the work of women and non-binary individuals and their behind-the-scenes involvement in a production.
This film is edited by Madeleine Gug and Etiennette Muse.
By the late 1940s, Henri-Georges Clouzot had restored his reputation in the film industry—after having written and directed titles for a Nazi-controlled production company during the German occupation of France—with minor hits such as Quai des Orfèvres (1947) and Manon (1949). The director soon discovered Georges Arnaud’s best-selling 1950 novel Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear), whose elements seemed perfectly suited to his brand of high-octane—yet bitterly pessimistic—suspense. The result is one of the greatest thrillers ever committed to celluloid, a white-knuckle ride from France’s legendary master of suspense.
In a squalid South American oil town, four desperate men (Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli, and Peter van Eyck) sign on for a suicide mission to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin over a treacherous mountain route. As they ferry their explosive cargo to a faraway oil fire, each bump and jolt tests their courage, their friendship, and their nerves.
Reviews
"The excitement derives entirely from the awareness of nitroglycerine and the gingerly, breathless handling of it. You sit there waiting for the theatre to explode." –The New York Times
Film Stills
