The Wages of Fear (1953) on Netflix
NR19532h 34mAdventureDramaThriller
In the isolated town of Las Piedras, four stranded Europeans take a job hauling nitroglycerin over rough roads to a burning oil field. Mario, Jo, Bimba and Luigi drive two trucks.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb8.1/1074,416 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
A desert town with a single airstrip, Las Piedras offers the foreign men stuck in it no work and no way to pay for a flight out. The Southern Oil Company, an American firm, runs the nearby oil fields and is the only employer. When a fire breaks out at one of its wells, the flames can be stopped only by a nitroglycerin explosion, and the chemical must be carried 500 kilometers in jerrycans on two trucks. The company foreman, Bill O'Brien, hires drivers from the town, and pay of US$2,000 each draws many volunteers. Mario, Bimba, Luigi and a German named Smerloff are chosen; Smerloff does not appear, and Jo takes his place.
Cast
- Luis De Limaas Bernardo
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Wages of Fear (1953)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Shooting on The Wages of Fear was halted for seven months after only half an hour of footage was completed when financing ran out, and torrential rain later trapped Clouzot's cast and crew in a Nîmes hotel for over a month.
- During production, director Henri-Georges Clouzot broke his ankle, several dozen local Romani hired as extras went on strike, and the pyrotechnics used for the oil fire sequence nearly started a wildfire.
- Jean Gabin turned down the part of Jo because he felt playing such a cowardly character would hurt his career, and Yves Montand was cast as Mario only after Gérard Philipe and Serge Reggiani were considered.
- Clouzot wanted to shoot on location in Guatemala but budget limits confined the production to Europe, and star Yves Montand refused to film in Almería, Spain, because of his opposition to the Francoist regime.
- The Wages of Fear won both the Golden Bear at the 1953 Berlin Film Festival and the Palme d'Or at Cannes, success that brought Henri-Georges Clouzot international fame and enabled him to direct Les Diaboliques in 1955.
- The Wages of Fear's influence reached later filmmakers: Christopher Nolan cited the 1953 film as a notable influence on his 2017 war film Dunkirk.
