THE WAGES OF FEAR

Yves Montand

THE WAGES OF FEAR aka La salaire de la peur/1953). Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot.

"If I'm going to be a corpse, I want to be presentable."

"Just takes a few months to get to be a hundred."

In a grubby, hopeless town in South America, four desperate men agree to drive two trucks loaded with nitroglycerin over rough terrain to deliver to a fiery oil well for a great deal of money. The two main characters are Mario (Yves Montand) and his fellow Frenchman, Jo (Charles Vanel), with whom he strikes up an affectionate father/son friendship which is sorely tested and pretty much defeated by their ordeal. In the second truck are Mario's former friend, Luigi (Folco Lulli) and Bimba (Peter van Eyck). What sets this movie apart from its Hollywood remake, William Friedkin's Sorcerer, is the intense, more dimensional characterization that has you caring what happens to these not always likable individuals. The Hollywood version is also afflicted with "Indiana Jones" fever in which the situations the drivers and trucks find themselves in are sometimes like something out of a cliffhanger, while Clouzot manages to generate suspense over more reasonable travails. The acting is excellent, with Vanel in particular etching a memorably superb portrait of a tough guy who has to deal with thoughts of age and fear as the taut and terrifying journey continues, but the others are also marvelous. Luis De Lima, Vera Clouzot, and William Tubbs also register as another wannabe driver, Mario's sometime girlfriend, and the supervisor in the oil company who's much more concerned with the nitro getting through than he is about human lives. The Wages of Fear is imperfect and overlong and builds slowly [although there are tense scenes even in the first half hour, such as a confrontation between Jo and Luigi in a tavern] but it is arresting and moving. At one point Mario allows his desperation and exasperatioin with Jo to go too far, but in a very satisfactory conclusion it all comes full circle. Clouzot also directed Le Corbeau.

Verdict: A classic French film well worth the viewing. ***1/2.

SORCERER

Truck with nitro on rickety -- to say the least -- bridge

SORCERER (1977). Director: William Friedkin.

Jackie Scanlon (Roy Scheider) participates in the robbery of a parish during which a priest is shot, and the priest turns out to be the brother of a mafia bigwig. In France banker Victor Manzon (Bruno Cremer) learns that he is probably going to prison and the only man who can help him commits suicide. These two men and others wind up working in South America under fairly miserable conditions, and are desperate for money to go somewhere else. An opportunity arises when the oil concern needs volunteers to drive two trucks full of nitroglycerin for many miles over dangerous terrain to deliver to the oil well, with a big pay-off for those who survive. Sorcerer is a remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear, and is generally well-done, if not exceptional. The movie pulls you in even though its characters are hardly sympathetic, and the gritty and atmospheric details help make the trip compelling. The film's main strength lies in excellent, harrowing [if somewhat improbable] sequences in which the trucks have to somehow maneuver their way over shaky bridges on the verge of falling apart and spanning rushing waters. [Oddly, one scene in which a deadly explosion occurs is sort of thrown away.] There is some forgettable music from Tangerine Dream when Sorcerer cries out for a rousing, dramatic score, which probably would have made it a much more successful picture on every level. [Even Hitchcock knew the value of a good musical score, and Friedkin is no Hitchcock.] The actors give it their all, and the photography is top-notch, although there are times the somewhat documentary-style approach results in some disjointed editing and an occasional slapdash look. Friedkin wrote about his travails making the picture in his book The Friedkin Connection.

Verdict: Not entirely satisfying, but often quite gripping. ***.

LE CORBEAU

LE CORBEAU (The Raven/1943). Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot. 

In a small French town an unknown individual is mailing poison pen letters to many residents, inciting suspicion and paranoia. Suspects include the old nurse Marie Corbin (Helena Mason), the new doctor in town, Germaine (Pierre Fresnay), the elderly Dr. Vorzet (Pierre Larquey), his younger wife, Laura (Micheline Francey), and pretty Denise (Ginette Leclerc), who has a yen for Dr. Germaine. As the town gossips have a field day with all the alleged information vomited from the letters, one man is driven to suicide. This is an intriguing, well-acted movie, with an especially memorable sequence when one of the suspects runs through the narrow streets with an angry crowd in pursuit. This was the basis for a very creditable American remake made eight years letter, Otto Preminger's The 13th Letter, which arguably might have a slight edge on the original, making more out of certain key sequences. In any language, however, the story is fascinating.

Verdict: Absorbing foreign film ***.