The Wages of Fear

The Wages of Fear (1953) starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel. In an impoverished village somewhere in Latin America, four desperate men are hired by an American oil company to drive two trucks loaded with nitroglycerin. If they hit a bad bump or if the nitro gets too hot (from the sun), boom! They're goners. The tension builds as the unpaved road gets rougher and rougher. The setup seems to call for one of the trucks to blow up, but which one will it be? For $2,000 each, the men are risking their lives -- and their sanity. I rather enjoyed this movie, although it was a bit long at two and a half hours. (The film is in French with English subtitles. There were several occasions when English was spoken and the subtitles were dropped, making it hard for me to follow.) Grade: B