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The Wages of Fear (1953, Fr/It.)
(aka Le Salaire de la Peur)
In director Henri-Georges Clouzot's suspenseful, nail-biting
adventure thriller and road film, based upon Georges Arnaud's 1950
novel Le Salaire De La Peur ("The Salary of Fear"); it was a
film-noirish tale of greed, macho-competition, dehumanization, misogyny,
and exploitation; director William Friedkin's Sorcerer
(1977) starring Roy Scheider was a remake and tribute to the original novel, as was
the "Hellfire" episode in the TV show MacGyver (first aired on November 27, 1985);
it resembled Huston's The Treasure of the
Sierra Madre (1948) and John Boorman's Deliverance
(1972), and inflluenced Sam Peckinpah's The
Wild Bunch (1969) and many other films; a US-distributed
version of the film in 1954-55 edited out what were considered 'offensive
anti-American' sentiments, reducing the length of the original French
theatrical film from about 153 minutes to 118 minutes, although now
the actual slightly-edited version is about 148 minutes:
- in the small, poor, hot and remote, "god-forsaken"
South American town of Las Piedras (near to Caracas, Venezuela)
in 1950, some of the film's main characters were introduced in
the town's central gathering place - a cantina-bar known as Corsario; the
first half of the film introduced the setting and many of the derelict,
unemployed, unfortunate, down-and-out individuals (mostly Europeans)
who were stranded, trapped and desperate to leave the town (the
only way out was an expensive airlines ticket)
- the playboyish, ex-petty thief Mario Livi (Yves
Montand) with latent homosexual tendencies was a French Corsican
in exile, involved in a slightly-abusive affair with local cantina-bar
waitress Linda (Vera Clouzot, the director's wife in her feature
film debut) who sincerely loved him, but she was also forced to
sleep with her demanding boss Paquito Hernandez (Dario Moreno);
the proprietor was aggravated by the "lousy bums" and "cheap tramps" that
hung around his establishment without jobs or any money; Mario also
complained: "It's like prison here. Easy to get in...But there's
no way out, and if you don't get out, you croak"
- aging, dapper, nihilistic and arrogant con-artist
and ex-gangster Mr. Jo (Charles Vanel) arrived in town by plane;
as a result, Mario began to spend all his time with Jo - another
French compatriate who had lived in Paris; he soon
contemplated giving up his talkative and hard-working best friend
and fat Italian roommate Luigi (Folco Lulli), employed as mason,
who did all their ironing and cooking in their apartment; Mario called
Luigi "a real chump" and Jo added: "What a jerk!"; Jo's determined
pressure ("Your buddy's getting on my nerves") successfully
separated Mario from both his roommate Luigi and from Linda
- an exploitative, domineering American oil company,
the Southern Oil Company, or SOC (modeled after Standard Oil),
was situated in the center of town in a secure, walled compound;
Mario explained the detested presence of Americans: "If there's
oil around, they're not far behind"; the company supported
pre-fab houses, a cafeteria, and a cemetery; they also owned and
supervised oil wells in the vicinity, and were one of the few employers
in town; the American oil company was supervised by company foreman
Bill O'Brien (William Tubbs) (who had been involved in illegal
activity with Jo years earlier)
- shortly later, the SOC announced a catastrophe that
it was faced with - a disastrous well fire 300 miles away; there
were 12 local victims - four dead and eight injured, and only
one American foreman named Reichert who was badly burned soon died;
protesters amongst the poor exploited townsfolk in a crowd that
had gathered complained about their low wages and poor working
conditions: "It's not fair. We're
always the ones to suffer. We're always the ones to die...The gringos
never die"; foreman O'Brien suggested a cover-up to the safety
commission: "Put all the blame on the victims"
On-site at Oil Well: Foreman with Fully-Bandaged
American Casualty
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Native Peoples Observing Oil-Well Fire
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The Massive Oil-Well Conflagration
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- the only way to extinguish the fire was
to cap the well and destroy it with highly-explosive nitroglycerine;
the company needed men to drive two trucks
(loaded with 200 gallons of the unstable explosive in jerry-cans)
on a treacherous, death-defying mission across rough terrain; the
dangers were well-known: "It's murder. (With) the condition of
the roads, your drivers haven't got a 50-50 chance"; the devised
plan was to hire four "transients" or other non-union and non-company
volunteers (for bonus wages of $2,000 each) to take the suicidal
job for "peanuts"; O'Brien heartlessly explained: "Those bums don't
have any union nor any families. If they blow up, nobody'll come
around bothering me for any contributions"
- an SOC company vehicle with a PA system drove around
town advertising: "Experienced drivers sought for dangerous work.
Good pay"; many of the destitute individuals from the cantina
eagerly applied for the work, dreaming of fast riches and escape
from the town; meanwhile, Luigi was diagnosed
with terminal case of lung disease (from inhaled cement dust from
his job), and had between 6 months and a year to live
- O'Brien briefed the many volunteers for the four
jobs by demonstrating the volatility of nitroglycerin, and then
clearly warned: "The slightest bump, the slightest heat, you're
a goner; there won't be enough of ya left to even pick up...You're
taking your lives into your own hands"; Dick (Jeronimo Mitchell)
- one of those who refused the job, spoke up: "When I was a
kid, I used to see men go off on this kind of jobs and not come
back. When they did, they were wrecks. Their hair had turned white
and their hands were shaking like palsy! You don't know what fear
is. But you'll see. It's catching, it's catching like small pox!
And once you get it, it's for life! So long, boys, and good luck"
- after a driving test, those who were selected by
O'Brien were instructed to start at the pre-dawn hour of 3 am the
next morning; the chosen few included: strong, blonde German-born
expatriate and pilot Bimba (Peter van Eyck), the dying Luigi, Mario,
and a German named Hans Smerloff (Jo Dest); Jo was dejected that
he was considered too old, but was promised the job by O'Brien
if anyone backed out; about two hours before departure, Bernardo
(Luis De Lima) - who had been one of the rejects - had written
a suicidal note to his mother moments before being found by Linda
hanged to death in the garden behind the cantina
- and then suspiciously
after Smerloff didn't show, Jo was reluctantly substituted at
the last minute; the four drivers were dressed in company uniforms
and watched nervously as the nitro was loaded onto the two trucks
Nervously Watching the Nitro Being Loaded onto Trucks
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The Drivers (and O'Brien) Preparing to Drive Off
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O'Brien Waving Goodbye
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- the second half of the thrilling film consisted
entirely of the dangerous drive itself; the drivers were paired
up and flipped a coin for positioning: Jo was with Mario in the
first truck, and Bimba was with Luigi in the second vehicle; they
were instructed to drive with 30 minutes of separation between
them for a "safety margin"; along the way in the early
part of the trip about 10 miles from the start, the trucks switched
positions when Jo became sick to his stomach (likely from nervous
fear)
- four major obstacles were featured during their
treacherous journey, bringing out the cowardice or bravery of some
of the characters: (1) the requirement was to drive at either less
than 6 mph (that would prolong the trip) or at least 40 mph to
avoid excessive vibration on a wrinkled or rippled 'washboard'
road with ruts caused by the wind in an unobstructed area outside
the forest; cruising at different speeds, the two trucks almost
collided into each other at the end of the 'washboard' section
of road
Problem # 1: Speed on "Washboard" Road
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Speed of At Least 40 mph Required for "Washboard" Section
of Road
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The First Truck Was Going Only 10 mph, Almost Causing a Collision with the Faster
Truck Behind
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Near-Collision at the End of the "Washboard" Between
the Two Trucks
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- (2) a construction barrier required the trucks
on a winding, tightly-angled mountain road to negotiate a narrow
hairpin turn by backing up onto a rotting wooden platform above
a cliffside - the structure ultimately collapsed after the second
truck barely made it; the challenging situation caused
Jo to reveal his utter fear and cowardice (he cowered on the mountain
hillside), while Mario became more courageous and brave and deftly
steered the truck to solid ground; to spite his cowardly partner,
Mario made Jo run alongside the truck before picking him up, and
calling him a "low-down rat" who was "scared stiff" and had the
jitters
Problem # 2: Hair-Pin Turn and Rotten Platform
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- (3) a huge boulder that had fallen from the steep
cliff walls blocked the roadway, and nitro from the truck had to
be used to detonate and clear it; Bimba
gently poured some of the siphoned-off nitro-explosive into a drilled
hole 30 inches deep into the boulder; he lit a cord-fuse to trigger
a hammer to fall (and cause the explosion); after the trucks were
backed up and out of range and everyone hid behind rocks, the boulder
was successfully blasted out of the way
- while Luigi was driving, Bimba recalled his difficult
family history (he appeared to be a persecuted homosexual and fugitive);
the Nazis had imprisoned him as a worker in a salt mine
for three years, and he was still affected by the hanging-murder
of his father by the Reich
- a sudden flash of light and billowing clouds of
dense smoke signified that a deadly explosion had struck the lead
truck carrying Luigi and Bimba
- (4) at the scene of the blast, a large pit
or crater caused by the explosion had ruptured an oil pipeline
and filled the large hole with spilled oil; Mario and Jo had to
navigate their truck through the oil-filled crater; during their
efforts, Jo - who was wading in the black liquid, was run-over
by the truck that was unable to stop (Mario closed his eyes as
he deliberately drove straight through); and then, stuck in the
middle of the lake, Mario jumped into the black slime of the
oily pit to rescue his crippled and mortally-wounded friend,
although he blamed him for their predicament: "It's your fault.
I told you to get out of the way. If I hadn't hesitated...I'd
have made it. Now we're stuck on account of you"; afterwards,
he was able to extract the truck from the slick muck
Problem # 4: Crater Filled with Oil
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Jo Testing the Bottom of the Oil-Filled Crater-Pit
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Jo Guiding Mario Through Slick Oil Lake
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Mario - Fearing That He Would Run Over Jo
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Jo Crippled by the Truck
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Jo Submerged in the Slick Lake of Oil
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Mario Assisting Jo
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- slumped onto Mario's shoulder, Jo died on the way
just as the truck entered SOC's flaming oil field headquarters,
and Mario tearfully exclaimed: "Look, we made it"; Mario was the
only one of the four drivers to successfully reach the burning
oil-field; workers at the site struggled to put out the raging
fires; he collapsed exhausted on the ground
- in the film's unexpected, surprising and ironic
conclusion, after collecting double his promised wages ($4,000
dollars) and being praised as a hero, Mario refused an SOC chauffeur
for the return trip; he drove back in an empty truck
to the Corsario cantina (where a celebratory party
was taking place for him), and was expected
to arrive in a few hours
- on his return trip, the death-defying Mario dangerously
and recklessly weaved back and forth while listening
to Strauss' 'The Blue Danube' on his radio (the celebrants were
also tuned in to the same channel); he glanced at his lucky Paris
subway ticket on his dashboard and suddenly swerved off the road;
his truck barrelled through a guardrail and over a cliffside; he
was killed clutching his ticket; telepathically sensing Mario's
death, Linda fainted while dancing in the cantina
Linda Fainting Simultaneously
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Mario Clutching His Subway Ticket
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Linda (Vera Clouzot), Sexy Cantina Waitress
Mario Livi (Yves Montand), Frenchman in Exile
Paquito Hernandez (Dario Moreno), Cantina Proprietor
M. Jo (Charles Vanel), Ex-Gangster
Bimba (Peter van Eyck), Blonde German
Bill O'Brien (William Tubbs), SOC Foreman
Luigi (Folco Lulli), Mason Diagnosed with Lung Disease
Mario with His Compatriot Friend Jo
O'Brien Demonstrating the Explosive Power of Nitro
Dick's Objection to Taking the Dangerous Job
Lead Truck Loaded with Explosives
Mario with Jo in Truck Cab
Luigi with Bimba in the Other Truck Cab
Mario Relieved to Be Alive After the Rotten Platform Collapsed
Mario Briefly Refusing to Pick up His Cowardly Partner Jo
Boulder in the Middle of the Road
Bimba Filling Boulder with Nitro
Mortally-Wounded Jo in the Cab as They Arrived at the Oil Field
Mario to Jo: "Look, we made it!"
Mario's 'Lucky' Subway Ticket in His Cab on the Way Home
Mario Swerving Off the Road - Dead
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