Henri-Georges Clouzot

The Wages of Fear

The Wages of Fear

In a squalid South American oil town, four desperate men 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. The result is one of the greatest thrillers ever committed to celluloid, a white-knuckle ride from France’s legendary master of suspense, Henri-Georges Clouzot.

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Film Info

  • France
  • 1953
  • 153 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • French
  • Spine #36

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New video interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff and Henri-Georges Clouzot biographer Marc Godin
  • Interview with Yves Montand from 1988
  • Henri Georges Clouzot: An Enlightened Tyrant, a 2004 documentary on the director's career
  • Censored, an analysis of cuts to the film made for the 1955 U.S. release
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A new essay by novelist Dennis Lehane

    New cover by Eric Skillman

Purchase Options

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

DVD Box Set

50 Discs

$650.00

Out Of Print

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New video interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff and Henri-Georges Clouzot biographer Marc Godin
  • Interview with Yves Montand from 1988
  • Henri Georges Clouzot: An Enlightened Tyrant, a 2004 documentary on the director's career
  • Censored, an analysis of cuts to the film made for the 1955 U.S. release
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A new essay by novelist Dennis Lehane

    New cover by Eric Skillman
The Wages of Fear
Cast
Yves Montand
Mario
Charles Vanel
Jo
Peter Van Eyck
Bimba
William Tubbs
Bill O'Brien
Véra Clouzot
Linda
Folco Lulli
Luigi
Credits
Director
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Screenplay
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Based on the novel by
Georges Arnaud
Screenplay
Jérôme Géronimi
Producer
Louis Wipf
Cinematography
Armand Thirard
Editing
Henri Rust
Editing
Madeleine Gug
Executive producer
Raymond Borderie
Executive producer
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Music
Georges Auric
Sound
William Robert Sivel

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The Wages of Fear: No Exit
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Essays — Apr 21, 2009
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The Wages of Fear
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Explore

Henri-Georges Clouzot

Writer, Director

Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot

One of the few contemporaries of Hitchcock who gave the Master of Suspense a run for his money, Henri-Georges Clouzot dealt in misanthropic, black-humored tales of greed, jealousy, murder, immorality, and revenge. Though perhaps best known for 1955’s Gothic noir Diabolique, one of the most influential thrillers of all time and a film that Hitchcock himself admired (and wished to outdo), Clouzot first made his mark in French cinema in the 1940s. His politically charged, 1943 Le corbeau was a highly controversial story of a poison-pen letter that uncovers the dirty secrets of an entire town; viewed in retrospect, it’s Clouzot’s first important statement on the corruption of community. Subsequent Clouzot films would be built on the same theme in different milieus: the entertainment underworld of Quai des Orfèvres, the mercenary imperialism of the white-knuckle adventure The Wages of Fear. Once widely misunderstood—the director was charged with Nazi sympathies for Le corbeau and was derided by the French New Wave—the work of Henri-Georges Clouzot today looks far ahead of its time.

More Henri-Georges Clouzot