Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for The Wages of Fear (1953) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck, Folco Lulli, Véra Clouzot, Antonio Centa DIRECTOR: Henri-Georges Clouzot CINEMATOGRAPHY: Armand Thirard MUSIC: Georges Auric PRODUCTION: Compagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cinématographique, Véra Films, Fono Roma, Filmsonor

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for The Wages of Fear (1953). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

Jean Gabin declined the role of Jo, feeling such a cowardly character would hurt his career. Both Gérard Philipe and Serge Reggiani were considered to play Mario, before Yves Montand was cast.

Clouzot originally wanted to film on-location in Guatemala, but budgetary limitations confined shooting to continental Europe. Montand flatly rejected proposals to film in Almería, Spain, due to his opposition to the Francoist regime.

Production was beset with numerous issues. Financing issues meant filming broke for seven months after only a half-hour was completed. Filming was delayed again by torrential rain, that led the cast and crew to be held up in a Nîmes hotel for over a month. Clouzot broke his ankle. Several dozen local Romani hired as extras went on strike. The pyrotechnics used in the oil fire sequence nearly started a wildfire.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: Won 1 BAFTA Award6 wins & 1 nomination total

Awards Won: ★ Golden Bear ★ Palme d'Or ★ BAFTA Award for Best Film

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The Wages of Fear was critically hailed upon its original release. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote, "The excitement derives entirely from the awareness of nitroglycerine and the gingerly, breathless handling of it. You sit there waiting for the theatre to explode". The film was also a commercial success, selling 6,944,306 tickets in France where it was the fourth highest earning film of the year.

In 1982, Pauline Kael called it "an existential thriller—the most original and shocking French melodrama of the 50s. ... When you can be blown up at any moment only a fool believes that character determines fate. ... If this isn't a parable of man's position in the modern world, it's at least an illustration of it. ... The violence is not used simply for excitement--it's used as in Eisenstein's and Buñuel's films: to force a vision of human experience." In 1992, Roger Ebert stated that "The film's extended suspense sequences deserve a place among the great stretches of cinema." Leonard Maltin awarded the film out of 4 stars, calling it a "marvelously gritty and extremely suspenseful epic".