The Wages of Fear

Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterwork builds suspense the slow way: stranded men in a dead-end town, then a brutal job offer, then 150 minutes of trucks and explosives. It remains the gold standard for set-piece tension and a film Hitchcock openly envied.

• Won the Palme d'Or and the Golden Bear in the same year.
• William Friedkin remade it in 1977 as Sorcerer.
• Yves Montand performed his own driving stunts.
• Producers cut twenty minutes of anti-American content for US release.
• Hitchcock cited it as the suspense film that made him most jealous.

• "Nobody is forcing you to do this."
• "You scared?"
• "Soon we will know who is going to live."
• "It is a long ride."
• "Easy on the accelerator!"