The Wages of Fear

The Wages of Fear French Le salaire de la peur is a 1953 FrenchItalian drama film directed by HenriGeorges Clouzot, starring Yves Montand, and based on the 1950 French novel Le salaire de la peur lit. The Salary of Fear by Georges Arnaud. When a Mexican oil well owned by an American company catches fire, the company hires four European men, down on their luck, to drive two trucks over mountain dirt roads, loaded with nitroglycerine needed to extinguish the flames. The film brought Clouzot international fame, and allowed him to direct Les Diaboliques. In France the film was the 4th highest grossing film of the year with a total of 6,944,306 admissions.

Mario is a sarcastic Corsican playboy, who treats his devoted lover, Linda, with disdain. Jo is an aging exgangster who just recently found himself stranded in the town. Bimba is an intense, quiet individual whose father was murdered by the Nazis, and who himself worked for three years in a salt mine. Luigi, Marios roommate, is a jovial, hardworking individual, who has just learned that he is dying from cement dust in his lungs. Mario befriends Jo due to their common background of having lived in Paris, but a rift develops between Jo and the other cantina regulars because of his combative, arrogant personality.A massive fire erupts at one of the SOC oil fields. The only way to extinguish the flames and cap the well is an explosion caused by nitroglycerine. With short notice and lack of proper equipment, it must be transported within jerrycans placed in two large trucks from the SOC headquarters, 300 miles away. Due to the poor condition of the roads and the highly volatile nature of nitroglycerine, the job is considered too dangerous for the unionized SOC employees. ........

Source: Wikipedia