Cent mille dollars au soleil (1964) - film review

Rocco, Hervé Marec, and Mitch-Mitch are long-distance lorry drivers who work for Morocco-based Castigliano and Co.  When a mysterious lorry with an unknown consignment is assigned to a new driver, Hans Steiner, they become suspicious.  Realising that the lorry is carrying a valuable cargo, Rocco secretly drives the lorry away, accompanied by his girlfriend.  When he learns what has happened, Castigliano offers Hervé and Mitch-Match a reward of two million francs if they can recover the lorry.  A long, desperate chase ensues...

Director Henri Verneuil originally conceived this film as a latter day Gallic western, with lorries replacing horses, and the North African landscape making a plausible substitute for the American mid-west.  The resulting film isn’t so much a western as a gripping chase film – at times very reminiscent of H.G. Clouzot’s Le Salaire de la peur (1953) and Steven Spielberg’s Duel (1971).  The action takes a while to build but once the chase gets underway the film sustains itself brilliantly, thanks to its magnificent, tension-inducing photography, great performances from a cast of fine actors and some humorous dialogue from Michel Audiard.  A pity that, after a great chase sequence, the narrative just dries up, collapsing exhaustedly without even a half-decent ending.

The stars of Cent mille dollars au soleil are none other than Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura, two iconic film actors who were at the height of their popularity when the film was released.   Another greatly admired actor, Bernard Blier, appears in a memorable comedy role which strangely resembles Coluche, a comedy icon of the 1980s.  Whilst the film was generally badly received by the critics, and even condemned for its dated portrayal of French colonialist sentiment, it was a huge box office success in France, achieving three and half million ticket sales (making it the second most popular film in France that year after L’Homme de Rio, in which Belmondo also starred).

© James Travers 2001

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