100.000 Dollar in der Sonne

Southern Morocco, 1963. The owner of a truck transports company hires a new driver (a self-called American tough guy) to transport mysterious goods in a brand new magnificent truck. While the established group of drivers of the company is welcoming the new driver, one of them (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo)hijack the mysterious truck on the day after, planning to negotiate the sale of goods for its own profit and fly over with his new young bride. The best driver of the company (played by Lino Ventura)is launched to his young fellow's pursuit. On his way, the new American driver joins him to eventually face the young "thief". The pursuit through the Moroccan "Atlas" is rich of surprises about each one, in a world where no one asks more than he has to know.

About all, friendship is always victorious, even if "Friends always share fight, problems, hunger an women, but never money when it is worth 100 000 dollars", as Jean-Paul Belmondo says.

...in the clothes of a truck drivers story. good dialogues. good performances. and a not real convincing plot. but nice for individual stories, for the fight scene, for humor and for the well known recipe , used in decent manner. secrets, misteries - many predictable, Belmondo and Ventura and the American flavour of a Verneuil film.

Belmondo and Ventura are top-notch in this great Saharan adventure. A network of French long-distance truckers live the macho life in the Arabic western (I think) Sahara. When young Belmondo steals a truck with $100,000 of contraband and takes off across the desert and mountains, the chase begins. If you've seen The Wages of Fear (and you'd better!), this will recall that great adventure, although the seat-of-your pants tension is replaced by the back-and-forth fortunes and fun of the pursuit. But it's the same rough-man frontier atmosphere, same epic scale of adventure, same wide-screen memorable scenery in stunning locations, same big trucks, same handful of beautiful females. I'm sure the film is hard to find in English (I saw it on french TV), but watch it if you find it. You won't regret it.

I have always - not mixed up - but put this very movie with UN TAXI POUR TOBROUK, because it is also shot in black and white, taking place partly in the desert, proposes an international cast including a German actor - Hardy Kruger in UN TAXI...and Gert Froebe and the other German actor here- , both films showing Lino Ventura with Michel Audiard for the dialogues. And besides, this convoy, trucks convoy in western settings scheme, reminded me Henri Georges Clouzot's LE SALAIRE DE LA PEUR. This is a must see for the French film history, which demonstrates that director Henri Verneuil has always been under infuence of the American films atmosphere; here the western. Verneuil was a daring film maker, a gross seeker, more than a real artist, but a terrific professional.

Henri Verneuil is not an auteur .So what? Who cares ? He is a perfect craftsman ,a very good story teller ,the perfect antidote to the N.V. headaches ;Saturday night movies best describe his work.And we do need this kind of cinema.

"100000 dollars Au Soleil" looks like a lite "Salaire De La Peur",the classic by Clouzot,but in a tongue in cheek way,with good lines by Audiard.Plus a splendid use of the wide screen exploring the Morrocan desert.Plus two French favorites;the third lead ,Reginald Kernan is unknown in France and is in it probably because the producers could not get Hardy Kruger.Plus a cast against type Blier and Gert "Goldfinger" Froebe .Plus a magnificent score by Georges Delerue,but had this composer ever written mediocre music for films?

An action-packed movie ,which enhances male friendship (if there's a moral in this tale) .Women are demeaned :Belmondo's best fiancée (sic)(Andréa Parisy) is scarcely allowed to complete a sentence ,he expects her to sit there and look pretty.As for Angèle,who dreams of the broader horizons of the big town,Ventura tells her that "she is not a whore cause she does not get dough when she sleeps with his mates (the truck drivers)"But one of the girls will remember the proverb:he(or she) who laughs last laughs best !Eat your heart out ,machos!