Cent mille dollars au soleil

...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.

A classic, comedic chase movie starring the finest french actors from the 60's and a legendary Bond villain, no less !

The movie follows Marec (Lino Ventura), a truck driver sent by his boss (Gert Fröbe) to track down through the Morroccan desert a reckless youngster (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who stole a brand-new truck and its payload. Riddled with bad luck, Marec will face the dangers of the desert, as well as a fishy partner, and a reluctant, misogynist tow-truck helper (the hilarious Bernard Blier) until the climactic fight.

An excellent 60's French action-comedy, complete with great music, perfect direction by Henri Verneuil ("Le Casse", "Un singe en hiver", "La bataille de San Sebastian", "Le corps de mon ennemi") and hilarious dialogues by Michel Audiard. Reminds a lot of Peckinpah's "Convoy" (1978). It doesn't take itself seriously, and however reveals a lot about the times, the misogynistic and somewhat imperialistic nature of the French in Northern Africa during the early 60's. And even if the characters are sometimes real morons, in the end of the day you really root for them.

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.

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.

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!