100.000 Dólares ao Sol

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.

Take two large tablespoons of Lino Ventura and Jean-Paul Belmondo with a sliver of Bernard Blier, add exotic location, mix with writer Michel Audiard and sprinkle with composer Georges Delerue and you should have a recipe for success. That is certainly the case here as this film of Henri Verneuil became one of the biggest box office hits of 1964 despite generally negative reviews.

Messieurs Ventura and Belmondo had certainly gelled in 'Classe toutes Risques' four years earlier and by the time they made this they were riding high in the popularity stakes. Belmondo also scored a hit during the same year with 'That Man from Rio'. Bernard Blier, father of director Bertrand, is always good value and with the help of Michel Audiard's dialogue, effortlessly steals his scenes. The quartet is completed by a plank named Reginald Kernan. The female interest is supplied by Andrea Parisy and Anne-Marie Coffinet who are required to be little more than eye candy.

After a rather slow opening with a lot of mucho macho posturing the film gradually builds momentum and although the chase sequences are vaguely reminiscent of 'Les Salaires de la Peur', there is neither the tension nor the subtle characterisation of Clouzot's film.

The cinematography in Franscope by Marcel Grignon takes full advantage of the arid, rocky landscape and Verneuil shows his customary slick direction and technical expertise. The film is inclined to meander and is a wee bit long but the charismatic leads keep one watching.

Surprisingly it was entered at Cannes but considering some of the competition that year it was hardly likely to win. The film's colonial stance and its attitude towards the female of the species is likely to raise a few eyebrows these days but it is what it is: an entertaining period piece. The 'brawn over brain' element is of course, timeless!

Henri Verneuil is reported to have said that in this 'the trucks are the stars'. That might have been his intention but as far as this viewer is concerned Messieurs Ventura, Belmondo and Blier win on points!

"Greed In The Sun" is a 1964 movie that is a time capsule, a view of a world long gone, where expatriate French nationals live and work in a heavily Arabic North African country. This movie was filmed in part in Marrakesh, Morocco, where at one point the camera pans across the primitive tanneries in that city as the characters walk to their destination. In the movie, the city is identified as Le Moussorah, a name that exists only on the hotel sign and mile markers made as set dressing for this movie. The movie itself deals with the truck drivers who transport goods through the desert and over mountainous terrain . Those drivers include Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura, playing buddies who work for Gert Frobe's trucking company.

Gert Frobe's character has the best lines in the movie, but he vanishes after arranging for a newly hired driver to take a mysterious shipment of goods to Salem. Rocco, Belmondo's character, steals the truck and Frobe pays Marec (Lino Ventura) to recover the truck. Marec is not very good at that job, another company truck driver, Mitch- Mitch, helps him out three separate times when Marec has problems. Why Frobe did not hire the more competent Mitch-Mitch for the job is anyone's guess.

In "Greed In The Sun", the female characters are treated as second-class humans, dummies good for sex and not much else. The Arab characters are treated worse, lackeys there to serve their European masters. For that matter, the drivers don't come out looking very good either. Marec is a thug who demolishes a roadside store and Rocco is a greedy pig.

In France, there is on sale a Blu-ray version of "Greed In The Sun", a new restoration where the black and white photography looks crystal clear. French only though, and no optional English subtitles. For one scene at the end, there are large, old fashioned hard coded French subtitles, which indicates to me that the original camera negative is missing. Otherwise, we would have new subtitles for this short segment.

The American DVD release of "Greed In The Sun" is a disaster, using an older print, having large white hard coded English subtitles. The subtitles themselves leave out stuff and have errors. I made subtitles using English subtitles from an Internet site where the subs had exact timing but the translation and grammar were off.

The 1960s were the peak decade for director Henri Verneuil, a decade he ended with his great crime film, "The Sicilian Clan", a movie that also starred Lino Ventura. Thanks to computer technology, I was able to make a DVD of "Greed In The Sun" that combined the Blu-ray movie with optional on-off English subtitles in a nicer font, subs that I edited.

In this movie, the scenes that stand out for me are when the trucks drive through the center of the city identified as Le Moussorah. You see swarms of people walking all over the plaza with cars parked in a group on one side. 1964 and the location unit filming here showed how crowded this Southern Algeria city already was. The place looked really depressing, a giant flea market look to it, baking under the sun. No wonder people who live in crowded places like that look to migrate to nicer locations.

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!

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.