The Wages of Fear/Trivia


 * Troubled Production: From the beginning. A proper location is found after months of searching - the lead actor refuses to go there due to political reasons. Other actor pulls out at the very last minute. The shooting itself is seriously hampered by capricious weather - many shooting days are completely lost due to heavy rain, trucks are bogging down in mud, camera cranes collapse, the equipment and electrics start breaking down and the sets are damaged due to days of pouring rain. The weather cools down - the lead actress collapses and ends in a hospital. She's out of the hospital - the director's in due to a broken ankle. Add multiple retakes and director's obsessive perfectionism... After three months of shooting, by the end of November 1951, the movie was 50 million francs over budget and way over schedule (roughly a half was completed at the time when the entire shooting was initially expected to wrap). The production continued during the summer of 1952, with only one major accident when both Yves Montand and Charles Vanel ended up in a hospital after a few days of filming in the big pool of crude oil (which required being completely submerged in oil, head to toes).