Greed in the Sun [Cent mille dollars au soleil] *** (1964, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, Gert Fröbe, Bernard Blier, Reginald Kernan, Andréa Parisy) – Classic Movie Review 10,874

Director Henri Verneuil’s 1964 Greed in the Sun [Cent Mille Dollars au Soleil] is a fast-moving, proficient and enjoyable imported French road movie action thriller, involving a wild chase over the Saharan desert for a lorryload of 100,000 dollars worth of a payload, being driven in a new truck from Morocco to Nigeria by newly hired trucker John Steiner (Reginald Kernan).

Jean-Paul Belmondo is engaging as the immoral anti-hero Rocco, who hijacks the truck from the trucking company in the Saharan desert, along with his accomplice Angèle (Anne-Marie Coffinet), and there are also notable appearances by Lino Ventura, Gert Fröbe and Bernard Blier.

Gert Fröbe plays Castigliano, the head of the trucking company, who hires Rocco’s friend Hervé Marec (Lino Ventura) and John Steiner to go after Rocco and his girlfriend Pepa (Andréa Parisy) and recover the goods, then sends Mitch (Bernard Blier) and Khenouche (Doudou Babet) in a second truck to help them.

There is plenty of robust action and slick professionalism, though perhaps slightly less originality and quality, but it is still an entertaining ride, with complicated plotting, attractive acting in intriguing characters, and a good atmosphere and mood. It is long at 130 minutes (original French version) or 122 minutes (US version), but Verneuil keeps it driving along.

It is written by Michel Audiard from an original story by Claude Veillot.

It is shot in black and white and Franscope by Marcel Grignon and scored by Georges Delerue.

It is made by Gaumont International, Trianon Films and Ultra Film and released by Gaumont Distribution (1964) (France), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1965) (US) (subtitled) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1965) (UK) (subtitled).

Unexpectedly, the film was entered into the 1964 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for the Palme d’Or. Belmondo was very popular at this time and the film was a box office hit in France as the seventh most popular film of the year at the French box office.

Verneuil said in 1964 his film was ‘a Western, but since in France we don’t have horses, I use trucks. I give Jean-Paul the hat, blue jeans, boots of a cowboy. He’s one of the few young actors in France who is young and manly.’

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,874

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