'' The Wages of Fear '' ( ) is a 1953 French-Italian thriller film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot , starring Yves Montand , and based on the 1950 French novel '' Le salaire de la peur '' ( lit . " The Salary of Fear " ) by Georges Arnaud . When an oil well owned by an American company catches fire , the company hires four European men , down on their luck , to drive two trucks over mountain dirt roads , loaded with nitroglycerine needed to extinguish the flames . The film brought Clouzot international fame — winning both the Golden Bear and the Palme d'Or at the 1953 Berlin Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival , respectively — and allowed him to direct '' Les Diaboliques '' . In France , it was the 4th highest-grossing film of the year with a total of 6,944,306 admissions
Cannes Film Festival
1953 Cannes Film Festival
The Wages of Fear