Clouzot chose the exotic and squalid background of an unnamed South American town for the keystone of his oeuvre, an angry parable about 20th century imperialism and masculinity pushed to the absolute breaking point and beyond. The Wages of Fear gave Yves Montand his first leading role as an embittered drifter and iconic Clouzot anti-hero – jaded, self-deluded and stumbling towards an uncertain redemption in a desperate gamble to return to France. A brilliantly gripping suspense narrative, The Wages of Fear uses bold existential strokes to render the Sisyphean mission of four men hired, at unreasonable terms, to drive rickety trucks of deadly explosives through the dark heart of an untamed jungle. The two-part structure favored by Clouzot is crucial to the tense division between the corrupt backwater village of the film's first section and the savage yet frighteningly indifferent jungle wilderness explored in the rest of the film. The Wages of Fear is presented in a new print acquired by the HFA from Janus Films which restores footage censored from the original US release because of perceived anti-Americanism.