Runtime: 86 minutes
Directed by: Howard W.
Koch
Starring: Brian Keith,
Dick Foran, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Merry Anders, Sean Garrison
From: Warner Bros.
Who knew there was more than one American remake of The Wages of Fear?
I can tell you that I had no idea until I looked at Turner Classic Movies' website Wednesday night to see what would be on the next day and in the early evening was this... something I had never heard of before. Once I read the plot description, I was shocked as the only American version of Wages I knew of was William Friedkin's Sorcerer. From looking at this site and the IMDb, not too many people in general are familiar with this motion picture, a random and standard 50's Warner Brothers programmer. That made me feel not so dumb, especially after realizing this was an unauthorized and unacknowledged remake.
This is why Wages was viewed by me on Wednesday night; that has great sequences yet the story was totally unpleasant and I've never been able to care at all about any of the A-hole characters, so why should I care about their plight or them completing a treacherous delivery for a corrupt A-hole corporation? Here, thing aren't exactly cheery either... I mean, this starts off with a rocket launch that goes haywire and crashes into a school! Here, the corporation is the “Cyclone Rocket Company” and the mission is to deliver the components of rocket fuel to a location, and this is done via six people in three trucks. The characters have such issues as alcoholism and there are various flashbacks seen.
This also takes awhile to literally get on the road (more than a half hour in for an 86 minute picture) but at least the characters-while not the most memorable-are not completely loathsome. The driving scenes are not as inventive nor as nerve-wracking but they do have their suspenseful moments. Overall, this movie is not bad-it is not great either and instead is average overall. It's not a must-see... thankfully it was not a waste of time either. Plus, if you thought that Wages needed one of the drivers singing a song or a random scene where a runaway school bus (w/ students onboard) threatens to crash into one of the trucks...
Before the topic is broached, soon I'll view Sorcerer and discuss that.
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