Some spoilers ahead
You can't go wrong with major French stars as Ventura and Belmondo, impeccable direction by Henri Verneuil, sharp dialogue and script from Michel Audiard and a sweeping score from Georges Delerue. A movie when men still were men and where women are merely playthings or just not to be trusted.
But there are some twists, most notably when Belmondo, to slow down his opponents, tells the owner of a filling station that the pursuant truck team is a gay couple ! A very daring thing for such a classic macho action flick from 1964. And there is much more to be discovered in the multi-layered fast-paced dialogue, courtesy of specialist Michel Audiard. Almost impossible to translate directly into English, you have to get the original version and have more then a basic mastery of the French language.
It was filmed entirely on location, (as far as I can deduce the Moroccan desert, or could it be former French Tunisia ?) and all stunt-work with the big trucks is of course for real. There exists a colorized version but it is in the terrible flat pan-and-scan format and gives it the look of a seventies' TV-movie. The original sharp-focused black-and-white copy fits much better the story and characters. Recently French public TV also choose to air this version in its scope format.
Director Verneuil went on to make another five movies with Belmondo with the final one "Les Morfalous" in 1984, again set in the desert but now during WW II and the truck being replaced by a German tank !
If you like this try another of those French sixties buddymovies as "Les Aventuriers" also with Ventura but now with that other French superstar, Alain Delon.
You can't go wrong with major French stars as Ventura and Belmondo, impeccable direction by Henri Verneuil, sharp dialogue and script from Michel Audiard and a sweeping score from Georges Delerue. A movie when men still were men and where women are merely playthings or just not to be trusted.
But there are some twists, most notably when Belmondo, to slow down his opponents, tells the owner of a filling station that the pursuant truck team is a gay couple ! A very daring thing for such a classic macho action flick from 1964. And there is much more to be discovered in the multi-layered fast-paced dialogue, courtesy of specialist Michel Audiard. Almost impossible to translate directly into English, you have to get the original version and have more then a basic mastery of the French language.
It was filmed entirely on location, (as far as I can deduce the Moroccan desert, or could it be former French Tunisia ?) and all stunt-work with the big trucks is of course for real. There exists a colorized version but it is in the terrible flat pan-and-scan format and gives it the look of a seventies' TV-movie. The original sharp-focused black-and-white copy fits much better the story and characters. Recently French public TV also choose to air this version in its scope format.
Director Verneuil went on to make another five movies with Belmondo with the final one "Les Morfalous" in 1984, again set in the desert but now during WW II and the truck being replaced by a German tank !
If you like this try another of those French sixties buddymovies as "Les Aventuriers" also with Ventura but now with that other French superstar, Alain Delon.