Greed in the Sun (by Henri Verneuil)

With the film “Greed in the Sun” by Henri Verneuil, UCM.ONE is releasing a great adventure film on Blu-Ray and DVD on the M-Square Classics label in Germany, Austria and Switzerland featuring the “who’s who” of European cinema of the 1960s and 1970s: Jean Paul Belmondo (“The Professional 1 & 2“, “Fear over the City“), Lino Ventura (“The Mole“, “Deadly Fear“, “The Interrogation“) and Gert Fröbe (“Goldfinger“, “It Happened in Broad Daylight“, “Spy Between Two Fronts“).

“Greed in the Sun” (original title: “Cent mille dollars au soleil“) offers wonderful landscape and location shots: One sees many Moroccan castles or walled mini-cities, which also appear in films like “Sodom and Gomorrah” and “The Man Who Wanted to Be King“. A large bazaar in the last scene is strongly reminiscent of the Moroccan bazaar in Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1956 remake of “The Man Who Knew Too Much“.

The film was the second collaboration between Lino Ventura and Jean-Paul Belmondo, as they had already acted side by side in 1960 in “The Panther is Hunted“.

Synopsis

Somewhere in the African Sahara: The truck driver Rocco (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is fed up with being assigned only the worst trucks by his boss Castigliano (Gert Fröbe). When the new driver Steiner (Reginald Kernan), of all people, is assigned to drive a brand new truck, he is furious and steals the vehicle with the entire load in order to sell them both over the border. Castigliano, furious, sends his best driver and friend Hervé (Lino Ventura) after him to get his goods and his truck back. A relentless desert race ensues between the two exceptional drivers…(dvdtalk.com)

Director Henri Verneuil (“I for Icarus“, “The Magnificent“, “The Clan“, “The Sicilian“) says he conceived his film like a real Western: “The film didn’t have cowboys, but it had thousands of horses, horsepower in the engines of the trucks, and those trucks are the real stars.”

Director Henri Verneuil‘s film was nominated for the “Palme d’Or“ at the Cannes Film Festival. With more than 3.4 million visitors in the cinemas in France alone, the film was a huge success. Jean-Paul Belmondo, France’s unforgotten action and adventure film star, died at the age of 88 on 06 September 2021.

Reviews

“Greed in the Sun is a genuine trucker adventure with plenty of humour and thrilling road duels that was ahead of its time thanks to camerawork and musical accompaniment, as well as the two stars Belmondo and Ventura.” (ofdb review)

“The film should appeal to anyone who likes snappy dialogue, exotic locations and some very exciting scenes. The film is also wonderfully cast, with Belmondo absolutely perfect in another good-for-nothing role for which he seems so well suited.” (Review, blu-ray.com)

“Several renowned directors tried their hand at the truck movie: Henri-Georges Clouzot and William Friedkin, Steven Spielberg and Henri Verneuil. Even if Verneuil did not create a masterpiece of the intensity of The Wages of Fear, Greed in the Sun remains a striking testament to the power of French cinema in the mid-1960s!” (critique-film.fr)

“There’s plenty of robust action and slick professionalism, though perhaps a little less originality and quality, but it’s still an entertaining ride, with intricate plots, attractive actors in intriguing characters, and a good atmosphere and mood.” (derekwinnert.com)

“There is nothing cheap about this film. The wide shots of trucks chasing each other down narrow mountain roads are very realistic and look like American road movies made a decade later.” (dvdtalk.com)

Technical data

Greed in the Sun | Trailer (German) ᴴᴰ

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More information about the label: M-Square Classics

“Greed in the Sun” by Henri Verneuil with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura

Greed in the Sun | Trailer (German) ᴴᴰ