MovieChat Forums > Le salaire de la peur (1955) Discussion > Charles Vanel performed his own stunts?!

Charles Vanel performed his own stunts?!

posted 8 years ago by kelkyl
2 replies | jump to latest

Charles Vanel was sixty-one when this film came out. Not a young pup.

Director Clouzot really put him through the ringer:
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I thought he was going to get a heart attack running after Mario in the truck. And when he was running alongside the moving truck he could have slipped and fallen underneath the dual rear axles.

Later he jumped off the truck. Did you see him run right into the camera?

And the oil pool scene: moving large branches and submerging himself in real crude oil! I read he (and Montand) developed conjunctivitis from this scene.

Pretty tough work for a sexagenarian!
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[–] prznkm 8 years ago

I was thinking the same thing when he was running beside the cab-one slip and he'd have been toast.
I'm sure they never really thought to much about it, but that was actually a very dangerous thing to shoot. Nowadays they'd have safety lines and winches to make sure it couldn't happen.

...or they'd just CGI it.

[–] Sonatine97 8 years ago

Either director, Clouzot had great confidence in Vanel's athleticism for a man of his year, or there just wasn't the budget to factor in stuntmen.

I think the end result is wonderful: to actually see the actors run the risk of injury for the sake of their art! But the risk of injury, especially with him running alongside the truck, was a big one. Had Vanel come to grief it could have ruined the production of the film, not least the loss of Vanel.

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