Oil, Greed, and Peter Lorre: A Look at Les requins du pétrole

If you're the type who likes your movies dusty, talky, and smelling of vintage celluloid, Les requins du pétrole might be your next Friday night pick. But honestly? If you need fast pacing or a plot that doesn't feel like a lecture on global economics from 1933, you're going to hate this. It’s for the folks who like staring at old faces in shadows.

Seeing Peter Lorre pop up in this is the main reason I even bothered, and he’s doing that thing where he looks like he knows a secret that could destroy the world. He’s magnetic even when he's just standing near a map. The rest of the cast is... well, they're busy being very serious about oil.

The whole thing feels like a predecessor to something like Liquid Lava, though far less frantic. It’s got this weirdly stiff energy, like everyone is terrified of moving too quickly lest they ruin the lighting setup. The dialogue isn't exactly snappy, but it hits with a thud when it needs to.

There is a scene in an office that lasts for what felt like an eternity. A guy is talking about contracts, and I just found myself counting the buttons on his suit jacket. It’s that kind of movie. You notice the weird, small things because the big picture is just guys in suits yelling about fuel.

Comparing this to something like Seitensprunge feels like a stretch, but they share that same era-specific DNA. The world-building is sparse. You don't need a map to know where they are because they tell you every five minutes.

The cinematography is surprisingly dark in places, which helps when the script starts to sag. Sometimes the camera just lingers on a hand holding a cigarette, and for a second, the movie stops being about oil and starts being about, I don't know, just being tired? 🚬

• Peter Lorre is the only one who looks like he’s having fun.
• The sound quality has that wonderful, scratchy '30s texture.
• The pacing is basically a brisk walk that turns into a crawl.

It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a time capsule. If you’ve seen The Road to Paradise, you’ll recognize that specific, slightly cynical atmosphere. It’s messy, a bit hollow in the middle, and exactly as pretentious as it needs to be to get the point across. Not essential, but definitely watchable if you’ve got a rainy afternoon to kill.