The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

They say that no good deed goes unpunished, and friends Roy Collins and Gilbert Bowen find out the truth of this saying when, during a fishing trip to Mexico, they pick up a hitchhiker whose car has apparently run out of gas. The man, Emmett Myers, turns out to be a murderer on the run from the American authorities who has managed to slip into Mexico. Myers draws a gun on the men and forces them to drive him to where he wants to go, threatening to kill them after they have taken him to his destination, the town of Santa Rosalía in Baja California. (Myers is based upon a real-life serial killer, Billy Cook, although the number of killings committed by Cook had to be reduced in the film at the insistence of the Hays Office)."The Hitch-Hiker" is a suspense thriller made in 1953, but in many ways it is very different from the work of Alfred Hitchcock, America's most famous director of suspense thrillers during the fifties. At only seventy minutes long it is considerably shorter than most of Hitchcock's films. There is no trademark blonde heroine. (Indeed, although the film was directed by a female director, Ida Lupino, there are no prominent female characters at all). There is no comic relief. Lupino does not attempt to analyse the psychology behind Myers' crimes as Hitchcock does with Norman Bates in "Psycho" and some of his other villains; Myers is simply a psychopath, and that is that. There are no cliff-hangers on a prominent building and no directorial set-pieces comparable to the "Psycho" shower scene.William Talman, best remembered as the District Attorney in the "Perry Mason" TV serial, is normally thought of as a supporting actor, but here he dominates the film with his performance as the malevolent Myers. It quickly becomes obvious that he does not regard Roy, Gil and their car merely as a convenient means of transport to facilitate his escape. It is quite clear that he takes a positive, lip-smacking sadistic pleasure in tormenting them both physically and psychologically. Indeed, it may be this very sadism to which the two men owe their survival; logically it would have made more sense, from Myers' point of view, to have killed them early on and then driven off in the car himself, thus eliminating two witnesses, but had he done so he would have been left without victims to torture. What Myers cannot understand is the mutual friendship and loyalty which prevents both Roy and Gil from attempting to escape separately; altruism of any sort is quite alien to his nature.The film is often categorised as film noir, but in many ways it is also different from most mainstream noir. Some films noirs, "The Big Sleep" being a good example, had notoriously complex plots, but that of "The Hitch-Hiker" is simplicity itself. There are no sub-plots; Lupino concentrates on the main story, the plight of Roy and Gil and their efforts to escape from the ever-present menace of the watchful Myers. It is not set on the mean streets of an American city or in seedy, claustrophobic interiors but in the wide-open spaces of the Mexican desert, and the barrenness and loneliness of this landscape becomes a symbol of the threat hanging over the two heroes. I said above that the film does not contain any Hitchcockian set-pieces, which normally mark a notable increase in the level of tension. Here the tension is maintained at a high level throughout; perhaps the entire film can be seen as one long, extended seventy minute set-piece. An excellent thriller. 8/10

Two fishing buddies unwittingly give a lift to a serial killer who forces them to drive across the border at gunpoint in this compact thriller directed by Ida Lupino. A former film noir star, Lupino brings several interesting directing touches to the film such as the initial obscuring of the hitchhiker's face until he produces his gun, but it is William Talman's unhinged performance as the hitcher that really makes the film. He has a creepy calmness to him as he holds the two men hostage like something that he has done millions of times before, and his face more than his gun oozes menace. Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy are, on the other hand, dull as his two victims; the film momentarily brings up something about them lying to their wives about their trip, but the most part, their function in the script is simply to (unsuccessfully) attempt to escape and evade again and again. The film grows a tad repetitive as it goes on, and with constant cutaways to the US and Mexican police investigating the matter, it never really maintains any tension that it builds. The film is also a less thrilling experience since we constantly know that the police are on top of things and have a plan of what to do, and the despair of the fishing buddies never really resonates since the movie provides a strong sense that everything will work out. Still, the film is certainly worth a look for Talman's performance. His big screen career was curiously short, spending most of his years in television; one can only wonder what may have been had 'The Hitch-Hiker' been more widely seen in its day.

-The Hitch-Hiker (1953) by John Vizzusi"Marking the 4th Major Motion Picture for Superstar Ida Lupino as a Director, she paved the way for Females in a Industry dominated by men! Lupino also pens this strange and true tale of a serial killer on the loose. With a entire Male Cast, Ida sets forth on-loan by Warners to RKO, she shot the entire Picture on-location. Beginning to finish a breathtaking 71 minutes, Lupino comes in under-budget and several days early. Hollywood forgetful of its hugely successful past of Female Directors and Screenwriters such as the incredible Francis Marion (The Big House), Lupino is scorned upon and RKO acts like they are hiding from this production. A Limited Release does not help box office totals although the Movie does make its money back. She had a very slim budget of $400,000 and had to invent rotoscope camera movements for the Camera Automobile shots because of lack of equipment available. Surely influenced by the drama she herself displayed on the screen as the Star opposite Humphrey Bogart in "High Sierra" she Directs with complete confidence and a totally believable natural reality driven style and turns the killer Emmet Myers (William Talman) into one of the most vicious murderous monsters the screen had ever seen. But there is something else happening as well; -Ida gives the film a sense of purpose and sensitivity even with all the madness going on throughout...In an interview Talman recalled an incident that happened shortly after the release of The Hitch-Hiker (1953), in which he gave a chilling portrayal of escaped murderer and serial killer Emmett Meyers. He was driving his convertible in Los Angeles with the top down, and he stopped at a red light. Another driver in a convertible who was stopped next to him stared at him for a few seconds, then said, "You're the hitchhiker, right?" Talman nodded, indicating that he was. The other driver got out of his car, went over to Talman's car and slapped him across the face, then got back in his car and drove off. In recalling the story, Talman said, "You know, I never won an Academy Award but I guess that was about as close as I ever will come to one."The Hitch-Hiker is instrumental is guiding the fantastic career of Ida Lupino whom was a beloved Star of the golden era of Hollywood's Silver Screen. And moved forward to Producing and Directing right into the golden age of Television. There was nothing Lupino could not do and do well. Ida Lupino was the first woman to Direct Film Noir although the word Classic here may not totally apply to The Hitch-Hiker but for a Industry that today only employs a tragic 1% of Females we should look closer of the Film's that early Hollywood based Women Directed, Wrote and Produced. You may be surprised at what you find!

I'm reminded of an early episode of TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED where each episode was introduced by Roald Dahl where he recounted a time when he gave a lift to a couple of young men with long hair . One of them pulled out a knife held it to Dahl's throat and told him to get out the car . Dahl complied and the men drove off in his car . He explained after that incident he never stopped to give lifts to young men with long hair and that it inspired him to write his 1977 short story The Hitch Hiker . You have to wonder how much embellishment there is to the story because if Dahl had seen this relatively unknown movie it'd be a warning to anyone picking up hitch hikers This has a simple premise of a raving psycho hitching a life from a couple of hard working regular guys and deciding to kill them when their usefulness is over . That's it , not deep psychological character exploration is meant and the characters and performances are decidedly one note , the psycho played by William Talman is a violent psychopath because the story needs a villain and Roy and Gilbert played be respectively Edmund O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy are likable guys because the film needs a victim THE HITCH HIKER is a melodramatic thriller . You can guarantee at every dramatic moment there will be a blast of very menacing music . It's a relatively low budget film and yet none of these things are in any way a criticism . What it does it does very well . There's not a lot of ambition but this is not needed or wanted in a very tight screenplay . There's a small element of having seen it all before but it's a fairly enjoyable crime thriller that deserves to be better known