The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Ida Lupino was woefully underrated in all three areas - actress/writer/director in which she functioned in Hollywood. She appeared in - and enhanced - some great movies, Moontide, Roadhouse, The Big Knife, then became a writer/director on several major TV shows, plus a handful of low-budget but well-made feature films like The Hitch-Hiker. Coming in at 71 minutes, in black and white, 85 per cent of the running time involves only three actors, William Talman, Frank Lovejoy and Edmond O'Brian. If O'Brian is the class act, a gifted Shakespearean veteran who could turn his hand to anything, the other two are not overshadowed by any means and the ensemble playing is a joy to watch as is Lupino's inventive framing and use of shadow and light. A minor gem.

This is one of the earliest film portrayals of a spree killer and the first film directed by Ida Lupino. Hence it has some historical interest. However, it is by no stretch of the imagination in the "film noir" genre, as many suggest. Classic film noir involves urban settings, a motley crew of criminals and their associates, a double and preferably a triple cross, a femme fatale, lots of rain and dark shadows, and a hero who enters into the underworld reluctantly and inadvisedly. Although no "film noir" classic has all of these conventions, most have a great many. This film has none. It does have great film noir cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca ( "Stranger on the 3rd Floor", "Cat People", "Out of the Past", "They Clash By Night", "The Blue Gardenia") and he does use some of his sharp black and white photography to make this a very watchable film.Don't expect film noir, nor will you get much psychological analysis of the spree killer. The performances are good and the direction is taut, but there are far better films from this era, and certainly people like Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy did far better jobs in far better films.

This cautionary tale about the dangers of picking up hitch-hikers was famously the first film noir to be directed by a woman (Ida Lupino) and its story is remarkably tense and gripping throughout. The fact that it has a short running time, a lively pace and a no-nonsense style of delivering the action, adds to the urgency of what's happening on-screen and emphasises that the events taking place have a momentum all of their own and that they're propelling the hitch-hiker's helpless victims towards a dreadful fate that they have no hope of escaping.Roy Collins (Edmond O'Brien) and Gilbert Bowen (Frank Lovejoy) are a couple of guys from Arizona who plan to enjoy a short fishing vacation in Mexico but en route they see a man at the side of the road and offer him a lift. Almost as soon as he's seated in the car, the stranger, who is Emmett Myers (William Talman), pulls a gun on the men and wants them to take him through the Mexican desert to Santa Rosalia where he intends to catch a ferry. It soon becomes apparent that Myers is a serial killer who's on the run from the police and a radio report that they hear during their journey confirms that the police don't know his current whereabouts.When night falls and the men settle down to sleep, Myers informs his hostages that, due to a deformity of his eyelid, his right eye remains open when he's sleeping and so they should forget about trying to escape because he's likely to see and kill them if they attempt anything like that. Knowing what a ruthless killer Myers is, Roy and Gil don't make any attempt to escape that nightThe journey across the desert becomes increasingly difficult and Myers gets very agitated when the car horn starts to blast continuously and is upset again later when one of the tyres is punctured. In his more composed moments he shouts orders at his terrified captives and tells them that they're soft and that he's superior to them because he simply takes whatever he wants. In the rare opportunities that they get, Roy and Gil try to discuss an escape plan but this causes disagreements between them. Because of this and Myers' promise that he's going to kill them as soon as they arrive at Santa Rosalia, their need for some way out of their predicament becomes increasingly desperate.This movie is intended to create an atmosphere of fear and this is successfully achieved because:-1. its story is inspired by real-life events. 2. the ruthlessness of the killer is powerfully portrayed at the very beginning of the film.3. Myers' shooting skills are demonstrated to his victims at an early stage of their journey. 4. his practice of sleeping with one eye open is extremely creepy.Furthermore, locating the victims' ordeal in the claustrophobic confines of a car and the isolation of long empty desert roads highlights the fact that there's no easy escape from Roy and Gil's hellish ordeal.Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy are very convincing in their roles as a couple of ordinary middle-class friends and William Talman is absolutely sensational as Myers, who is the personification of pure evil. With its punchy dialogue, moody visual style and intensely threatening atmosphere, "The Hitch-Hiker" is an incredibly strong, riveting and memorable crime thriller.

This movie opens up with "This is the true story of a man and a gun and a car. The gun belonged to the man. The car might have been yours _ or that young couple across the aisle ... For the facts are actual." It reminds me of those industrial educational film played for high school students warning them of drunken driving or smoking weed. Roy Collins (Edmond O'Brien) and Gilbert Bowen (Frank Lovejoy) are driving off to have a good time away from the kids. They pick up psycho hitchhiker killer Emmett Myers (William Talman) who pulls out a gun. He forces them to drive.This is a strip down 71 minutes movie. Talman is over the top creepy with the wonky eye. It's the expected look of a psycho killer at the time. I didn't find it compelling. And I can't figure out why he kept both men. On the surface, there are a lot of compelling facts about this production. The dark subject matter puts it away from the big studios and solidly into the indie B-movie camp. The fact that director Ida Lupino is a woman makes this one of a short list. It also allowed her to work with blacklisted writer Daniel Mainwaring. However I didn't find neither the victims nor the killer that compelling. The movie just felt like dragging from one scene to the next. I find myself liking the production artwork a lot more than the movie.