The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Directed by Ida Lupino

Film Review

One of the very few female film directors to have an impact on American cinema in the 1950s, Ida Lupino took critics and audiences by surprise with this starkly brutal film noir suspense thriller, which is widely regarded today as one of her best films, if not her best.  Prior to this, the former actress-turned filmmaker had made her name with a series of hard-hitting social dramas, but it was realist macho thrillers like the The Hitch-Hiker that she felt most comfortable directing.  This was the second of a series of three films that Lupino made under a distribution deal with RKO, although it was released under the banner of The Filmakers, the company that she created and ran with her husband and frequent collaborator, Collier Young.  The film is based on the true story of William Cook, who was executed in 1952 for murdering six innocent people as he hitch-hiked his away across California in 1950. 

Despite the obvious simplicity of its plot, The Hitch-Hiker manages to be one of the most compelling and nerve-racking of all films noirs, and it achieves this by forcing its audience to identify intimately with the two likeable victims as they are constantly tormented by the sadistic brute they foolishly offer a lift to.  Aggressive use of big close-ups and some skilful editing expose the anxiety, fear, loathing and increasing sense of desperation that gradually overwhelm the two characters as they are nudged ever close to death by a homicidal madman who delights in teasing them, like a deranged cat playing with a helpless mouse.   Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy both give commendable performances as the two powerless victims (who become emasculated by their concern for each other's safety), but it is William Talman who is most memorable as the psychotic and totally charmless Myers.  Cinema has rarely given us a more terrifying portrayal of pure evil than Talman's constantly smirking sadist, a man who is able to sleep with one eye open (providing the film with its most chilling image).

Lupino directs the film with exceptional economy, achieving a remarkably effective result without recourse to over-elaborate mise-en-scène or fancy camera set-ups.  The film owes much of its intensity and impact to the relentlessly brooding photography, which is supplied by Nicholas Musuraca, one of the most gifted of film noir cinematographers, best known for his work on Cat People (1942), The Spiral Staircase (1945) and Out of the Past (1947).  The crushing emptiness of the desert location in which most of the story takes place gives an unbearable claustrophobic feel to the film, accentuating the sheer hopelessness of the two victims as their tormenter drives them on, deeper and deeper into a nightmare from which there is apparently no escape.  The Hitch-Hiker may only run to seventy minutes but it is a tension-filled endurance test of the first order, even for the most hardened of film noir aficionados.

Film Synopsis

When Roy Collins and Gilbert Bowen set out for a peaceful weekend fishing trip, they could have had no idea of the harrowing ordeal that was ahead of them.  Their fatal mistake was to pick up a hitch-hiker, but how could they know he was Emmett Myers, an escaped convict who had already murdered several good-natured people like themselves in his bid to evade capture?  Myers makes no secret of what he has in mind for the two men.  He will allow them to live whilst they remain useful to him.  Then he will shoot them dead and continue his journey alone.  Roy and Gilbert bide their time, waiting for the moment when they can turn the tables on their tormenter.  But Myers is as cunning as a fox, and far deadlier...