The Hitch-Hiker **** (1953, Edmond O’Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William Talman) – Classic Movie Review 2563

Director Ida Lupino’s tense and compelling 1953 film noir The Hitch-Hiker has two fishing-trip travellers Roy Collins and Gilbert Bowen (Edmond O’Brien, Frank Lovejoy) leaving their wives and picking up the sinister hitch-hiker Emmett Myers (William Talman), a man with one eye that never shuts, along the road.

[Spoiler alert] It turns out that he is a killer and psychotic escaped convict, who makes them head to Mexico at gunpoint. He then tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.

The fictionalised yarn is based on the true tale of serial killer William Cook, who murdered six people between 1950 and 1951 when he was caught and executed.

McCarthy witchhunt victim Daniel Mainwaring was originally uncredited for the story.

From the opening credits: ‘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. What you will see in the next seventy minutes could have happened to you. For the facts are actual.’

Also in the cast are José Torvay as Captain Alvarado, Sam Hayes, Wendell Niles, Jean Del Val, Clark Howat, Natividad Vacio, Gordon Barney, Rodney Bell, Orlando Beltran, Wade Crosby, June Dineen, Joe Dominguez, Henry A Escalante, Al Ferrera, Taylor Flaniken, Nacho Galindo, Martin Garralaga, Ed Hinton, Larry Hudson, Jerry Lawrence, George Navarro, Kathy Riggins, Tony Roux, Felipe Turich, Rosa Turich and Collier Young.

The Hitch-Hiker is directed by Ida Lupino, runs 71 minutes, is made by RKO Radio Pictures and The Filmakers, is released by RKO, is written by Lucille Fletcher, Ida Lupino (screenplay), Collier Young (screenplay), Robert L Joseph (adaptation) and Daniel Mainwaring (uncredited), is shot in black and white by Nicholas Musuraca, is produced by Collier Young, is scored by Leith Stevens and is designed by Albert S D’Agostino.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2563

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