Review of The Hitch-Hiker (1953) by Christopher B — 25 Jun 2016

Two guys off for a fishing trip pick up a hitcher who is wanted for murder. He forces them at gunpoint to drive through Mexico to Santa Rosalia on the Gulf - a 500-mile journey. It's tense all the way but there is nary a chance for escape.

Even at night, the hitch-hiker seems awake because he's got a partially paralyzed eye that never closes. William Talman is brutal and harsh as this thug. So, it's a noir set-up and the film is framed as though, it coulda been you who picked him up.

But on closer inspection, the noir logic that dictates that one fatal mistake usually brings on a protagonist's doom does seem to be operating. Instead of heading straight to their fishing hole, Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy take a detour to Mexicali for a drink and possibly some fun away from their wives (O'Brien's idea).

Nothing happens but if they hadn't gone that way, they never would have met Talman. But, hell, who knows what sorts of missteps lay before us, where the fickle finger of fate is always waiting to poke us in the eye? Ida Lupino, a noir veteran in front of the camera, directed this concise thriller.