The hitch-hiker

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Movie
Original title The hitch-hiker
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1953
length 71 minutes
Rod
Director Ida Lupino
script Collier Young ,
Ida Lupino,
Robert L. Joseph
production Collier Young for
RKO Pictures
music Leith Stevens
camera Nicholas Musuraca
cut Douglas Stewart
occupation

The Hitch-Hiker is an American film directed by Ida Lupino in 1953. The film is based on a story by the author Daniel Mainwaring , which in turn was inspired by the hitchhiking serial killer Billy Cook . The Hitch-Hiker is considered the first female-directed film noir and was listed in the National Film Registry in 1998.

action

The psychopathic criminal Emmett Myers has escaped from prison. On his escape from Illinois to Southern California , he shoots several drivers who have taken him with them, so that the police set off a large manhunt for him. Meanwhile, two men who are friends, the garage owner Roy Collins and the draftsman Gilbert Brown, set off on a fishing trip together to Baja California . Their harmless trip takes a terrible turn when, south of Mexicali , they make the mistake of letting Emmett Myers get into their car. Myers takes the two men hostage and forces them to let him drive to Santa Rosalía . He openly threatens them with death.

Collins and Brown try to escape or at least to attract the police's attention; one of them throws his wedding ring into the coin-operated machine while refueling. They also take care of keeping the radio and thus also the wanted reports as far away as possible from the paranoid and unpredictable Myers. But Myers is cunning and in turn tries to destroy the friendship between the two by shooting what he thinks is the more intelligent Bowen at a can that his friend is holding in his hand. A night attempt by the friends to escape fails because Myers - one of his eyes is always half open because of an old injury - wakes up and almost runs over her with the car. When the car breaks down shortly before Santa Rosalía, he forces her to run the last few miles, although Collins injured his leg while trying to escape at night and every step hurts.

In Santa Rosalía, Myers tries to take a boat to Guaymas , but the usual ferry is broken. So he asks a local named Jose to get him a fishing boat that he can use to leave the pier in the evening. But Jose recognizes the criminal in a mug shot and notifies the police. Meanwhile, Collins is forced by Myers to swap clothes with him so that he remains undetected. Meanwhile, the police wait at the pier and shoot Collins because of the clothes, but Bowen is able to remove the gun from Myers and thus draw the police's attention to the real criminal. Suddenly frightened without his pistol, he gives Myers a couple of blows when he is arrested. The exhausted friends are ready for further questioning by the police.

Origin background

The basis was the life story of the criminal Billy Cook , who hitchhiked and killed six people for which he was executed in December 1952. Towards the end of his escape, he forced two men on a hunting trip to drive him to Santa Rosalía, where he was arrested by the Mexican police. Daniel Mainwaring wrote the template for the film based on this case. Mainwaring, who is best known for his template and his script for the classic film Goldenes Gift (Out of the Past), was known for his politically left-wing attitudes, which was viewed critically in the McCarthy era . Howard Hughes , the owner of RKO Pictures, therefore instructed not to mention Mainware's name in the opening credits.

Since her directorial debut in 1949, the actress Ida Lupino had mainly filmed women’s material, from which this film noir meant a departure. For greater authenticity, Lupino interviewed one of the hostages and in the script alludes to the murderer's difficult childhood, which triggered his pronounced hatred of all humanity. The film also features the eye deformation that the real Cook also had. While Cook had killed six people, only three murders are shown in the opening credits in the film - the real Cook had also killed three children, which Lupino also omitted in consideration of the Hays Code . Lupino worked on the script with Robert L. Joseph and her ex-husband, Collier Young, who also produced the film. The film was shot in June and July 1952, among others in the Alabama Hills and Big Pine, California .

The Hitch-Hiker became a commercial success and also received mostly good reviews.

Awards

In 1998, The Hitch-Hiker was included in the National Film Registry and classified as "historically, culturally or aesthetically significant".

criticism

At the time of publication, AH Hamlet's opinion in the New York Times was mixed. Lupino's direction is "lively" and the film is realistic. There would be solid performances, especially William Talman would have received one of the "juiciest role offers of the year". However, the plot is too predictable, the viewer leans back, knowing that it is only a matter of time before Myers is stopped.

John Krewson wrote that The Hitch-Hiker was "probably Lupino's best film and the only true noir directed by a woman," in which "two downright average middle-class Americans" are mentally tortured by a criminal. Lupino's direction is at the same time critical and compassionate sensitivity. Lupino proves herself to be a good filmmaker through her gloomy staging of the “ever-present loneliness of the empty streets”.

Time Out was also positive: "Absolutely safe in its design of the gloomy noir atmosphere - whether in the claustrophobic confines of the car, or lost in the arid expanse of the desert - Lupino never relaxes the tension for a moment." But also her emotional sensitivity becomes clear when she shows that the two men can only survive the situation through their friendship. "Tight, tough and without macho glorifications, it's a treat, with first-class depictions of its three protagonists, skillfully characterized without relapsing into clichés."

Dennis Schwartz wrote that the film's action unfolded without clichés and that Talman's portrayal of a sadist was powerful. The Hitch-Hiker expresses the fear of the American middle class that they are nowhere safe from crime.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Hitch-Hiker (1953) - Articles - TCM.com. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
  2. ^ The Hitch-Hiker (1953) - Articles - TCM.com. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
  3. ^ The Hitch-Hiker (1953) - Ida Lupino | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
  4. ^ The Hitch-Hiker (1953) - Articles - TCM.com. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
  5. ^ Movie Review - At the Holiday. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
  6. ↑ John Krewson: The Hitch-Hiker . In: Film . ( avclub.com [accessed February 17, 2018]).
  7. ↑ The Hitch-hiker . In: Time Out London . ( timeout.com [accessed February 17, 2018]).
  8. ^ Dennis Schwartz: The Hitch-Hiker. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .