The Hitch-Hiker

The Hitch-Hiker is a film noir inspired by the crime spree of the psychopathic murderer Billy Cook (1928-1952). The film was regarded as the first American mainstream film directed by a woman and was selected in 1998 as being 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant'. A man hitchhikes on the side of a highway and is picked up by a passing car. His face is not shown and we see the car abandoned with two bodies being robbed by the hitchhiker. The man, his face still not shown, hitchhikes on and kills and robs again. Two men Roy Collins (Edmond O'Brien) and Frank Lovejoy (Gilbert Bowen) from California are driving to a planned fishing trip at the Mexican town of San Felipe. Just south of Mexicali, they pick up the hitchhiker, now revealed as Emmett Myers (William Talman), whose stolen car has apparently run out of gas. Myers is the psychopath who has committed multiple murders while hitchhiking between Illinois and Southern California, and has managed to slip into Mexico. To evade the pursuing authorities, Myers forces the two men at gunpoint to journey deep into the heart of Baja, California toward the town of Santa Rosalia, where he plans to take a ferry across the Gulf of California. Meanwhile, the two men try to plot their escape from the violent, paranoid Myers. The men try different tactics to sabotage Myers's plan, but the sadistic Myers physically and mentally torments the men, forcing them to continue on foot. Arriving at Santa Rosalia, Myers tries to conceal his identity by forcing one of the men to wear his clothes. Myers then hires a fishing boat, but the locals discover he is a wanted murderer and contact authorities. The film's ending is a long awaited one to discover if the two innocent men survive this crazed psychopath or not. (70 minutes - 1953 - Black & White - 4:3)