Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
dougdoepke
Though I've seen the suspenser before, I still had a sweat bucket handy for this latest go-round. Great job all-around. It's the kind of B-movie old movie fans savor, that is, if you don't mind your knuckles turning white. Talman delivers a career performance as the psychotic hitchhiker Emmett Myers. He'd just as soon shoot you as shake your hand. So who do you suppose average guys Lovejoy and O'Brien give a ride to.That's it, the whole story--- two nice guys at the mercy of an escaped lunatic with neither a tree nor a girl in sight. But the suspense seldom lets up. Sure, a critical eye could wonder why the two hostages don't try to turn the tables more than they do. Wisely, however, the script suggests that neither wants to endanger the other with a false move. Besides, Talman's one scary dude. Producer Lupino better have three of the industry's best actors because their interaction's the whole story. Fortunately she got them. Two inspired touches-having Myers (Talman) unable to close one eye gives him a subtly gruesome appearance, plus filming in a hellish desert perfectly mirrors the situation. The lonely traveling car is like a one-way trip to Hades. I doubt that any film has gotten more out of a dollar-eighty budget than this little suspense gem. I love it when a cheap-jack production like this delivers more goods than the Technicolor biggies of the day. Thanks be to the versatile Ida Lupino and her company of three outsized talents for this minor triumph.
utgard14
Two friends on a fishing trip (Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy) pick up a hitchhiker (William Talman). That turns out to be a huge mistake as this guy is a psycho who's left a trail of bodies behind him. Now he holds the two men hostage at gunpoint and forces them to drive into Mexico.Based on real-life hitchhiking killer Billy Cook, this is an excellent film noir thriller directed and co-written by Ida Lupino. It might be the best movie she directed, although I'm partial to On Dangerous Ground. Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy are both fine but Lovejoy gets a little more to work with. Which is funny since O'Brien was the bigger star of the two. William Talman, best known as the district attorney who always lost to Perry Mason, is great here. There's a creepiness to his performance that separates the character from just another thug with a gun that was commonplace in movies, even in 1953. It's a taut thriller with fine performances and excellent direction. Short runtime is a plus. Years of more graphic movies with similar plots may dilute the impact of this some but I think it's still a strong film.
George Wright
Hitch-hiker is a tense 1950s drama involving two sport fishermen in a car that is hijacked by a psychopath fleeing to Mexico. After already committing murders and with the police hot on his trail, the criminal is desperate to escape and becomes more unhinged. Using a gun from the back seat, he forces the two men on a fishing trip to follow his orders. The hitch-hiker Emmett Myers is played by William Talman, who also played prosecuting attorney Hamilton Berger on the Perry Mason television show. Here he shows what a great character actor he is in an earlier role as a psychopath. His acting is superb as he terrorizes and plays cruel games with the two human pawns. This movie was directed by film noir actor Ida Lupino, the first woman to direct a film in this genre. The story was pieced together from newspaper accounts. Edmond O'Brien as Roy Collins and Frank Lovejoy as Gilbert Bowen are well paired with O'Brien acting the hothead Collins and Lovejoy, the cool as a cucumber family man. The drive is one lengthy ordeal and is marked by a few torturous scenes: the William Tell target practice; the psychopath's paralytic eye staying open; the walk across the desert when Collins has an injured leg. I am grateful that TCM brings back to the screen an underrated and well-crafted movie like Hitchhiker that could otherwise be forgotten.
artpf
Two carefree young travelers make the mistake of their lives when they pick up a mysterious, and slightly psychotic, hitch-hiker who never closes his right eye -- even when he sleeps!Film Noir...why don't they make these kinds of flicks today. They are so cool.Anyway, supposedly based upon a true story.It's a relatively well done foray into film noir, with one major flaw that draws the film down half way through.If there are two strong guys and another guy with a gun and the guy with the gun tells you he's going to kill you no matter what, but not telling you when, then you really have nothing left to lose.So at some point don't you try to jump him? They have numerous opportunities. And related to this -- why does the bad guy even want the two of them around? Pleasant conversation? They are a weight to him and represent the possibility of doom for him, so why not put an end to them and go it alone?If you can put this lack of logic aside, it's a fun film.
