Film noirs from the late 1940s and early 50s were generally straightforward, simple stories that were short in length and fast-paced. They were cheaper to produce than regular Hollywood films, so they were categorized as B-movies. During Hollywood’s Golden Age, Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker differentiated itself from other films when it came to violence, and evoked the spirit of later horror films and thriller works featuring serial killers. It’s a rather gory picture that nerves the viewer through its wonderful skeletal idea: it never ignores a single frame.
In our analysis, we consider the classic example of the 1953 film, married with Social ‘Black Issue’ in my transcripts. The Hitch-Hiker might be the first film that comes into mind when “female rage film” is mentioned. This was the first film noir done by a woman that featured a woman as a lead actress in a film commercially successful for its period. Lupino specialized in something called “social issue pictures”, motion pictures that touched on subjects like rape and previous to it’s creation, was barely glimpsed over, let alone talked about, daringness the Hay’s Code era. This film goes into that mold as it dramatically shifts into an aortic story taken real of someone called Billy Cook, who went on an 1950 ‘killing spree’ and non-stop murder around the Southern highways. Like the serial killer show Mindhunter, it features true crime elements to reassure the viewers and proves to them, that yes, these terrifying things do happen and must be paid attention to.
The premise and the plot of the film is quite straight forward, perhaps even too simple: two friends, Roy (Edmond O’Brien) and Gilbert (Frank Lovejoy) are off to a fishing vacation in Mexico, but not before grabbing a lift with a serial killer over the coast roads of Oregon and California named Emmett Myers (William Talman). Part of this driving included, a few pieces here ,and there of a crime by the sinister Myers and at some point after grabbing ahold of a gun during, reluctantly agreeing to take them to Mexico where they would wait on some chance at freedom.
The Hitch-Hiker barely runs for 71 minutes and doesn’t waste a second before having Roy and Gilbert drive Myers and immediately set out for Mexico. Contrary to other film noir, it doesn’t take place in filthy urban settings, which symbolize the hero’s inner turmoil. It is set, for the most part, in a desert. Instead of having dark shadows and foggy alleyways, it features sun bleached stones and dusty stops along the highway. Lupino is keen to stress the emptiness of the highways which makes it very clear, as it does to Myers, that Roy and Gilbert are trapped with no place to escape.
The very first moments of the film show Lupino’s detailing of Myers’ character. While Myers is waiting along the soured highway with a thumb raised, Lupino captures him from the waist down. As the shadows begin to take center stage in the opening credits, Myers’ face remains hidden along with his humanity, which gives the impression of him being more of a shadow than a person. When Roy and Gilbert decide to pick him up and Myers aims a gun at them, only then do we see his face. From that point on, Lupino seldom shifts the camera away from him. Not only does she bear her focus to Talman’s beady eyes, she goes the extent of making his face look as though one of his eyes is set and unfocused. When he sleeps with a gun poised in a threatening manner, he keeps one eye half open, which gives the impression of a dragon constantly staring at Roy and Gilbert, refusing to indicate whether he is in fact awake or asleep.
Talman’s performance is more than just physical. He takes pleasure in the nutty insults and lines that reveal everything in so many words. Roy and Gilbert are helpless and not the type of rough and tough heroes to put up much of a struggle. But even if they were, Myers is not the kind of unstable, foolish killer usually seen in films of the time. He is more of a true psychopath, more like a horror villain than a flawed heavy from a film noir. He informs Roy and Gilbert without any pretense that he will kill them when he gets where he is going. The dominion that this gives him over the two men, as we see his eyes light up while he bosses them around, knowing their plight for life, is what enthralls him. It is apparent to them that for refusing to succumb to his will means death for them.
Myers possesses a sadistic streak that extends to the relentless cruelty and unbearable strain that antagonizes the protagonists and the audience, too. The Hitch-Hiker, like the horror movies that came in the 70’s and 80s, especially The Hitcher, takes inspiration from Lupino’s film and pushes forward the narrative to situate the audience in the where the victims should be. The film underlines the powerlessness of the victims and does not offer any narrative turns or nonchalant scenes that would alleviate the tension. The film remains so taut up until the very last second when Myers finally realizes that he can’t control everything around him.
Lupino doesn’t budge the memories of Billy Cook’s actual arrest and execution and, rather, draws out those tremendously repulsive moments which suggest revenge. While it is undeniably a fusion of noir, the film stands out as an early depiction of the nightmarish vision horror would ultimately grow to become a genre that is not inspired by fantastical delusions of the night, but by horrifying reality that usually exists on lonely roads during nights.
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