Good movie but grossly overrated

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

This solid chillfest presents what happens when two ordinary men take an unlucky road trip and meet up with the title character, a merciless killer with a taste for sadism.Collins (Edmond O'Brien) and Bowen (Frank Lovejoy) are war buddies who take off for a planned fishing trip to Mexico when they pick up Emmett Myers (William Talman), standing beside a stopped car. But Myers isn't the owner of the car, whom he murdered some distance away. He's a serial killer who sees Collins and Bowen as his next victims, as soon as he gets clear of the U. S. He wastes no time pulling his revolver and telling them the score:"You guys are gonna die, that's all. It's just a question of when."Director/co-writer Ida Lupino puts you in the car with the two doomed men, making every pit stop into a nail-biting exploration of how people deal with madness-induced pressure.There are three enjoyable anomalies worth considering along the ride. Two of them are much commented upon: the fact a glamorous film actress is at the helm of such a hard film, with no female speaking parts in English and informed throughout by a kind of Hemingway tough-guy sensibility; and the fact the heavy is played so absorbingly by Talman, that future law-and-order foil to TV's Perry Mason.The third: Of the two actors playing the prisoners, the one with the biggest name, O'Brien, who made such an impression three years prior as a similarly put-upon innocent in "D. O. A.", is something of a second banana here. Lovejoy's character is the one who employs patience and courage. He's got a wife and children, and as Myers taunts, "Just keep thinking' how nice it'll be to see 'em again."Lovejoy and Talman, not to mention Lupino, deserved more chances to stretch themselves as effectively as they do here. All three put up stellar work.Lupino and husband co-writer Collier Young set a quick tempo, punctuated by Myers' sneering jibes at his fellow travelers. No attempt is made at making him sympathetic, yet his terse, flat commands keep you riveted.When he relaxes, he's even more unlikable. He mocks Collins and Bowen for being "soft" and even brags later on how one of them might have gotten away if they weren't that way."You kept thinking' about each other, so you missed some chances," he says.You get the feeling Myers enjoys torturing the pair even more than he does the prospect of killing them. His fleering eyes, even with his right eyelid always half-closed, tell all you want to know about him.The film moves even more quickly than its 71-minute running time suggests. Occasionally there are breaks in the action while we see an American fed talk strategy with a Mexican police commander (Jean Del Val, recognizable as the first actor seen speaking in "Casablanca.") This feels a bit canned, though, as do the radio bulletins telling of Myers' progress whenever he tunes in. The climax comes off a bit flat, too.But "The Hitch-Hiker" entertains with its strong tension and its lack of gushiness or fat. This is a man's movie, no less manly for being the product of a woman who knew what men like, and how to deliver same.

Ida Lupino was woefully underrated in all three areas - actress/writer/director in which she functioned in Hollywood. She appeared in - and enhanced - some great movies, Moontide, Roadhouse, The Big Knife, then became a writer/director on several major TV shows, plus a handful of low-budget but well-made feature films like The Hitch-Hiker. Coming in at 71 minutes, in black and white, 85 per cent of the running time involves only three actors, William Talman, Frank Lovejoy and Edmond O'Brian. If O'Brian is the class act, a gifted Shakespearean veteran who could turn his hand to anything, the other two are not overshadowed by any means and the ensemble playing is a joy to watch as is Lupino's inventive framing and use of shadow and light. A minor gem.

At the risk of sound sexist you would never guess that "The Hitch-Hiker" was directed by anyone other than the toughest of hombres. In fact, this male-dominated thriller about a hitch-hiking psychopath, (William Talman), who takes two fishermen hostage, (Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy), was directed by none other than Ida Lupino but then Lupino was no ordinary 'woman director'. At a time when the industry, particularly in Hollywood, was dominated by men Lupino fought the powers that be in order to make the kind of films she wanted. "The Hitch-Hiker" was very much a personal project made on the slimmest of budgets. She and producer Collier Young wrote the film and she shot it entirely on location in California, (standing in for Mexico), and it tells its suspenseful story in just 71 minutes. The premiss is simplicity itself and Lupino uses the desert locations superbly to build tension. If at times Talman's madman seems a little over the top the underplaying of both O'Brien and Lovejoy nicely balances things out. A small classic.

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.