The Hitch-Hiker

While women are still vastly outnumbered in Hollywood when it comes to directors, there were a few women who worked as directors in the old days. Ida Lupino, who was an actress, spent her free time observing the directors on her films, and went on to make a handful of well-received films, starting in 1949 and up to 1966. She was the second woman to join the the Directors' Guild of America.

Her most acclaimed film was The Hitch-Hiker, released in 1953, and nothing about it suggests the type of material one thinks of when one thinks of a woman director (of course, neither does the work of Kathryn Bigelow, the only woman to win an Oscar for Best Directing). The Hitch-Hiker is a lean, masculine true-crime film, with a terrific performance by William Talman as a psychopathic killer.

Talman, who ironically would become famous for playing prosecutor Hamilton Burger on Perry Mason (always losing to Raymond Burr) is Emmett Myers, a drifter who has killed several people while hitchhiking. It's interesting to note that hitchhiking was fairly acceptable in those days (today one would be foolish to undertake it or to pick one up). Even after he has killed a few people, he has no problem getting a ride with two buddies on a fishing trip (Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy).

Talman takes them hostage and leads them on a drive into the Baja peninsula in Mexico. For the rest of the film we have a psychological drama, as Talman really doesn't have a plan, and the two men are tested. O'Brien is all for taking a risk on jumping him, while Lovejoy encourages patience. When Talman tells them he will kill them eventually, one would think taking a chance would make sense, but who knows how anyone would behave in those circumstances.

These three men are almost the only characters, aside from a few shopkeepers and policemen. Lupino  contrasts the claustrophobia of being inside the car with shots of bright sunlight and open vistas, with mountain and desert stretching to infinity. At 70 minutes, she doesn't waste any time, boiling the story down to its essence.

The Hitch-Hiker was based on a real case, that of Billy Cook, who went on a killing spree and was executed. Before he was killed Lupino actually interviewed him, as well as the two men he took captive. All of this happening in the 1950s for a woman is a little like the proverbial flower growing through a crack in the concrete. What's unfortunate is that things aren't all that much better now.