They say that no good deed goes unpunished, and friends Roy Collins and Gilbert Bowen find out the truth of this saying when, during a fishing trip to Mexico, they pick up a hitchhiker whose car has apparently run out of gas. The man, Emmett Myers, turns out to be a murderer on the run from the American authorities who has managed to slip into Mexico. Myers draws a gun on the men and forces them to drive him to where he wants to go, threatening to kill them after they have taken him to his destination, the town of Santa Rosalía in Baja California. (Myers is based upon a real-life serial killer, Billy Cook, although the number of killings committed by Cook had to be reduced in the film at the insistence of the Hays Office)."The Hitch-Hiker" is a suspense thriller made in 1953, but in many ways it is very different from the work of Alfred Hitchcock, America's most famous director of suspense thrillers during the fifties. At only seventy minutes long it is considerably shorter than most of Hitchcock's films. There is no trademark blonde heroine. (Indeed, although the film was directed by a female director, Ida Lupino, there are no prominent female characters at all). There is no comic relief. Lupino does not attempt to analyse the psychology behind Myers' crimes as Hitchcock does with Norman Bates in "Psycho" and some of his other villains; Myers is simply a psychopath, and that is that. There are no cliff-hangers on a prominent building and no directorial set-pieces comparable to the "Psycho" shower scene.William Talman, best remembered as the District Attorney in the "Perry Mason" TV serial, is normally thought of as a supporting actor, but here he dominates the film with his performance as the malevolent Myers. It quickly becomes obvious that he does not regard Roy, Gil and their car merely as a convenient means of transport to facilitate his escape. It is quite clear that he takes a positive, lip-smacking sadistic pleasure in tormenting them both physically and psychologically. Indeed, it may be this very sadism to which the two men owe their survival; logically it would have made more sense, from Myers' point of view, to have killed them early on and then driven off in the car himself, thus eliminating two witnesses, but had he done so he would have been left without victims to torture. What Myers cannot understand is the mutual friendship and loyalty which prevents both Roy and Gil from attempting to escape separately; altruism of any sort is quite alien to his nature.The film is often categorised as film noir, but in many ways it is also different from most mainstream noir. Some films noirs, "The Big Sleep" being a good example, had notoriously complex plots, but that of "The Hitch-Hiker" is simplicity itself. There are no sub-plots; Lupino concentrates on the main story, the plight of Roy and Gil and their efforts to escape from the ever-present menace of the watchful Myers. It is not set on the mean streets of an American city or in seedy, claustrophobic interiors but in the wide-open spaces of the Mexican desert, and the barrenness and loneliness of this landscape becomes a symbol of the threat hanging over the two heroes. I said above that the film does not contain any Hitchcockian set-pieces, which normally mark a notable increase in the level of tension. Here the tension is maintained at a high level throughout; perhaps the entire film can be seen as one long, extended seventy minute set-piece. An excellent thriller. 8/10

This film The Hitch-Hiker should serve as a warning not to pick anyone up on the road. You might just be picking up a mad dog killer like William Talman.Which is what good friends and fishing buddies Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy do on a fishing trip. No good deed ever goes unpunished as Talman uses their car for transportation and them for hostages. Talman was a real piece of work in this film. He bullies and taunts them for the entire running time of the film. He'll kill them when the time is right. As for now their plight serves as an object for his sick amusement. Talman is one terrifying and conscienceless human being.As for O'Brien and Lovejoy they're a pair of averages guys caught up in a bad situation. Lovejoy is the cooler of the two, but even he is close to breaking.The Hitch-Hiker is directed with crisp style by Ida Lupino. It's a terrifying film, as much horror as a Hitchcock effort without the froth.

I'm reminded of an early episode of TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED where each episode was introduced by Roald Dahl where he recounted a time when he gave a lift to a couple of young men with long hair . One of them pulled out a knife held it to Dahl's throat and told him to get out the car . Dahl complied and the men drove off in his car . He explained after that incident he never stopped to give lifts to young men with long hair and that it inspired him to write his 1977 short story The Hitch Hiker . You have to wonder how much embellishment there is to the story because if Dahl had seen this relatively unknown movie it'd be a warning to anyone picking up hitch hikers This has a simple premise of a raving psycho hitching a life from a couple of hard working regular guys and deciding to kill them when their usefulness is over . That's it , not deep psychological character exploration is meant and the characters and performances are decidedly one note , the psycho played by William Talman is a violent psychopath because the story needs a villain and Roy and Gilbert played be respectively Edmund O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy are likable guys because the film needs a victim THE HITCH HIKER is a melodramatic thriller . You can guarantee at every dramatic moment there will be a blast of very menacing music . It's a relatively low budget film and yet none of these things are in any way a criticism . What it does it does very well . There's not a lot of ambition but this is not needed or wanted in a very tight screenplay . There's a small element of having seen it all before but it's a fairly enjoyable crime thriller that deserves to be better known

Two fishermen pick up a psychotic escaped convict (William Talman) who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.First and foremost, I should warn the viewer to avoid the version available from Alpha Video. Alpha has released many (public domain) classic films over the years in varying degrees of quality. I would say this is not one of their better ones, and to really get the right feel, you should pick up the copy from Kino.Beyond the tense plot and and skillful acting, what really distinguishes this film is the director, Ida Lupino. Lupino was a fairly well-known actress in her day, but her move to director is noteworthy. Even today we have few female directors, but in the 1950s it was almost completely unheard of.