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Sunday, June 05, 2011

THE HITCHHIKER

By Bruce Dettman

In the early 1950s, a man named Billy Cook abducted and held prisoner two hunters in Baja, California for eight days.  The Missouri-born Cook had already been responsible for the deaths of five family members in an earlier brutal crime which included the slaying of several small children. Finally captured after an intense manhunt, he was sentenced to death in the gas chamber and executed at San Quentin on December 12, 1952.

Filmmakers, a fledgling production company with only a few pictures under its celluloid belt, spearheaded by producer Collier Young, writer Marvin Wald and Young’s wife, actress and fledgling director Ida Lupino, announced their intention of filming the story of Cook’s kidnapping of the two men, a project not only sanctioned by the actual hunters but by the killer as well. The producers immediately ran into a snag, however, since the Motion Picture Production Code of the day did not permit the depiction of contemporary criminals. Not to be deferred, Filmmakers announced that their project would go ahead as planned under the working title of I Spoke to God. In the end, however, the MPA, supported by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, had its way and Lupino and company were forced to fictionalize the story.

The result of this makeover was 1953’s The Hitchhiker, a suffocating, tightly reined 71 minutes of claustrophobic tension helmed by the still neophyte director Lupino (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Young and an uncredited Daniel Mainwaring). Up to this point the classically trained Lupino, whose behind-the-camera career began by accident when the director of a film she was appearing in could not continue with the project, had only been responsible for several of what were then considered so-called women’s films.  Moreover, female directors of any kind were a real rarity in Hollywood during this period so the concept of one taking on such a potentially gritty and thematically unpleasant crime drama raised more than a few Tinsel Town eyebrows.

The story is a simple one. Emmett Myers (William Talman) is a cold-blooded killer on the run who has murdered a number of individuals unlucky enough to have offered him rides as he hitchhikes his way towards what he hopes to be freedom in Mexico.

Realizing that the authorities are now on the lookout for a lone individual, he kidnaps two vacationers, Gil (Frank Lovejoy) and Roy (Edmund O’Brien), on their way for some south-of-the border recreational fishing and hunting, who he believes will provide the cover he needs to evade the police manhunt. The subsequent action of the film revolves around the nightmarish journey and sadistic prodding the men are subjected to at the hands of the depraved and vicious Myers.

Director Lupino excels here at creating an atmosphere crackling with tension and pent-up emotion.  With much of the action confined to the interior of the automobile, this restricted universe is contrasted against the immensity of the surrounding desert countryside (Lone Pine, California doubling for Mexico) through which the two men are forced to navigate while the unstable and homicidal Myers breathes down their necks every instant of the way.

The small cast is superb.

Appearing as the two hunters, O’Brien and Lovejoy, bring everyman qualities to their parts although there are undeniable shades of differences between the two characters. Lovejoy, a former radio actor who often appeared bland and rather colorless in such films as I Was a Communist for the F.B.I., Home of the Brave and In a Lonely Place could, in the right part, be solid and effective. His role here is the more cerebral of the two men, less inclined to fly off the handle and unnecessarily bait Myers. He is intent on not being rash, trying instead to pick the right moment to make his move. O’Brien, always a careful and measured craftsman regardless of the part, delivers a more emotionally animated performance. He is glib and sarcastic with the gunman, unable to control his attempts to reverse roles as he pesters and goads Myers about his own sticky and dangerous predicament.  Unlike his cautious friend, his instincts tell him to act quickly, to do anything, however dangerous, and to get the upper hand on the killer.

The standout performance, however, is given by William Tallman as Myers. Tallman, a journeyman actor at RKO in such films as The City That Never Sleeps and Big House U.S.A., would go on to television immortality playing the world’s biggest courtroom loser, District Attorney Hamilton Burger, on Perry Mason but here delivers a staggeringly effective portrait of the mad dog killer who is lacking any semblance of humanity save the primeval instinct to survive.

Plagued by one defective eye which he cannot close even during sleep (the real Cook had a similar vision problem) he relentlessly taunts his captives, challenging them during the night hours to gauge whether he is really at rest and therefore vulnerable to attack or still awake waiting for them to make a move. He delights in his power and control over both men and takes sadistic pleasure and satisfaction in psychologically torturing them at every turn.

Initially, The Hitchhiker garnished only moderately positive critical reaction. The studio, on a campaign to cut costs, released a compromised print which did not do justice to cinema photographer Nicholas Musuraca’s breathtaking black and white framing of the desert scenes although for DVD it has been restored to its original black and white grandeur.  Coupled with composer Leith Stevens’ effective score, this all serves to create a striking contrast between the captive’s confined world of terror and the vast natural landscape around them.

Over the years the reputation for the film has grown steadily until it is now recognized as one of the most effective little thrillers of the era.  Publicity for the movie during its initial release tapped into the theme of vulnerability which permeated the action with marketing slogans like “There’s death in his upraised thumb” and “When was the last time you invited death into your car?”

The Hitchhiker did not end Lupino’s directorial career, but it always remained the favorite of her films and for good reason.

June 2011