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There's Death in his upraised Thumb!
Tag line for The Hitch-hiker (1953)
Ida Lupino was a Hollywood anomaly. In addition to her career as an
intense dramatic actress (with particular success in such films noir as
High Sierra (1941) and While the City Sleeps, 1956), she was also the
only female member of the Director's Guild in the late '40s and early '50s.
With her feature films and hundreds of hours of television work combined,
she remains Hollywood's most prolific woman director. And although her
first films dealt with social issues of particular interest to women -
unwed motherhood, rape, mother-daughter relations - with The
Hitch-hiker she made a transition to the type of fast-paced,
hard-hitting material that would become a specialty throughout her later
career. More recently fans and critics have reevaluated such "masculine"
work in light of its feminist subtext - the way her action films reduced
male characters to the kinds of restless, out-of-control types usually
played by women. Equally impressive was her ability to achieve
professional quality on extremely low budgets (usually under $160,000),
with an off-the-cuff shooting style that made her a one-woman New Wave movement.
This has led to the growth of an Ida Lupino cult in whose eyes The
Hitch-hiker is considered her greatest accomplishment.
Lupino moved into directing almost by accident. She and her husband,
Collier Young, had created Filmways to produce low-budget films on issues
that interested them. Their first outing, Not Wanted (1949), dealt
with illegitimacy, questioning the social stigma on unwed mothers and their
children. Originally it was to have been directed by Hollywood veteran
Elmer Clifton, but when he developed heart trouble three days into the
shoot, Lupino stepped in, with him sitting on the sidelines to offer
advice. She gave him credit for the film, but at Young's urging continued
directing on subsequent Filmways productions.
After four women's pictures, Lupino took a different approach with The
Hitch-hiker. The story was based on real-life serial killer William
Cook, who killed six people who picked him up as he hitched his way across
the American Southwest and Mexico in 1950. He was captured after taking
two prospectors hostage and sent to the gas chamber in 1952.
Lupino interviewed one of the hostages and obtained releases from both
hostages and Cook himself. She then peppered the screenplay with elements
of Cook's life, including his abusive childhood and a genetic deformity
that made it impossible for him to close his right eye. To appease the
Production Code, which objected to film versions of recent crimes, she
reduced the body count from six to three, eliminating the three children
Cook had murdered. But changing the kidnapped prospectors to
businessmen off on an innocent fishing trip was entirely her idea. It
allowed her to explore the gradual breakdown of two men living a solid,
middle-class existence who are suddenly confronted with the killer's
uncontrollable psychotic rage.
Work on The Hitch-hiker was complicated by two things. Eccentric
tycoon Howard Hughes, who released the film through his RKO Pictures,
refused to let them give screen credit to suspected Communist Daniel
Mainwaring, who had written the original story for Young and Lupino.
Instead, the story was credited to Mainwaring's pseudonym, Geoffrey Homes.
And Lupino suddenly found herself pregnant -- but not by her husband. She
and Young had been having problems, which had led her to an affair with
actor Howard Duff, her co-star in the 1950 film noir Woman in
Hiding. Before The Hitch-hiker started shooting, she got a
quickie divorce from Young in Nevada, then married Duff.
The Hitch-hiker won solid reviews and did very well at the box
office, particularly considering its low cost. Helping greatly were the
cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca - a film noir veteran who had also
lensed Out of the Past (1947), with Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas and Jane
Greer; and The Spiral Staircase (1946), with Dorothy McGuire - and William
Talman's tense performance as the killer. Talman would achieve his
greatest fame as District Attorney Hamilton Burger in the popular
television series Perry Mason.
The success of The Hitch-hiker actually contributed to the end of Young
and Lupino's production company, Filmways. Unhappy that their distributor,
RKO, had reaped the bulk of the profits from the film, Young decided to
distribute future films himself, which led to the company's financial
failure. But The Hitch-hiker also opened a new door for Lupino.
The film caught the eye of Richard Boone, future star of the TV Western
Have Gun, Will Travel. Remembering Lupino's successful direction of
The Hitch-hiker's Western location scenes, he recruited her to direct for his
series, her first television credit.
Producer: Collier Young
Director: Ida Lupino
Screenplay: Collier Young, Ida Lupino, Robert L. Joseph
Based on a Story by Geoffrey Homes [Daniel Mainwaring]
Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca
Art Direction: Albert S. D'Agostino, Walter E. Keller
Music: Leith Stevens
Principal Cast: Edmond O'Brien (Roy Collins), Frank Lovejoy (Gilbert Bowen), William Talman (Emmett Myers), Jose Torvay (Capt. Alvarado), Sam Hayes (Sam), Wendell Niles (Wendell).
BW-71m.
by Frank Miller
 
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31 Days of Oscar Highlights for Feb. 18
Don't miss The Crowd (1928), one of the first Oscar® nominees for Best Picture & Best Director (King Vidor), plus San Francisco (1936), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and other honorees.
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