The Hitch-Hiker (1953) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Sally Jane Black 5

  Faces suspended in a void have nothing but their own grim performances to convey. The desert setting does not serve to create the touted claustrophobia; it's the shadows, the darkness that encompasses them in open spaces, around campfires, under the stars. Light only shows the most prominent clue to their emotional states and nothing more, leaving the viewer trapped intimately with the three men. When the light returns, the wide open spaces offer barrenness. The feeling isn't claustrophobia; it's preemptive weariness at the thought of that sweat-drenched, dry-mouthed, rock-scoured journey.

  Others speak of the tension, but it becomes clear early on that what these men face isn't death. They face torment. Their lifespans are defined by how long an arbitrary…

• Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★

  The way of the gun as the only manliness measurement stick. So tight, so forceful.

• Review by esther ★★★★½

  Lots to think about here re: the symbolic power of the gun, how it completely dominates the film and the two men at its center, the terror it commands and the emasculation it perpetrates. Lupino seems interested in the fragility of masculine performance in the face of an object that is itself representative of that performance's power. Also intrigued as much by her wide shots (alternately exacting in their detail and stark in their enthralling simplicity) as by her close-ups (particularly of Talman, whose every bit of stubble seems to radiate smug malice). Maybe it's just me but she seems like a real good director.

• Review by Mandrakegray ★★★★

  A marvel of economy, Ida Lupino's cut to the bone roadway thriller remains a tense and to the point white knuckle ride all these years later.

  "When was the last time you invited death into your car?" (tagline from the U.S. Poster)

  It kicks off with one of the more harrowing opening credit sequences of the day, following the demise of multiple victims at the hand of an unknown serial killer. Lupino presents the roadside deaths in such a matter-of-fact way that by the time the killer jumps into the back seat of a car with the film's other two leads...the viewer is well aware of the precarious position these men are in. It all happens within the movie's first…

• Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 2

  Action! - Female 4 Front: Breaking Grounds With Ida Lupino

  With this film, which in many ways represents Ida Lupino's zenith, the director proves that she is at her best when she is not relying on melodrama but instead crafting works that are fraught with great tension.

  The cinematography and camera work are somewhat minimalist but effective for the most part in employing the characteristic elements of film noir (which this actually makes history by becoming the first mainstream film within the genre directed by a woman) to create these great moments of tension and even horror, such as the scene where our two victims are about to be run over by our killer.

  When it comes to the characters,…

• Review by Toni ★★★

  this being the first film noir directed by a woman is nothing short of iconic and revolutionary. But the thing as a whole was mediocre at best i can’t lie

  Lupino’s direction is quite good though!

• Review by sakana1 ★★★½ 29

  Based on a true story, The Hitch-Hiker comes by its all-male core honestly, but that doesn't make its exploration of masculinity any less interesting.

  In the absence of the woman who would traditionally be the most vulnerable victim in a situation like the one portrayed in the film, everything is forced to shift. The kidnapper (Emmett Myers, played by William Talman) has no clear focus for his threats, and his male victims (Edmund O'Brien as Roy Collins, and Frank Lovejoy as Gilbert Bowen) are left without someone for whom they can make noble sacrifices — or, of equal importance, before whom they feel compelled to embody the most tradition kind of masculine strength. The result leaves a vacuum behind, a…

• Review by Todd Gaines ★★★★ 13

  I call this movie Psychological Horror Noir. The terror the victims receive from the demented serial killer / kidnappper is enough to put you in therapy for life, if you’re able to survive the ordeal.

  The Hitch-Hiker is lean and mean. With only a 70 minute runtime, it gets everything out with every minute used just right. A lot of credit goes to Director Ida Lupino. She is fantastic. She also gets every bit of energy and emotion out of her actors, and she keeps the suspense alive by using different locations. She’s a damn good director, and was the only woman I know of who was directing films in the 1950s. Much respect to a badass director.

  Each of…

• Review by Joe ★★★★★ 3

  Death Trip

  I suppose there are some undeniable imperfections here, like Edmund O'Brien's lapses into schmacting territory, or some totally unnecessary and corny cutaways from the main trio in order to clarify plot details, but I'm choosing to ignore them mostly because this has felt like one of mine since I saw it like 8 years ago before I heard anybody else ever talk about it.

  This is also my favorite kind of movie, 70 minutes of sustained claustrophobic tension, a horror movie about what can happen to you if you don't read the newspaper. The paranoia and threat of violence are thick and humid, and I love the gradual transformation of Emmett Myers from murderous robber to something even more frightening, the personification of death in a leather jacket.

• Review by Chris 🍉 ★★★★★ 1

  The way Bowen held Roy.... whew that’s gay love baby! This is like brokeback mountain as a nightmare instead of a tragedy

• Review by Sam Van Hallgren ★★★½ 1

  Finally, you realize that the mounting frustration you have for Gilbert and Roy and their failure to do anything to save themselves is the point. The damning realization that given the same situation you probably wouldn't do anything either.

• Review by Evan T ★★★★ 5

  A swift, suspenseful seventy minutes of mean-spirited, classic Hitchco*ckian tension, made all the better by a trifecta of angst-ridden performances. Ida Lupino succeeds in crafting one of the manliest films ever directed by a woman, loading the screen with moody noir cynicism and trigger-finger anxiety. The one thing that lets this one down is the seemingly rushed, optimistic ending, which in itself seems to be a clear-cut example of studio demands. Lupino’s vision is visceral nonetheless, seeing this fleeting little road movie through to its conclusive albeit wobbly close.