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Film: The Hitch-Hiker
Director: Ida Lupino
Country: UK / USA
Released: March 1953
Runtime: 71 minutes
Genre: Film Noir
Studio: The Filmakers Inc / RKO
Influenced: Kathryn Bigelow, Jodie Foster, Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig
Born into the theatrical Lupino family in south London near the end of WWI, Ida Lupino came from a music hall background, just like Charlie Chaplin before her. Ida was a child prodigy, writing her first play age 7 and able to recite long passages of Shakespeare by age 10, so inevitably a career on stage and screen awaited her. After appearing in several British films, she was headhunted by Hollywood and went on to have a successful career as an actress, appearing in over 50 films during the 1930s and 40s, notably in two films with Humphrey Bogart, They Drive By Night (1940) and High Sierra (1941).
But her heart was never truly in it and eventually her contract at Warner Bros was suspended in the late 1940s because of her refusal to play certain roles. This gave Lupino the freedom to explore new avenues, notably behind the camera, and in 1948 she set up her own production company (The Filmakers Inc) with her husband Collier Young. Together they were early pioneers of independent cinema, releasing a series of B-films focused on taboo social issues, such as polio (Never Fear, 1949) and rape (Outrage, 1950). Lupino didn’t go to the major studios to be a director as she knew that route was closed off to women at the time, instead she went her own way and this path led to her best-known directorial effort, The Hitch-Hiker, the only film noir from the genre's classic period directed by a woman. And it stands on its own merit.
Right from the start there is something fresh and new about The Hitch-Hiker compared to films of that era. It's the earliest movie I've seen that reveals a key plot point while the opening credits are still rolling. Oftentimes, even in the 1950s, audiences still had to sit through the long opening credits before getting to the action, but here Lupino gets on with things straight away. When the hitchhiker gets in the car in Mexico, his face is first covered in shade, but then there's the big reveal when we see the ugly face of Emmett Myers (played by William Talman) all lit up like a female lead. There's something mischievous and anarchic about Lupino's decision to give female lead lighting to Myers.
Throughout the movie, there’s often a feeling that these two men held captive could (and should) overpower the hitchhiker, but it seems Lupino is subtly making a comment about the weakness of men who lie to their wives. Having pretended to go on a fishing trip, they're now stranded in Mexico with a crazy killer. There's a nervous moment when Myers gets one of the two friends to shoot the can in the other's hand, made more tense by Lupino's inventive shot from the shaky perspective of the shooter. Overall, the pacing of The Hitch-Hiker is perfect, with the suspense ramping up so gradually that by the end of the film, it feels far longer than its actual runtime. It's a taut thriller and a true hidden gem.
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