The Hitch-Hiker

For our stop in 1950s film history, we screened The Hitch-Hiker (1953). This is the true story of a man and a gun and a car...so opens the film itself. Directed and penned by Ida Lupino, it pares noir down to its essentials: shadowy cinematography, a psychological view of violence, and grim suspense that sinks into your very being. Two men going on a fishing trip pick up a killer hitchhiker and are brought to the brink through his games. With much more to it than initially meets the eye, The Hitch-Hiker is a landmark not only because it is the only true noir directed by a woman, but also for its place in early independent filmmaking. Its influence in style, story, and production can still be seen today.

Here's what we talked about:

• The gun as a symbol of masculinity and its limits

• How quickly male authority collapses under a bigger threat

• William Talman's eye

• Acting made for the camera, not the stage: stillness, restraint, and what that does to fear

• Filming on location on a tight budget and the authenticity it gives the film

• Myers as a product of failed institutions: family, society, the law

• What men become when stripped of the structures that define them

• The total absence of women and what that says about the world the film builds