Joshua Reviews Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker [Blu-ray Review]

Throughout film history, there are various cases of an actor or actress jumping from in front of to behind the camera, going from actor or actress to a true, blue filmmaker. Be it a name like Clint Eastwood or going all the way back to a true auteur like Charlie Chaplin, actors have been helming pictures since the beginning of film.

However, one director and one film are rarely discussed in the pantheon of great films from actors/actresses. With Kino now releasing a Blu-ray of the underrated noir picture, it’s about time people recognize it as a great entry in a genre chock full of masterpieces.

Entitled The Hitch-Hiker, the film comes to us from actress-turned-filmmaker Ida Lupino, and is one of the collections of films that have become seen as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by no less a body than the US National Film Registry. Penned by Lupino, her husband Collier Young and Robert L. Joseph, the film is based on the story of real life killer Billy Cook, following a pair of men who pick up a murderous criminal on the run from the law. Taking the two men hostage, the film follows these two men as they try to flee their captor before finally hitting the Mexican border, giving this psychopath freedom.

While the film, and its director, have become seemingly forgotten by the masses, it’s a shocking concept, since the film is, at its very core, an aesthetic wonder. Utterly in control of her craft, Lupino creates a sense of atmosphere here that is so bleak, so definitively noir and so deliciously dark that it’s a tour-de-force. From the very outset, the film is white knuckle tense and it never lets off the gas. Clocking in at just 71 minutes, the film is a brisk and taut thriller, and one that oozes the dread found right in the DNA of film noir. A deeply troubling and claustrophobic film, Lupino’s picture is a thrilling chiller that sets the groundwork for noirs and even horror films alike.

Yet, it shouldn’t be as great a noir, visually, as it truly is. Aesthetically as opposite a noir setting as one could get, the film is primarily located in desert settings, often times a bright, oppressively contrast-heavy picture, the film still finds a way to infuse stunning uses of light and shadow (particularly one sequence of the three men walking in the desert), all becoming a white hot take on a genre mostly known for being a far darker genre aesthetically.

Performance-wise, the film is relatively minor. All three men here (Edmond O’Brien, Frank Lovejoy and William Talman, respectively) are fine, but none really stand out. Relatively basic character types, the inherent tension doesn’t come from the brooding performances (although Talman as the evil Myers is rather entrancing) but instead the evocative filmmaking from Lupino. The script is fine, but at 71 minutes, much of the narrative connection is base level, a standard fight-for-survival tale woven by a filmmaker completely assured in her control over her sense of style.

And while the film itself has seemingly become a forgotten genre classic, a new Blu-ray from Kino is trying its best to help change that. Supplement-free (a commentary track is sorely missing from this release), the film does get a superb transfer both visually and sonically, allowing for Lupino’s camera and the score from Leith Stewart to blossom into something truly enthralling. A standard genre film elevated by a director completely at the height of her powers, this bombastic white noir is a thrilling experiment in tension and one of the better thrillers you’ll watch this October. If for the first time or the fortieth, this film is not only worth a watch in HD, but this Blu-ray is more than worth a purchase, despite being a bare bones release.