The Hitch-Hiker

The Hitch-Hiker follows two middle-aged friends, Roy Collins and Gilbert Bowen, who leave the city for a fishing trip into Mexico. Some distance from the border they offer a lift to a stranded motorist named Emmett Myers, and the casual kindness turns into a growing nightmare once they realize he is a killer wanted by the police and is now holding them hostage. He forces them to drive on toward Mexico, using the pair to keep himself ahead of the manhunt closing in behind them. Escape is complicated by his strange physical trait: an eye that stays open even while he sleeps, so they can never be sure he is unaware of what they are doing.

Ida Lupino directed and co-wrote the film with Collier Young and Robert L. Joseph, with Young producing. It was released in March 1953 and runs 71 minutes. It sits fourth in the directing career listed for Lupino, arriving between Never Fear (1950) and The Bigamist (1953), part of the small group of features she directed across the late 1940s, the 1950s and one later film, The Trouble with Angels (1966).

Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy play the two friends, with William Talman as Myers and José Torvay as Captain Alvarado among a credited cast of 29. The film's reputation rests largely with audiences rather than volume of votes: it holds 6.9/10 on IMDb from around 12,000 votes and 6.8/10 on TMDB from roughly 213 votes.