Movies you might have missed: The Hitch-Hiker, the only true film noir directed by a woman

Ida Lupino was arguably the most significant female figure during the golden days of the Hollywood studio system. Born in Herne Hill in south London, Lupino initially found success as an actress before becoming a pioneering director and producer in the 1950s.

She only began directing when Elmer Clifton got ill and was unable to finish work on the movie he was making for the production company set up by Lupino and her husband, Collier Young, to make low-budget, issue-oriented films. After four social issue pictures, Lupino emerged with her masterpiece, The Hitch-Hiker (1953, available on Amazon Video), the only true film noir directed by a woman.

In the film, two friends heading off to do a spot of fishing pick up a mysterious stranger on a trip to Mexico only to discover he’s a dangerous psychopath wanted by the police.

The inspiration was Billy Cook, an American spree killer who murdered six people on a 22-day rampage between Missouri and California between 1950 and 1951 while posing as a hitchhiker. Lupino interviewed the two prospectors Cook held hostage, and got releases from both – as well as the murderer – so as to incorporate actual events from Cook’s life into the script.

It prefigures Steven Spielberg’s Duel (a previous subject of the column) with the claustrophobic confines of the car adding to the tension; Lupino’s film does for the humble hitchhiker what Jaws did for sharks. Like Seven, the biggest scares occur in the arid wilderness rather than creepy buildings late at night.

Film noirs and thrillers tend to opt for bleak cityscapes but these exceptions, as well as The Wages of Fear from the same year as The Hitch-Hiker, prove that the open road can be every bit as frightening in the hands of a genius.

Edmund O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy are excellent as the friends at the story’s core but it is William Talman who is the star of the show. Not long after the film’s release, the actor was driving his convertible in Los Angeles with the top down when a fellow motorist spotted him, recognised him as the hitchhiking villain, got out of the car and slapped him in the face.

Talman would later remark: “You know, I never won an Academy Award but I guess that was about as close as I ever will come to one.” In a way, the ability to have such a profound effect on an audience is more valuable than any Oscar.