One of several highway film noirs, The Hitch-Hiker (director: Ida Lupino, 1953) is brutal, effective and in its day introduced a new kind of criminal to the screen.  With a compelling normality, The Hitch-Hiker shows the kind of pointless hold ups and killings that in the 1950s, were generally framed as a social-problem crime film.  The Hitch-Hiker is also a mess of huggable homoerotic heteronormativity, with two very close men on a fishing trip (or is it?), bullied at gun point in their car and in the desert, by a dominating sadist, who has an evil ‘bum eye’ to boot.

Pick up The Hitch-Hiker at the Classic Film Noir website.

Is he asleep, or ain't he?

You guys are soft. You know what makes you that way? You're up to your neck in IOU's. You're suckers! You're scared to get out on your own. You've always had it good, so you're soft. Well, not me! Nobody ever gave me anything, so I don't owe nobody!

And it’s because he’s right, and his victims are simply too scared to play the hero, that The Hitch-Hiker has a certain power.  As for his own past, the killer states:

My folks were tough. When I was born, they took one look at this puss of mine and told me to get lost.

This is as close as we have to details of why he is so bad, and why he is on loose in America, shooting whom he likes, and taking what he wants.  If the movies have told us anything, it’s that this is an ancient American practise, as it seems standard from the Westerns as it does from depictions of the post-war period.  If anything, Hollywood has glorified this lifestyle to refined heights in recent years, although the message remains the same.  In one perverse aspect, this go-gettem attitude to crime is just another component of the American Dream.  Everything is there for the taking, so play the game, and accept the risks.

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You can’t help getting engrossed in the sexuality of The Hitch-Hiker, which is a mess of homo-erotic heteronormativity. 

Yes — the killer points the gun at the men for long periods of their drive, forcing one to sit with his arm around the other.  Yes — the two are hardened ‘army buddies’ who have clearly shared a few bunks on duty, and been on a few wenching sessions before.  And yes, the two buddies become the killer’s bitches from the off, submissive and scared, almost cuddling each other for support at times.  The fact that The Hitch-Hiker, directed by Ida Lupino, is said to be the only ‘true noir’ directed by a woman, only adds to this fudged erotic fluff. 

You’ll never forget the end, as the two men walk slowly into the fog — one putting his arm around the other as the dissolve kicks out.