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Episode 10 - THE HITCH-HIKER (1953), Directed by: Ida Lupino
Manage episode 238459310 series 2510690
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A talented actor, writer, producer, and director, many call Ida Lupino the most significant female figure of the golden days of the Hollywood studio system. Inspired by the real-life psychopathic murderer Billy Cook, with elements adapted from a novel by blacklisted screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring, The Hitch-hiker is generally accepted to be the first American noir directed by a woman.
Posing as a hitchhiker, Billy Cook murdered six people on a 22-day rampage between Missouri and California between 1950 and 1951. Lupino interviewed two survivors that Cook had held hostage, and got releases from both – as well as a release from Cook himself – so as to incorporate actual events into the script.
The film does a masterful job of building and sustaining tension, and the stark desert wilderness of the south-western United States provides a bleak backdrop for this claustrophobic rumination on a senseless American nightmare.
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