C P's video: Ida Lupino s THE HITCH-HIKER 1953

The Hitch-Hiker is a 1953 film noir directed by Ida Lupino about two fishing buddies who pick up a mysterious hitchhiker during a trip to Mexico. The movie was written by Robert L. Joseph, Lupino, and her husband Collier Young, based on a story by blacklisted Out of the Past screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring (who did not receive screen credit). The film is based on the true story of psychopathic murderer Billy Cook. It is regarded as the first American mainstream film noir directed by a woman. The director of photography was RKO Pictures regular Nicholas Musuraca. In 1998, The Hitch-Hiker was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." In January 2014, a restored 35mm print will be premiered by the Film Noir Foundation at Noir City 12 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. Cast Edmond O'Brien as Roy Collins Frank Lovejoy as Gilbert Bowen William Talman as Emmett Myers José Torvay as Captain Alvarado Wendell Niles as Himself Jean Del Val as Inspector General Clark Howat as Government Agent Natividad Vacío as Jose Rodney Bell as William Johnson Nacho Galindo as Proprietor Cast notes: Collier Young, husband of director Ida Lupino and the co-writer of the screenplay, makes an uncredited appearance in the film as a Mexican peasant. In California in 1950, Billy Cook murdered a family of five and a traveling salesman, then kidnapped Deputy Sheriff Homer Waldrip from Blythe, California and ordered him to drive into the desert where he tied Deputy Waldrip up with blanket strips and took his police cruiser, leaving Waldrip to die. Waldrip got loose, however, walked to the main road and was picked up and taken back to Blythe. Cook was tried, convicted and sentenced to the gas chamber. On December 12, 1952, Cook was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison in California. Copyright © 2013 Candy Graham aka Nahars All Rights Reserved