Oh William Talman...

The Hitch-Hiker(dir. Ida Lupino)
It starts off fine with showing the hitch-hiker killer's crimes that precedes the central crime, but it quickly becomes reluctant in it's doom and gloom. This man is ruthless in these crimes, but the central crime of taking these two men hostage almost seems to be conducted by another man. He's not ruthless, just coyly sadistic. He's easily the most memorable aspect of the film since the desert locales aren't exactly beautiful and the other characters are fairly one-dimensional, it's just that he's not as threatening as you would like. The film is suspenseful to a degree, it's just that you could easily imagine the film being much better if he was as ruthless as he was in the beginning. His idea of entertainment is particularly sadistic, but there's not enough of that in the picture to seem satisfying. The best moment could easily be the scene where he tells one of his hostages to drop a rock down a shaft, giving him the idea that is where he's going to dump his body after he kills him. It's this sense of doom that makes the film compelling, but as it ends, you feel it didn't go all the way with it's concept. There's very little sense of danger throughout the picture as scene after scene shows the killer doing everything in his power not to kill these men. This film is highly watchable, it's just disappointing. Now excuse me while I go reread A Good Man Is Hard To Find.
*** out of ****