Classic Hitchhiker Movies (BFS)

 

                                   Picture:     Sound: C-     Extras: D     Film:

Ginger In The Morning      C-                                               C-

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)     C-                                               B+

Detour                           D                                                B

 

 

One of the most interesting in the BFS budget line of three feature films on one DVD is Classic Hitchhiker Movies, which gives us one 1970s curio theatrical release and two Film Noir classics.  As usual, they have found some films that are in the public domain or inexplicably not on DVD.

 

Ginger In The Morning (1973) Sissy Spacek as the free-spirited title character, who falls for a man (Monte Markham) who happens to pick her up while she hitchhikes.  Instead of a serial killer or murderer, he turns out to be a businessman who is as alone as she is.  Instead of a melodrama, we get the kind of free-love story still popular at the time, no matter how naďve.  David Doyle, later Bosley on TV’s original Charlie’s Angels, has some comparatively frank dialogue.  Even with Slim Pickens and Suisan Oliver, it is a light entertainment that does have the advantage of being a competent independent film production.

 

The Hitch-Hiker (1953) is one of the great Film Noirs, made at RKO Studios and directed by one of their greatest stars, actress Ida Lupino.  Highly influential thematically and visually, Lupino was already a star in the genre, just having come off of films like RKO’s Noir classic On Dangerous Ground the year before.  This was groundbreaking for its delivery, pacing, great look, acting, feel, and that a woman had directed one of the best films of the 1950s.  Too bad it is at the B-movie length of 71 minutes, but it is an intense 71.  In the old 12” laserdisc format, this had the distinction of being one of the only (if not THE only) ever release in the format issued in 24K gold copies.  That was done by The Roan Group and this may be the same print, though a few generations down.

 

Detour is another B-movie Noir classic about a man (Tom Neal) who is picked up by the wrong guy hitchhiking, but he too is not a killer.  Instead, he lands up dead.  He then meets the woman (Claudia Drake) he heard bad things about from the now deceased driver, but it turns out the dead man was being far too kind.  The tale of Noir with a man who cannot stop getting deeper and deeper into an awful situation is epitomized by the Edgar Ulmer classic made at the brief-but-glorious PRC Studios (see my review of the Ulmer: King Of The Bs boxed set elsewhere on this site).

 

The full frame picture on all three films is barely passable, with Detour’s print here being outright shot and muddy.  The Noir are in black and white, while the Spacek film is in color.  Who knows when a good copy of Detour will surface, but Warner Bros. owns the RKO catalog and they have got to come up with a better print than even the now seemingly defunct Roan Group issued.  The sound is below average on all the films and a few cast profiles are the only extras, which is zilch for such a set of pictures.  It is a good set for a cheap price, though.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo