MovieChat Forums > The Hitch-Hiker (1953) Discussion > Big problem with this movie

Big problem with this movie

posted 10 years ago by belalugosihouse
5 replies | jump to latest

OK two husky guys against one...many chances to just knock him or the gun down, then when they were in the Mexican bar, the bad guy PUT HIS GUN DOWN...lol. All one would have to do is turn around and knock him down... this movie is funny! I love Edmund O'Brien but ...seriously?
Edit: Just watched the end, and what should have happened way before happened at the end...and we have just been subjected to an hour+ of humiliation for those two guys....I love old movies and it is very rare that I don't like one (on TCM), but I have to say I just don't like this one.

[–] brooksshows 9 years ago

Especially with the punch of the one guy who punched his buddy's lights out until the next day with one swift lick! I love the way old movies do that. If only it were like that in real life! ;)

[–] boirin 9 years ago

I couldn't understand why the HH kept the two men alive. Wouldn't it have been infinitely easier for him to just kill them straightaway and take the car? Also, the two men were not tied up overnight, so why didn't they just wait for the HH to fall asleep and overpower him. Unless I missed something, these plot holes rendered the film ludicrous.

I've no idea why this is Ida Lupino's best-known directorial effort. Her others - Not Wanted, Outrage and The Bigamist - were much, MUCH better than this. Very disappointing.

[–] franklinlj 9 years ago

Guy's a psycho. It's not holes in the plot, it's the holes in his head. The real-life case this is based on had the villian driving around aimlessly with his victims for days. Google 'billy cook serial killer'.

Cook also had a deformed eye, like the HH. One survivor said he was afraid to take the gun because he did not know when cook was asleep. So the filmmakers are just following the real events. As sometimes happens, they are ludicrous. No one would invent a story like this and hope to sell it!

[–] mdonln 9 years ago

Yeah, I might be saying the same thing if I didn't know the story was based on actual events. Naturally the filmmakers don't have to stick to the facts but, if they want to retell a true story, they can't rewrite history.

I felt there were sufficient explanations provided in the movies to explain why the men behaved the way they did. Since they both survived being held by a psycho, I'd have to say whatever decisions they made were the right ones. Anything else might have cost them their lives.

Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]

[–] liscarkat (16524) 8 months ago

It's easy to imagine how you'd slug the bad guy and take his gun, unless you've been in a situation where a gun is being pointed at you. That .38 muzzle looks like a cannon, and your knees are weak. What happens in the movie is what happened in real life. The psycho held two guys hostage for days, forcing them to drive into Mexico. The Mexican cops finally grabbed him, putting an end to the ordeal. There was no extradition back to the U.S. in potential death penalty cases, but the Mexicans unofficially forced him over the border to the U.S. authorities. Because it was the good old days, the killer took his seat in California's gas chamber within two years. Good riddance!