If you need a lesson on why you should not pick-up hitchhikers, spend some time with this film.
We downed Judgement Day by The Lost Abbey. A boozy beer that fit right into our story as Judgement Day was coming for the character Emmett Myers.
The film was directed by Ida Lupino and has historic merit as it is considered the first “film noir” directed by a woman. She and Collier Young (her second husband) formed an independent company to write and produce movies. Their company closed in 1955, but she continued with her acting and sometimes directing. For more information, check out the books written by her business manager – Mary Ann Anderson.
We establish one of our guidelines, if it is an RKO film, there is a good chance it is a B-movie. Reminder, ‘B’ doesn’t mean bad.
We discuss the cinematographer on the film - Nicholas Musuraca. He’ll come up in other movies during our podcast. He is fantastic and one day, we’ll pronounce his name correctly.
The film is loosely based on the story of William Cook Jr. who in 1950 murdered a family of 5. Near the end of the rampage, he kidnapped James Burke and Forrest Damron who were on a hunting trip. He forced them to drive across Mexican border to Santa Rosalia. He was executed in San Quentin Gas Chamber in 1952. He was 23 about to turn 24. Life Magazine did a large story about him in January 1951 issue.
In the film, William Talman portrays Emmett Myers (who is based on William Cook). For Perry Mason fans, he portrayed the loosing District Attorney Hamilton Burger in 212 episodes. A fan, put up a YouTube montage of the role celebrating Talman’s 100th birthday in 2015. He was a lifelong smoker and died of lung cancer, he did a second PSA about the ills of smoking 4 weeks before he died.
The cast was rounded out by impressive character actors: Edmond O’Brien as Roy Collins and Frank Lovejoy as Gilbert Bowen. I found an interesting interview between Studs Terkel and Frank Lovejoy from October 1961.
Although we didn’t get too it, Jayson wanted to discuss a Freakonomics episode regarding Hitchhiking.
This is an excellent film and worth tracking down.
Thank you!
Intro music for this episode is a mix of (1) Turn on The Funk (Story Blocks Audio subscription), (2) sample 1961’s The Phantom Planet [in the public domain], and (3) sample 1968’s Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women [in the public domain]
Outro music for the episode is a mix of (1) Sixties Strut (Story Blocks Audio subscription) and (2) sample of The Hitch-Hiker [[in the public domain]
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