Road Trippin’ with Ida Lupino

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Lady P, Martin Kessler, and Marya E. Gates continue the “A Year With Women” series with a special “Noirvember” episode. In today’s Flixwise Favorites entry, the panel peers into the shadows that line the deserted highways in Ida Lupino’s THE HITCH-HIKER. The film takes the viewer on a harrowing ride through the Baja California desert, as a pair of unassuming middle aged men are kidnapped by a wanted murderer and forced to help him flee the authorities.

THE HITCH-HIKER is loaded with noir tropes: desolate landscapes, expressionist lighting, a creeping sense of dread, etc. However, there are lots of ways that the film breaks with custom and starts veering into other genres. The panelists talk about the ways that Lupino plays with noir conventions, as well as her depiction of post-WWII masculinity, and the way she uses Mexico to symbolize both exoticism and foreboding.

Then, they also have a lengthy discussion about how THE HITCH-HIKER compares to Lupino’s other great, but less-widely-seen noir, THE BIGAMIST.

And here are the other films in our Female Filmmaker Extravaganza!:

1. Jeanne Dielman
2. Point Break
3. Little Women
4. Clueless
5. Oxhide II