The Hitch-Hiker (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is well known that the actress Ida Lupino was a director as well.  In the 1950s she avidly wanted to make an expert (if small) film noir and she did, not only directing but also co-writing the tale of a cruel, criminal hitchhiker (William Talman) who traverses the desert with the two sad-sack men he has kidnapped.

For a product of Old Hollywood, The Hitch-Hiker (1953) is impressively hard-nosed.  Virtually no women appear in the film, part of what makes it emphatically masculine.  And it isn’t dated.  Have fun, ladies and gentlemen.