MovieChat Forums > The Twilight Zone (1959) Discussion > Did u like "The hitchhiker"?

Did u like "The hitchhiker"?

posted 8 years ago by richspenc
15 replies | jump to latest

The episode wasn't bad, but I had a few questions about it:

Would people have liked it more w/o the narraration? I was wondering if the writers added the narraration because they thought there wasn't enough dialogue to go with the progressing story, but then I remembered "The invaders" where there was no dialogue at all until the end and that episode was great. Dialogue isn't always nessasary.

I thought the guy at the country gas station was a jerk. The lady was stranded in the middle of nowhere without gas and was telling him how scared she was about this strange guy following her, and all he cared about was being bothered late and it being after closing time and he slams the window shut on her. But then he helps out as soon as the navy officer shows up.

SPOILER ALERT

I was wondering, since she found out at the end of the episode that she was dead, was she a wandering spirit throughout the majority of the episode? Because it's revealed that she died when her car spun out when she busted a tire and that was at the beginning. But if she was a spirit, how was she able to communicate with the other people in the episode, such as the mechanic at the beginning, the rude gas station attendant that shut her out, and the navy officer? Unless, were they spirits too? What about the phone call where she found out about her mother having a breakdown and about her being dead? Now the hitchhiker, that part I get, he was like her guardian angel. That's why she kept seeing him everywhere. And when he says "going my way?", I think that meant that is she coming with him to heaven.

[–] DoctorJuliaHoffman 8 years ago

The original old-time radio show written by Lucille Fletcher (also author of both the famous old-time radio show and the 1948 film "Sorry, Wrong Number") originally had the main character written as a man who narrates the story as he drives across country. Orson Welles played the man who is haunted by the phantom hitch-hiker. This old-time radio show can normally be heard on YouTube.

I think the story worked better as an episode of "The Twilight Zone". Changing the main character to a female was a plus because it automatically made her more vulnerable on those dark, endless lonely roads. She was in limbo, between life and death, like the main character in "Carnival of Souls" (1962). The mechanic, the extremely rude gas station attendant and the amorous navy officer weren't spirits. The hitch-hiker was Mr. Death come to claim her.

[–] richspenc 8 years ago

Yeh, in limbo makes the most sense. Kinda like in "Ghost". I've not seen " Carnival of souls" but it's always looked good. The hitchhiker was Mr. Death, kinda like in "Pitch for the angels", except in that episode, he met Death before he passed away, while here, it was after. I'm still wondering who the other characters were, Navy officer, etc. If they were still live people, how would they've been able to communicate with her? Oh well, I guess I'm analyzing too much, after all, this is the Twilight zone. One of my favorite shows of all time. I hope they open a new discussion board for the show soon.

[–] DoctorJuliaHoffman 8 years ago

richspenc, "The Hitich-Hiker" is like "Carnival of Souls" in certain ways. SPOILERS AHEAD: In both, the heroine is dead but can interact with people who can actually see her. The heroines are in limbo. They're dead, but simultaneously are alive. As if their bodies haven't accepted death yet. You can see "Carnival of Souls" (1962) on many YouTube channels. Avoid the dreadful 1998 remake. The only value of the remake is seeing Sidney Berger from the original in a bit part at the remake's end. Else, an absolute waste of time!

[–] richspenc 8 years ago

Most modern remakes in general are not gonna be as good as the 1950s, 1960s originals. Yeh, I see your point about her not being at the stage yet where no one living would be able to see or hear her. I guess this episode had something in common with "Nothing in the dark" where as soon as she accepts that she's dying, that's when she can move on into the peaceful afterlife. When she gets off the phone after finding out she's died and says she's no longer afraid, that's the official transition, so then the other living characters (gas station attendant, navy officer) now won't be able to see or hear her anymore. That same transitional moment into peace in "Nothing in the dark" was when she took Robert Redford's hand and looked and saw her deceased body on the bed.

[–] DoctorJuliaHoffman 8 years ago

Ug, modern remakes! One wonders why they bother. In olden days, remakes were excellent; the superb 1923 (and the classic 1939 remake) of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) were remakes of earlier versions. I don't like these so-called "live" TV remakes which are pre-recorded and lip-synched such as the dreadful "Grease Live". I watched clips on YouTube.

"The Hitch-Hiker" and "Carnival of Souls" are, indeed, reminscent of the transitional moment of "Nothing in the Dark". In both "The Hitch-Hiker" and "Carnival of Souls", the heroines' bodies are elsewhere (the former in NYC and the latter in a submerged car) while a tangible "second self" of each is wandering freely about the earth totally unknowledgeable of their deaths.

[–] [email protected] (5854) 8 years ago

All I know is that The Hitchhiker was one of the most genuinely scary episodes I ever saw!

I think it's kind of like The Sixth Sense. Cole says that the dead people he sees don't know that they are dead. They just go on with their "lives" as if they are still part of the living world. Perhaps Nan Adams did not really interact with the people in the episode. She just thought that she did because it would be the normal thing to do, such as getting a mechanic to change her tire. Her spirit went on doing the usual things. She didn't yet realize or couldn't accept that she died in the accident.

Maybe we are supposed to think that most people cross over naturally but if you are taken abruptly from this world when you aren't prepared, i.e., young and healthy but in an accident, your spirit has trouble accepting it. Thus the "hitchhiker" to help you on your way. Geez, still spooks me!! I hate looking in my rear view mirror in my car at night. LOL

[–] AngularTurnip (3337) 8 years ago

Richard Matheson once said in an interview that "The Twilight Zone" worked best in black and white because film noir was in black and white, a genre "The Twilight Zone" often emulated. With that in mind having the main character of "The Hitch-hiker" share her thoughts with us is very much a tradition observed by countless noir classics of the '40s and '50s (though in those cases the main character is usually a male cut from the Dick Powell-mold).

SPOILERS AHEAD

I think what we're witnessing in "The Hitchhiker" are Nan Adam's dying thoughts. It's not unlike "Perchance to Dream" where the protagonist Edward Hall go goes into a shrink's office, sits down, closes his eyes, and then dies almost immediately therafter from a heart attack. The bulk of "Perchance" transpires between the time the protagonist closes his eyes and when a heart attack renders him a stiff. As Mr. Serling notes in "Perchance" 's outro: "They say a dream takes only a second or two, and yet in that second a man can live a lifetime." Perhaps the last shot of Nan going still in her car before the camera goes up into the stars is the aftermath of the accident the mechanic at the episode's start points out Nan must have been on the side of the angels to have avoided. Maybe like the protagonist of "Perchance" Nan lives a lifetime in a matter of seconds as she first struggles with and then accepts her untimely demise.

[–] telegonus (736) 8 years ago

I agree with every word you wrote, AngularTurnip. There are many TZ episodes like The Hitch-Hiker, most less extreme. Sort of epiphanies of death. In some cases the protagonist actually lives, in other cases not. Or else there's a purpose, a reason, unfinished business, as in The Last Flight and In Praise Of Pip.

[–] AngularTurnip (3337) 8 years ago

Nothing in the Dark is another good example.

"The Last Flight" is great. How it goes unrecognized is beyond me.

[–] telegonus (736) 8 years ago

I like The Last Flight very much, too. The set up is very well done, the performances excellent. Kenneth Haigh does a brilliant job in the lead, gets fine support from Alexander Scourby and Simon Scott.

[–] Kjnetz (19) 8 years ago

I had both of those on cassette when I was a kid and I would listen to them every night. I had a bunch of others too, but these were my favorites. They actually sold them at the gas station a couple of blocks away from me. Every week when I got my allowance I'd be off to get new ones, lol.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 8 years ago

I have always liked this one. It scared me as a kid.
I never knew about the radio episode or that Orson Welles played the man driving across country....... wouldn't mind hearing that version.

I have thought of Carnival of Souls whenever I see this episode.

I'm spending my afternoon watching some of my favorite TZ episodes. There are so many to choose from!

[–] Kjnetz (19) 8 years ago

I bet they're still available somewhere, maybe as downloads. I bought those tapes back in about '82 or so and I still have them. A bunch of us neighborhood kids really got into them. We would sit in a circle outside at night (scarier) and listen to them on our "boom boxes". Oh man, using that word really dates me, doesn't it?

Carnival of Souls is very TZish! I watched it after reading about it on the TZ boards at the "other" site, which will remain unnamed because it is dead to me. 😛

[–] dini0519 8 years ago

Love "The Hitch Hiker." One of the best TZ episodes. It was so scary but the sailor added some comic relief.

[–] DreamersxDisease (817) 8 years ago

I've always quite liked this episode. I think the narration, in this case helps the viewers feel more invested in Nan and her story. If it were silent we'd be more of an objective observer, but since we get her inner most thoughts and worries we're suddenly thrown into that car alongside her, in a sense. So, I think it works.

I think it was just about her accepting her fate and coming to terms with that and allowing herself to move on. A classic switcheroo of the thing she fears most actually being a benign spirit trying to help her to the other side.