The hitchhiker
Very haunting ghost story. I guess the man she kept seeing was the reaper and the marine was another fellow ghost passenger. I guess she was in purgatory.
share I've watched this and listened to the original Lucille Fletcher-penned radio play and I find both equally mesmerizing.
I like your reading that she's in purgatory. A writer on The Onion's AV Club, Jay S., suggested the possibility that there was no supernatural element involved at all. Jay S. observes that the events in "The Hitchhiker" "were the nightmarish thoughts that raced through Nan's mind between the time of the accident and the moment of her death." In those fleeting moments Nan went from stubbornly refusing to accept her destiny to concluding her only choice was to yield to Death.
Almost like a premonition or self awareness.
shareIf you like this episode, you might like the feature film "Carnival of Souls" (1962). It's on many YouTube channels.
shareGood movie.
shareCarnival of souls was creepy. I enjoyed it immensily, but that ending does remind me of the twilight zone a good deal.
share"Carnival of Souls" has been described as what could be an extra long episode of "The Twilight Zone". However, it survives on its own cult status by being a creepy, imaginative low-budget film. It's quite impressive for its miniscule budget. Herk Harvey said he got inspired to make it by driving past the Salt Air Pavilion. Perhaps, when he was younger, he had heard Lucille Fletcher's radio play "The Hitch-Hiker" with Orson Welles and it stayed in his mind.
shareWow, I checked out the plot and they are almost identical. I think your on to something Doc. I bet that was Rod's inspiration for the ep.
shareRod Serling did give credit to Lucille Fletcher and her radio play "The Hitch-Hiker" in the episode's closing credits. Rod changed the main character from a man to a woman. You can hear the old-time radio play with Orson Welles on YouTube if you Google "Suspense - The Hitch-Hiker 9/2/42 on YouTube", it should take you to the YouTube link. The radio play is 29 minutes long. I listened to it on YouTube awhile ago.
shareI've heard the radio version with Orson Welles and didn't care for it that much. Welles just sounded wrong to me. The TZ version is so much better and far more moving. Inger Stevens was the perfect choice for the lead, with her natural depressiveness making her character more credible. If one watches it too many times it becomes more obvious, with foreshadowings from the git, with the repairman's "one for the angels" remark, but it's still an effective, spooky piece. It's odd for the Zone inasmuch as it doesn't seem to mean anything, to be about anything,--aside from death, that is!
shareI agree, telegonus. The radio play with Orson Welles didn't do much for me. The story works better with a woman as the lead. Herk Harvey originally visualized his main character of "Carnival of Souls" as a man. Thank goodness he changed it to a woman. I just can't see a man being so intimidated by a spook.
share"spoilers ahead"
At the radio play's conclusion Ronald is still not sure who the hitch hiker is -- or even who he is. The "going my way" line the TV version ends on is fantastic but Fletcher managed, in my opinion, to end her original on a subtler, equally unsettling note.
I think the "The Hitch-hiker" is about something: denial. Until Nan's accepts her fate and ceases running she will never be at peace.
I think one of the problems with old-time radio plays, that have been reworked for movies and TV shows, is that we are used to seeing them on TV instead of just listening to them on YouTube, etc. I had seen the film version of Lucille Fletcher's other famous radio play 'Sorry, Wrong Number" many times on TV. I knew it had been a famous radio play with Agnes Moorehead. Lucille Fletcher, herself, had written the movie version and it is an overly convoluted, but highly memorable thriller (with Barbara Stanwyck's performance a real tour de force). However, when I finally heard the original radio version, I was disappointed by its brevity and unconvolutedness.
shareThanks, Dr. Julia. As Angular Turnip pointed out in his response, the radio play ended differently. My problem with the radio version stems in large part from Orson Welles, an actor whose radio acting I don't care for at all (even as I love him as a film director and like him as a film actor). Aside from his Mercury Theater work his radio acting strikes me as way too flamboyant, the gigantic ego all too obvious. Welles never convinces me he's the character he's playing. He's always Orson Welles. This spoils The Hitch-Hiker, especially, for me. As to Louise Fletcher, her radio plays nearly always impress me. I wish she'd written more.
shareYes, Orson's radio performances leave me flat except for his Mercury Theater work. Many people love him as Charles Foster Kane in "Citizen Kane" (and, I suppose, rightly so). I've always preferred him as Mr. Rochester in "Jane Eyre" even though some people find him miscast in the role. I'd love to know how he was able to receive top-billing over Joan Fontaine in a movie called "Jane Eyre" especially since she had won an Oscar for her work in "Suspicion".
shareOrson Welles was more famous than Joan Fontaine at the time Jane Eyre was made. He was Hollywood's "boy wonder" for a few years even as none of the films he directed were big hits (The Stranger, atypical for him, actually made money), and most lost money.
Welles was famous for his Mercury Theater Of The Air and for the 1938 "panic broadcast" War Of The Worlds. Considered purely as a screen name, Joane Fontaine was the bigger star. I suspect that Fox was aiming for "prestige" by giving Welles top billing.
I like Welles (way over the top but in a fun way) as Col. Haki in Journey Into Fear. A weird performance, but sometimes weird was right for Welles. Same with Touch Of Evil, in which his evil character actually moved me somewhat, as I came to respect him even knowing how corrupt he was (now that's acting!). Welles singlehandedly saves The Third Man for me. Yes, he's smug and smarmy, but that's right for the character of Harry Lime.
Yes, I know Orson was considered the "boy wonder" thanks to "Citizen Kane". His next RKO release "The Magnificent Ambersons" didn't do so well. Perhaps not his fault since RKO butchered it. Between 1941 and 1944 Orson's Hollywood career had been a roller coster ride. Joan hit it big with "Rebecca" in 1940 and received an Oscar for "Suspicion" (1941). I guess my unsporting heart just won't let me accept a man getting top-billing in a film called "Jane Eyre" (based upon a well-loved classic girls' novel).
I've seen the other Orson Welles films you've mentioned. One I've caught up with within the last year or two is "The Lady from Shanghai". I had seen its famous mirror shooting showdown sequence many times on TV compilations of classic movie scenes. However, after viewing the complete film, I must say it's a bizarre film to say the least. Not at all uninteresting. But at times you couldn't help wondering "What the heck was Welles thinking?" because the film goes in many odd directions that don't fit in.
I may look into it.