Hitch Hike (1977)

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Hitch Hike (1977)

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Walter Mancini (Franco Nero) and Eve (Corrine Clery) are an unhappily married couple who have embarked on a driving holiday around the southern states of America. Walter, an unsuccessful journalist married to his boss's daughter, is a drunk who enjoys picking fights with his wife and then forcing her to have rough sex-something which Eve, despite her better instincts, rather enjoys. Following a disastrous exhibition at a trailer park, the couple decide to move on to Nevada but are stopped by a hitch-hiker named Konitz (David Hess) whose car has broken down. He seems friendly enough but is oddly nervous at reports on the radio about an escaped bank robber and soon reveals his true colors when he suggests that Eve might like to perform fellatio on him. Walter throws him out of the car and beats him but when Konitz produces a gun the situation becomes complicated. Konitz, now in control of the situation, insists that Walter and Eve escort him to the Mexican border and begins a campaign of intimidation that is clearly going to lead to some kind of sexual assault on the terrified Eve.

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Hitch Hike (1977)

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All this is familiar stuff and is well played and tense, but it's in the second act that things become more unusual. Konitz isn't only interested in violence, he wants to become a legendary outlaw and sees Walter's journalistic credentials as he best stab at immortality. He rants away about the police- "My HEAD in the scopes of their high-precision carbines!" - and makes uncomfortably accurate observations about the state of his hostage's marriage, but he's also well aware that his presence isn't the only high-pressure factor in the car. As Scorsese demonstrated in Cape Fear an unhappy marriage is far more interesting to throw into the melting plot than a happy family and it's the awareness that Walter and Eve are on the verge of killing each other that makes the triangular relationship between victims and aggressor so much more compelling. Franco Nero's performance is exceptional and adds a great deal to the unsettling atmosphere. Walter is a drunk but, believably, one who swings between happy and unpleasant, and his own misogyny mirrors that of Konitz's. Nero shows an unsuspected range in this part and an impresisve understanding of his complex character. He doesn't beg for our sympathy but he's troublingly likeable while being totally reprehensible. Nero makes a great match with David Hess which adds a good deal to Hess's by now familiar psycho performance. Hess is a little more restrained than usual in this performance and strikes real sparks in his cross-talk scenes with Nero - you feel the actors are having a great time working together which is always fun to watch.

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Hitch Hike (1977)

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What doesn't work so well and adds some unpleasant undertones to the film, is the attitude to Eve. Konitz is a sadistic misogynist and Walter is a sexist drunk but the film doesn't really give Eve enough strength of character to overcome these attitudes in order to prevent them becoming the point of view expressed in the film. Early on, she begins to taunt Walter and it works well but this isn't followed through and by the middle of the film she's just excess baggage on the plot with the sole purpose of providing a focus for the inevitable rape scene. As these things go, the rape isn't too offensive, being tactfully handled for the most part. But it goes on longer than necessary and is accompanied by some crane shots which seem to exist simply in order to reveal Corrinne Clery's pubic hair to the audience. Worse still, halfway through the assault, she begins to enjoy it and this isn't presented ironically or responsibly, it's just a turn-on for the audience. Kontiz says "She's like a wind-up to. Turn the key, turn her on" and, to be brutally honest, this seems to be the attitude of the film towards her as well. Clery handles the character with as much dignity as she can muster but she's fighting a losing battle against the script. In the last twenty minutes or so, she comes through with some strong moments but, by then, Walter has won the battle for audience interest. Having said this, the script does give her a few good lines, notably this comment on men, sex and guns which could be an epitaph for Italian sleaze crime movies in general: "You make love with that gun. Every time you shoot, you feel more virile and manly". In these moments, you see how impressive Clery could have been with a properly considered character to play. The plot-turn which is meant to give her the upper hand doesn't seem very convincing after the abuse she experiences but it does, perhaps, add some complication to the otherwise banal sexual politics of the film.

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Pasquale Festa Campanile was a director more used to comedy than suspense, but he directs this vicious thriller with pace and style. It's not gratuitously violent but the violence is shockingly brutal in parts. He uses the wide open spaces of L'Aquila in Italy - standing in for America - with assurance and gets some evocative atmospheric effects from the lonely, oddly deserted highways. He also works well with his actors, reservations about Clery apart, and gets plenty of humor (much of it pitch-black) from the story. Sometimes, unfortunately, the humor is misplaced and becomes obvious and embarrassing. The treatment of two gay characters, Konitz's accomplices, is a case in point. It would be more forgivable if they were just limp-wristed stereotypes throughout but instead Campanile gives them a scene where they discuss their relationship in a way which is humane and complex and promises more than what one might expect. But Konitz's homophobic attitude to them extends to the film and they become screaming queens who are simply there to be disposed of. In other words, the time spent making them believable is totally wasted. But Campanile also shows nifty comic timing in the early scenes between Walter and Eve and I love the, presumably ironic, use of a particularly horrible hippie anthem in the background. The original music in the film is by Ennio Morricone and is fantastic - beginning with banjo and guitar, it develops into doom-laden synthesiser anthems as the plot makes its way remorselessly towards the deliciously cynical ending.

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