The Hitch-Hiker Ida Lupino

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Ida Lupino
USA 1953

Ida Lupino, Hollywood's sole female filmmaker of the 1950s, directs an all-male cast in a taut, 70-minute thriller. Frank Lovejoy and Edmund O'Brien are two war buddies taking a break from the wives for a Mexican fishing trip; a hitchhiker they pick up turns out to be a crazed killer wanted in nine states (William Talman, later the perennially defeated district attorney on Perry Mason) who forces them at gunpoint to drive him through the desert. Talman's Everett Myers is a fascinatingly abstract creation, filmed by Lupino first as a discorporate flurry of hands and feet, then as a satanic figure whose grinning, key-lighted face seems to float by itself in space. With his paralyzed right eye (he sleeps with it wide open), Myers may represent the return of the fascist evil the two men confronted during the war; he may also represent something inherently violent in the American male that, having been liberated by the war, has to be faced down and defeated by the two vets before they can return to a normal life. Lupino's use of the desert setting, rich with associations of nuclear devastation, seems to look forward to the science fiction films that would flourish later in the decade.

--Dave Kehr

Theatrical Release: April 29th, 1953 - USA

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DVD Comparison:

Roan Group - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Kino - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Wild Side Video - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Kino screen captures.

1) Roan Group - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT

2) Kino - Region 0 - NTSC - MIDDLE

3) Wild Side Video - Region 2 - PAL RIGHT

DVD Box Covers

Distribution	Roan Film Group Region 0 - NTSC	Kino Video Region 0 - NTSC	Wild Side Video Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:10:40	1:10:36	1:10:45
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.77 mb/s NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.83 NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.3 PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Roan
Bitrate: Kino
Bitrate: Wild Side
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	None	None	French, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Roan Group Aspect Ratio: Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Introduction by Robert Clarke • Beautifully restored from the Library of Congress 35mm print DVD Release Date: October 14, 1999 Keep Case Chapters 20	Release Information: Studio: Kino Video Aspect Ratio): Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • none DVD Release Date: January 18, 2000 Keep Case Chapters 10	Release Information: Studio: Wild Side Video Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: January 5th. 2010 Transparent Keep case Chapters 12

Comments:

ADDITION (Wild Side Video - August 2010) - Single-layered and still an incorrect standards conversion (unconverted NTSC - see running time - on a PAL encoded disc) with all those associated deficiencies (ghosting/combing, artifacts etc.). It is boosted, hazy, pictureboxed (less than the Roan) has chroma and there are no extras. I'd still get the Roan, although none are acceptable - a Blu-ray for this noir gem seems unlikely as source elements appear very poor and a restoration would be costly.

NOTE: The French subs are not 'burned-in" but some players may 'force' them. You can get around this by -'re-burning' without loss of the image as it is a DVD5 - see HERE.

***

ADDITION: KINO (2003): The Kino edition is very poor. The sharper picture-boxed image (on the Roan DVD) has been zoomed-in and hence we see cropping on the Kino. The Kino also shows some bad damage spots and a very hazy, dirty image.

The Roan Group transfer is pictureboxed - potentially with the excuse to overcome 'overscan' on commercially made tube television sets (overscan can be up to a 15% loss of image and this is significant!). Pictureboxing leaves a black border around the edge of the image and most players automatically zoom-in to fill the screen - it limits resolution making the image slightly less detailed than it might be able to achieve. The benefit of pictureboxing is that it adds more visible viewing area so that the majority of DVD purchasers (or for most people own and watch through tubes) can see even more of what is on the negative - the way the film was meant to be viewed.

It has some Extras (to the Kino's none), and we, of course, give the overall to the Roan - despite the chroma. Kino has done a real cheapo job with this.