Twilight zone the hitchhiker7/24/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Though it turns out it was at the very beginning of the picture, it could just as well have been while stalled on the train tracks or as the victim of an ill intentioned sailor. It's fairly easy to figure out the ending, but in hindsight, the story offers more than one possibility as to when Miss Adams could have met her demise. So here's a nifty little story that exudes a sense of dread throughout, an unsettling feeling that Nan Adams (Inger Stevens) must at some point face a terrifying reality that involves a creepy little hitchhiker that keeps popping up at every turn. Man, I miss those days as much as as I miss great old TV classics like The Twilight Zone passing off into the sunset. It stayed that way up until at least 1967, because that's what I paid as a first time driver, and putting a couple of bucks worth in the family car went a long way. ![]() I'll start out by being facetious here - you know what's really scary about this episode? Regular gas at twenty seven nine per gallon. But then, as good as the best shows are, TZ was never a big-budget series.) Anyhow, this is one of those haunting episodes that stays with you. (A half-facetious observation- strange how so much of cross-country America looks like the scrub lands of southern Cal. It still shows in these traveling sequences. Radio drama, of course, could not allow dead air time, so script writers such as Fletcher had to become skilled at verbalizing what the character is thinking. And for those who care- there's a taste of radio drama in the voice-over sequences where Stevens is riding alone. Also, there's the well-timed blinking neon in the final scene to convey a subtle transition. Notice how the camera shots become progressively tighter as the tension inside the car mounts. I particularly like the subtle way the final scene is handled with the superb camera work and expert use of half light and shadow. There's suspense (the railroad crossing), humor (the sailor thinking it's his lucky day), mystery (what is this with the hitch-hiker), and finally pathos ( in a rear-view mirror). Everything entertaining and artistic comes together as Inger Stevens' cross-country trip descends from bright sunlight into the depths of midnight. Serling's adaptation of the Louise Fletcher radio play is first rate, one of the best of the series. Perhaps the most haunting of all the entries. Shabby hitch-hiker keeps reappearing as young woman drives cross-country. ![]()
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