The Twilight Zone - The Hitch-Hiker

I wrestle often as a Twilight Zone fan with where exactly The Hitch-Hiker goes on my Top favorite episodes. It is generally Top 3, alternating with The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street and Deaths-Head Revisited. There are others—the show had some damn great ones—but The Hitch-Hiker stands the test of time and it never fails to impact me on numerous intellectual and emotional levels. It speaks on our resistance towards inviting death, in that we always seek to avoid it as long as possible. Not all of us, obviously, but many of us. Some voluntarily embrace death, but let’s go back to 1960 where it wasn’t too common to necessarily want to die—or the consensus of folks maybe were to live if able. Nan Adams isn’t really much different from those of us who will fight death tooth and nail because of that supposed great unknown (unless you have specific religious convictions that indentify a hereafter far better than current living conditions as a mortal human.) And even if we do have beliefs in something beyond this morality, nonetheless most of us will still fight to remain alive just a little while longer. Nan is similar. She eventually seems to realize that this seemingly unintimidating man, more or less an indistinguishable, unassuming, unspectacular, average guy in a black hat could very well be Death himself. This when he seems to encourage her across a railroad crossing while a train is coming…and her car stalls while on the tracks! The episode, as directed by Alvin Ganzer with teleplay from Serling, however, takes this guy—one who wouldn’t stand out among a crowd if his life depended on it—and gives him a sinister sheen carefully cultivated through clever camera shots, some up close, others at a distance. He doesn’t go away. He’s always there. Waiting and anticipating you to eventually meet him. There’s no escape. There’s no avoiding him. And that is the power of his presence. He’s the harbinger obviously. He’s the nagging reality we all must face. Our fight to avoid him will eventually fail. Nan’s does, too. But that doesn’t mean she gives up without trying at least! Leonard Strong is perfectly cast. He could slide right into a population and not get much notice. But out on the highways, the turnpike, the dirty rural roads that kick up dust, where he *does* stick out—especially when he just keeps turning up and doesn’t go away—Strong is peculiar. He isn’t just thumbing a ride or a pesky nuisance who is desperate to ride with Inger Stevens’ Nan. She’s already doomed, and I think most of us who even watch it for the first time know that. She drives and drives, through state after state, but a phone call to her mom’s finally halts her trip. Granted, it was already halted and Nan was just on borrowed time (well, not in a literal sense…), denying what had already happened. She needed to truly have her fate told to her, I guess.

I find the visits to people, specific conversations with folks fascinating. A sailor played by Adam Williams, for instance, rides in the car with her. Who was he talking to? Did he actually exist? Or the gas station owner (George Mitchell, a real asshole) who wasn’t keen to help her get some for her stalled car? Or the mechanic (cheery Lew Gallo) who fixed her flat tire? Or the diner counterman (chatty Russ Bender) who talks with her about hitchhiking on the turnpike? Was she just this specter not yet gone from this world? Were they just figments of her imagination? I realize these questions are beside the point, but they do kind of possibly function as conversation starters for TZ fans, of which I’m definitely a member.

The episode, I think (and I have noticed this on message boards (that no longer exist which is a tragedy) others do as well), also remains a lasting classic due to its star. Inger Stevens death remains one of those pop culture morbid curiosities that lingers throughout her presence in The Hitch-Hiker. Because we realize the inevitable demise of the episode’s star only ten years later, her character retains this haunting quality that permeates. You don’t just see Nan running from that sinister death following behind but the tormented Stevens, a figure of gossipy attachments to men and failed relationships, seems to have been unable to defy the odds against her. The unfortunate irony of it all is the difference between Nan and Inger…one wanted to live and tried to outrun her destiny, while the other seemed accepting in a premature encounter, inviting the Hitch-Hiker into her car, going his way.

“I believe you’re going…my way.”

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One of the great casualties of the demise of the IMDb's Message Board is that when 4th of July and New Years Eve/Day marathons of The Twilight Zone will no longer be. I spent two days thoroughly enjoying the TZ message board during 2016's New Years Eve marathon, with a bunch of fans getting involved in dialogue. The Hitch-Hiker is a film that stirred up quite a bit of favoritism and dialogue itself. While the IMDb felt the need to eliminate its message boards for "harmony" and "proper etiquette" reasons, it also robbed really popular conversation that brought positive feedback and response to the site. A loss they'll maybe not realize, but for those looking to connect with fellow fans it is quite inconsiderate.