The drama itself is confined to one basic situation: captives at the gunpoint mercy of a trigger-happy killer. But, playing this conflict for all it is worth, the movie works up a good deal of sweaty suspense without using false theatrics.

Don't take any children to see The Hitch-Hiker. And if anyone who sees the film ever picks up hitch-hikers again, he'll deserve what may happen.

With nothing more than three able actors, a car, a lot of rugged scenery, and their own impressive talents as producers, authors and director, Collier Young and Ida Lupino have brewed a grim little chiller called The Hitch-Hiker.

Uses both claustrophobic space and wide open space to create fear and emphasize the inescapability of the horror that the characters find themselves in.