Hitch Hike Lady: A weirdly charming gut-punch

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for pre-code era sentimentality that pivots into something actually pretty bleak, yeah, catch it. If you need your movies to be fast or have a budget bigger than a sandwich, skip it. It’s for the folks who like watching people be genuinely nice to each other right before the universe kicks them in the teeth.

Alison Skipworth carries this entire thing on her back. She plays the titular lady, and there’s this way she holds her purse—like it’s the only thing keeping her tethered to the ground—that just works. You know exactly how many years of scrubbing floors went into that savings account.

The road trip stuff is... well, it’s a lot of sitting in cars. It reminded me a bit of the aimless feeling in Pied Piper Malone, though this one is definitely more focused on the crushing weight of disappointment.

The "Wait, what?" factor

The contrast between her bright-eyed optimism and the grim reality of a prison visit is heavy. There’s a scene where she’s just so excited to see her boy, and you’re sitting there in your living room feeling like a total jerk because you know he’s not exactly living the high life.

The pacing is a bit of a mess. It stops and starts like a rusted truck. Sometimes you’re stuck in a conversation that lasts two minutes too long, then suddenly we’re in a completely different county. It’s charming in a 'nobody knew how to edit a movie yet' kind of way, but it’s definitely not polished.

• The bit where she meets the hitchhikers is oddly wholesome.
• Gabby Hayes shows up, and honestly, seeing him without a massive beard is a trip.
• The prison scenes feel like they were shot on a different planet compared to the sunny road scenes.
• The ending isn't as neat as you'd want it to be.

I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. It feels more like a postcard from a time when movies were allowed to be a little bit sad and a little bit weird at the same time. It’s not trying to be a deep meditation, which is probably why it hits harder than some of the big productions of that year.

It’s not quite as layered as Red-Haired Alibi, but it has a heartbeat. That’s more than I can say for a lot of stuff I watch these days. If you’ve got an hour to kill and a high tolerance for old-fashioned melodrama, give it a go. Just don't expect to leave it feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.