page_title: The Hitch-Hiker
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: The Hitch-Hiker / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Screenshot The Hitch-Hiker (film, 1953) source: http://www.lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org/images/idalupino2.jpg The Hitch-Hiker at the Internet Archive Licensing This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. Unless its author has been dead for the required period, it is copyrighted in the countries or areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada (50 pma), Mainland China (50 pma, not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 pma), Mexico (100 pma), Switzerland (70 pma), and other countries with individual treaties. See Commons:Hirtle chart for further explanation. Deutsch&#160;| English&#160;| español&#160;| français&#160;| italiano&#160;| 日本語&#160;| 한국어&#160;| македонски&#160;| português&#160;| português do Brasil&#160;| русский&#160;| українська&#160;| 中文（台灣）‎&#160;| +/−
context_page_description: The Hitch-Hiker is a 1953 film noir directed by Ida Lupino, about two fishing buddies who pick up a mysterious hitchhiker during a trip to Mexico. Inspired by the crime spree of the psychopathic murderer Billy Cook, the screenplay was written by Robert L. Joseph, Lupino, and her former husband Collier Young, based on a story by Daniel Mainwaring, who did not receive a screen credit due to him then being on the Hollywood blacklist.
  The Hitch-Hiker is regarded as the first American mainstream film noir directed by a woman and was selected in 1998 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."
  The film is in the public domain.
context_section_description: The inspiration for The Hitch-Hiker is the true-life story of Billy Cook, who in California in 1950, murdered a family of five and a traveling salesman, then kidnapped Deputy Sheriff Homer Waldrip from Blythe, California. Cook ordered his captive to drive into the desert, where he tied Deputy Waldrip up with blanket strips and took his police cruiser, leaving Waldrip to die. Waldrip got loose, however, walked to the main road, and got a ride back to Blythe. Cook also took two men hostage who were on a hunting trip.
  Cook was tried, convicted, and received the death penalty. On December 12, 1952, Cook was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison in California.
caption: Ida Lupino (left) directing The Hitch-Hiker
exif: {}