Although set in America this is an Italian movie, shot in Italy. You could describe it as an erotic thriller with perhaps a dash of neo-noir. Perhaps quite a bit of neo-noir. Since it’s Italian the temptation would be to describe it as a giallo but it isn’t. There is however plenty of psycho-sexual weirdness.
The basic setup has been used in various other movies but here it’s given some very disturbing and original twists. The standard version of this setup is that a normal married couple pick up a hitch-hiker who turns out to be a psycho killer bank robber on the run and the cross-country drive becomes a nightmare of terror.
The first twist here is that Italian reporter Walter Mancini (Franco Nero) and his wife Eve (Corinne Cléry) are not a normal married couple. They have a relationship based entirely on sex and it’s not healthy wholesome sex. They don’t make love. They engage in wild, dirty, sleazy, crazed animal couplings. Their ideas on pre-sex love talk are a bit unusual. She calls him a disgusting bastard. He calls her a bitch and a cheap whore. That gets them both excited and they have great sex. There are hints of sadomasochism to their relationship but to see it that way would be an over-simplification. Their marriage is perverse in lots of ways. It’s a successful marriage. They understand each other. They both get what they want from the relationship.
The hitch-hiker they pick up is Adam Konitz (David Hess). He’s a psychopath. He’s killed on many occasions. He will kill again. He’s used to the idea that he can get what he wants through violence and terror. But he hasn’t met people like Walter and Eve Mancini before. He’s crazy, but so are they. He’s dangerous, but so is Walter. And Eve is unpredictable.
There’s also something about the Mancinis’ marriage that Adam doesn’t know.
At first the movie follows the accepted pattern. Adam taunts Walter. He fondles Eve’s breasts. He feels her up. He promises that later he’ll give her the best lay she’s ever had. Eve is terrified. Walter is not terrified. He’s not a fool. Adam has a gun. Walter isn’t going to take crazy risks. And, as I said earlier, Eve is unpredictable. She’s not your regular dutiful suburban wife.
After a few killings along the way Adam decides he’s going to hire Walter. He wants Walter to write a book about him. Adam is very crazy.
Then the first wild plot twist kicks in. It’s followed quickly by another equally unexpected. And a third.
Of course sooner or later we know that Adam is going to want to have his way with Eve, especially after she taunts him by suggesting that maybe for him killing is a compensation for sexual inadequacy.
David Hess as Adam is your standard out-of-control psycho.
Franco Nero as Walter is suppressed rage mixed with contempt for Adam. It’s a crazy very edgy performance and it works.
Corinne Cléry as Eve is excellent - she makes sure that we can never be certain what Eve might do next. She captures her terror very well, and early on she really captures Eve’s wild sexual perversity.
There’s plenty of frontal nudity. Corinne Cléry never seemed to have too many inhibitions about taking her clothes off for a movie. And she looks gorgeous clothed or unclothed.
The shock effect of the violence stems mostly from its sudden eruptions, and the ruthlessness and insanity driving it.
Hitch-Hike takes a familiar setup but makes it really nasty and twisted and surprising and gives it a hard noir edge and a very satisfying multiple-shock ending. Highly recommended.
The old Blue Underground DVD (which is the edition I own) looks fine. More recently there have been several Blu-Ray releases.
While this movie is superficially very different from Pasquale Festa Campanile’s charming feelgood sophisticated sex comedy The Libertine (1968) and his brilliant surreal sadomasochistic melodrama The Slave (AKA Check to the Queen, 1969) there are some similarities - all three films deal with sexual perversity and all three are original and inventive.
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