The MoFo Top 100 Film Noir Countdown

The Hitch-Hiker is the first noir on the countdown that was directed by a woman, Ida Lupino.
Spellbound is the first Hitchcock film to make the countdown, will there be more?

The Hitch-Hiker is #16 on my list. I'm glad a Lupino movie made the list because she was a great filmmaker. I hope she appears again, but if it's just for this one, I'll take it.

no votes. not entirely sure if the hitch-hiker is the best of ida lupino's directorial efforts (a case can be made for the bigamist or outrage) but it's definitely the most accessible with its potboiler setup and solid performances by all three of its leads. still need to see spellbound.

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Finally seen two of them! Spellbound is good but I didn't consider it for this list.

The Hitch-hiker was my '17. Rally good film.

As a director Ida Lupino directed four film noirs: The Hitch-Hiker (1953), Outrage (1950), On Dangerous Ground (1951), The Bigamist (1953).

I've seen all of those except Outrage. The Bigamist is good! On Dangerous Ground not so much. The Hitch-Hiker is good and intense.

As an actress Lupino was in a lot of noirs, I can't even remember them all, High Sierra and They Drive By Night comes to mind. One of my favorite actresses and an excellent director.

Spellbound is good, very artful and memorable dream sequence. Leans more towards a psychological thriller. No vote but I don't mind it getting on the main list unless it's at the cost of 'my Hitchcock' not showing up. Haven't seen The Hitch-Hiker.

SEEN 8/34
BALLOT 00/25

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Lupino co-stars in On Dangerous Ground, but that one was directed by Nicolas Ray.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Hmph, I love On Dangerous Ground, especially for the Herrmann soundtrack, which is one of his best and that's saying something. Will check out The Bigamist.

Agreed that Spellbound is more like a psychological thriller but it qualified. I think most people would really dig The Hitch-Hiker, even those who don't watch or like old noir movies.

Yeah I seen that, and I don't know how much she directed of that film. I seem to recall she directed a portion of the film for some reason like Ray was sick? I'm too lazy to look it up.

Seen both and liked them but neither made my ballot.

Seen: 33/34

I take that back! I loved that film I even watched it twice...I was thinking of another Ida Lupino film noir I seen and didn't care for which was Woman in Hiding (1954)


You are correct sir!

She helped out for three days. Hardly makes it her directorial credit.

Yeah, we're definitely getting out of the woods cause I've seen these two and had one of them on my ballot.

Spellbound is a decent thriller, even if some of its subplots are paper thin, which tended to be the case with some of these early Hitchcock thrillers. His direction is, as usual, great though, but the real treat for me was seeing Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman interact. I might post a review I wrote about it in a while, but it didn't make my ballot.

The Hitch-Hiker, on the other hand, is the kind of film that gets under your skin. Tense as hell, and with a menacing performance from William Talman. I echo those that have shared their love for Ida Lupino, because she was indeed great. I might also share something I wrote about this one later, but I had it at #21.


SEEN: 4/34
MY BALLOT: 1/25

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Not sure about On Dangerous Ground, I haven't seen it, but she did step up for Elmer Clifton during Not Wanted. He had a heart attack, and she completed the direction uncredited.

I've seen all of these, except On Dangerous Ground. I would definitely recommend Outrage, even if the film gets a bit derailed in its last act. Here is my review, if you're interested, but regardless of my then-rating, I think it is an important film.

Also, a random list trivia fact, The Hitch-Hiker was on 9 lists, which is the most of the countdown so far and a bit of a jump from the highest amount so far, which was 5. So even though it has one of the lowest IMDb scores at 6.9, there seems to be a lot of love for it here on MoFo.

I get to add another viewing to my tiny portion, as I have seen Spellbound. It's been years, so I need to check it out again at some point.

3/34 seen

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That's how Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingmar Bergman) is described by one of her flirting colleagues. Emotionally distant and clinically accurate is how she prefers to handle herself. It's as if she didn't remember how to show her emotions, love or be loved. "The greatest harm done to the human race has been done by the poets" she says at dinner as she tells of how poets fill people's heads with false expectations of love, kisses, embraces, etc.

That's until she meets her new boss (Gregory Peck), a young doctor, who ends up being not her boss, but rather a victim of amnesia who has taken up the place of a Dr. Edwardes for some reason. Going by the initials "J.B.", the young man doesn't seem to remember anything about his past, what he did, whether he was married or single, but more importantly, how he ended up taking Dr. Edwardes identity, and what happened to the real one.

In a way, both Constance and J.B. are victims of a similar spell. They're both trapped by different circumstances, the former by her career and the latter by guilt. Because of this, they both find themselves unable to show or feel emotions or love. But as they meet each other, kisses become "lyrical poems" and embraces become "Shakespearean dramas".

Sure, there's a murder in the background and a quest to find out what happened, but the real focus of the story is how Constance and J.B. interact with each other, helping each other break away the cages that have held them captive for so long, even though they try to convince themselves that it can't be real. Watching Bergman and Peck interact is a real treat, particularly the former who I thought was quite good in this.

The murder subplot is paper-thin, sorta similar to other late 30's Hitchcock films, but it is well executed. I also give props to Hitchcock and the writers for trying to instill the script with a loose thread of real psychology, even if its application feels convoluted, or too convenient for the story. Much is said about the Dalí-inspired dream sequence, but I was a bit underwhelmed at how brief it was. Still, I thought the film was pretty good and entertaining with some solid moments of tension, Hitchcock's direction was almost flawless, and most of the performances were good.

Grade:

Sharing my review of Spellbound, which I wrote back when I first saw it in 2018.