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The picture's outcome is fairly predictable, and 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. As co-scripted and directed by Actress Ida Lupino. The Hitchhiker is a knowing job, as harsh and unrelieved as the barren Mexican settings against which it is played. The three main characters are almost the entire cast. Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy suffer agonizingly as the captives, and William Talman is an effective murderer. Good make-up detail: Actor Talman's deformed right eyelid, like Killer Cook's, which enables him to sleep with one eye constantly, eerily open.
The Girls of Pleasure Island (Paramount) is a World War II romance that deals with a battle between 1,500 marines and three British girls on a South Pacific island. When the leathernecks land on the island in a peaceful invasion, the only real foe they encounter is the girls' prim and proper father (Leo Genn), a plantation owner who is determined to protect his unkissed daughters from the advances of the enemy. But nature takes its course, and the three fun-loving girls (Joan Elan, Audrey Dalton, Dorothy Bromiley) find romance with three personable marines (Gene Barry, Don Taylor, Peter Baldwin). Written by F. Hugh (Kiss and Tell) Herbert, The Girls of Pleasure Island is an unblushingly sentimental fable that is both idyllic and dull. The picture's outstanding assets: the pretty, Technicolored scenery and its trio of pretties.