The Twilight Zone 1.16

The Hitch-Hiker

starring Inger Stevens

written by Rod Serling, Louise Fletcher

directed by Alvin Ganzer

Nan Adans (Inger Stevens) keeps seeing the same hitch-hiker as she drives cross country from New York to Los Angeles. She spots him for the first as she is getting a flat tire repaired in Pennsylvania and then again as she is getting ready to get back on the road.

She drives south from Pennsylvania. Somewhere in Virginia she spots him again. She doesn't understand how he keeps getting ahead of her. She almost gets hit by a train at one point just after seeing him.

She runs out of gas in New Mexico. A sailor who is headed back to San Diego helps her out. He rides with her for a while but the sailor decides he's had enough and gets out of the car after she tells him about the hitch-hiker and how she just saw him and tried and tried to run over him. 

She keeps going on her own. She finally stops and calls home somewhere in Arizona. Her mother isn't home. That's when she learns that something happened days ago, something that she didn't notice.

Thoughts

The original version of this story was a radio play. The main character was a man in that version of the story.

A fair amount of this episode was narrated by Nan Adams. Most of the shots in the car, where she was shown driving, looked like they were shot on location. There might have been one or two scenes where it looked like they used rear projection to simulate a location.

I found this episode to be very interesting. I can't put all the pieces together in a way that makes sense but I think I understand what they were going for here, who the hitch-hiker was supposed to be.

Notes

This is one of two episodes of this show in which Inger Stevens appeared. She appeared in one episode each of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

Leonard Strong played the part of the mostly silent hitch-hiker. This is the only episode of this show in which he appeared. He was in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959).

Adam Williams played the part of the sailor. This is the first of two episodes of this show in which he appeared. He also showed up in episodes of Four Star Playhouse, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959), and Kraft Suspense Theatre. He played one of Phillip Vandamm's thugs in North by Northwest (1959).

Louise Fletcher wrote the radio play upon which this episode was based. This is the only episode of this show that she had a hand in writing. She also wrote the radio play that was later made into Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).

This is the second of four episodes of this show that Alvin Ganzer directed. The first was 1.12 What You Need. He also directed one episode each of Four Star Playhouse and Kraft Suspense Theatre.