Download or watch at archive.org
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Writer: Martin Goldsmith, Martin Mooney
Cinematographer: Benjamin H. Kline
Plot: Talented piano player Al is bitter about having to work in a New York nightclub. After his girlfriend Sue leaves to seek fame in Hollywood as a singer, he decides to join her. With little money, he has to hitchhike his way across the country. In Arizona, bookie Charles Haskell Jr. gives him a ride in his convertible. Haskell dies and Al, fearful that the police will believe he killed Haskell, dumps the body off the side of the road, takes Haskell's money, clothes and identification, then drives away. Al picks up another hitchhiker, femme fatale Vera, at a gas station. When Al identifies himself as Haskell, she blackmails him by threatening to turn him in, as she knows the real Haskell. Vera learns from a newspaper that Haskell's wealthy father is near death and looking for his son, who ran away as a youth after accidentally injuring his friend. Vera demands that Al impersonate Haskell. Vera gets drunk, and they begin arguing and Al sees that he has accidentally strangled her. He goes hitchhiking again, but is picked up by the police.
Trivia:
- The shots of Al hitch-hiking across the US from New York to Los Angeles were intercut with clips of a camera panning over a map of the US, running right to left, starting in NYC. In order for the cars Al rides in to seem to also be going right-to-left, several shots are "reversed" since the cameraman filmed form the wrong side of the road. In these clips the driver is driving on the wrong side.
- Tom Neal was a contract actor for the studio. He lead a tragic life himself, including a prison term for killing his third wife in 1965.
Quote:
Charles Haskell Jr: "You know there ought to be a law against dames with claws."
Al Roberts: "Yep."
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