![]() ![]() ![]() The radio play was later adapted by Fletcher into the 1948 film from Paramount starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster. Lucille Fletcher (1912-2000) was best-known for writing the 30-minute radio play "Sorry, Wrong Number," which was originally produced for the Suspense radio series, broadcast on May 25, 1943, starring Agnes Moorehead (star of the second season Twilight Zone episode "The Invaders"). Serling recognized the excellence of his source material and wisely changed little else, as it is Fletcher's original radio play which truly deserves the credit for story excellence. Rod Serling displays his skill in adapting another's work with "The Hitch-Hiker." His major innovation in adapting Lucille Fletcher's radio play for television was to change the gender of the main character from male to female, which perhaps further worked at the sympathies of the audience. The use of a mirror became a primary symbolic device for the series ("Mirror Image," "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room," "The Mirror," "Number Twelve Looks Just Like You," a dozen more) and is put to excellent and effective use in this episode with the rear-view mirror and the mirror in the makeup case. He seems largely benign, yet manages to be menacing due to some well designed scenes by director Alvin Ganzer. Leonard Strong plays the Hitch-Hiker in a very unusual manner. Inger Stevens provides a highly credible and sympathetic performance as she emotionally unravels in the role of Nan Adams. The cast and crew are superb in this one. The voice-over narration and unadorned directing style give the episode a feeling of quaintness, but render it no less effective. Serling recreated the structure of "The Hitch-Hiker" for later episodes such as "The After Hours," "Mirror Image," and "Nightmare as a Child."Īs the setting moves from bright sunshine to dark and lonely night, "The Hitch-Hiker" manages to create a high level of tension very much in the style of classic radio and film thrillers of the thirties and forties, no coincidence since the source material is one of the more famous radio thrillers of the forties. It is one of the show's earliest attempts at outright terror and formed a template for Rod Serling and the other core writers on the series to create a number of episodes involving a single, isolated character menaced by a supernatural device. "The Hitch-Hiker" is an excellent stand-out thriller during a first season in which the show was trying to find its niche by trying many different story types on for size. ![]()
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