Hitch-Hike (1978)

[lester1/2jr]

           This is one of those grindhouse movies that seems like Quentin Tarantino went back in time and directed it. It's a hostage movie with a big helping of that nastier side of that genre, namely the will he or won't he cross the line with the female hostage, and, perish the thought, does she WANT him to.





    The first thing you notice and probably the main downside to the movie is it has that weird Italian dubbing thing where the movie is filmed in English but somehow it looks dubbed. It makes alot of the acting and writing come off corny. I don't know why they did it that way but they did. The reproduction is very good otherwise.

This was one of those movies that snuck down my queue and when I saw it was coming I was like "oh GREAT". It looked like a really nondescript probably super cheap action movie where there is just enough excitment for a decent trailer. I think for the first time in recorded history a cover blurb proclaiming it a "lost classic" is actually on point. The woman is beautiful, the script is wild and funny and in general it's an over the top blast of grindhouse insanity.

Every once in a while I try to rent Bollywood movies. I did recently and as usual I didn't make it very far and I really think it's the sanitized dialogue. I'm a saracastic a***ole at heart and stuff like "Closer" and Fatal Attraction" is really the bread and butter of my thing, try as I might to be open minded.  This was a real welcome home for me, so despite the weird dubbing I am going for 5/5. We'll see if it holds

[The Burgomaster]

Here are some comments I posted about this movie awhile back:

http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,125912.0.html

[Flick James]

I've never seen this movie, but I know why the dubbing was likely done. It's the same with Equinox (1970).

Some of those old low-budget movies didn't record the dialogue simultaneously with the filming. This was usually because they simply didn't have the technical means to pull it off: no booms, no crew to hold the booms, lack of ability in recording sound on set, or simply just not having boom mics. Boom mics are directional mics that can be directed to the actor and are good at eliminating ambient sound, so only the actors voice is recorded. Nowadays you can get them very reasonably but in the old days a boom mic was both expensive and difficult to acquire if you weren't filming for a studio.

So lacking the ability to record the actor's voices at the time of filming, some of these low budget B and Z movies would record the dialogue in post-production, often with very cheap equipment. This means the actor, or even someone else for that matter, would watch the video while speaking into a mic and trying to synch it as best he/she could. This is why you get that unnatural, dubbed quality.

[Neville]

I enjoyed this film a lot. I remember watching it a few years ago when I decided I hadn't seen enough Italian horror. As Lester said, it's very wild and lots of fun. Some nudity scenes haven't aged that well, they seem too un-PC now. It's a grindhouse film, so you'll probably know what I mean.

I think the biggest surprise here was the acting. Corinne Clery is the weakest link, she was never a good actress. Still, she fares much better than in say, "Story of O" or "Moonraker". Nero and David Hess are in top form, though. Nero doesn't play the hero this time, his character is such a jerk that you'll want him dead in no time. Nero seems to be enjoying a lot playing this douche, but his enthusiasm is not counterproductive, it actually makes his character mopre obnoxious. And Hess... his completely over the top, but in a good way. That's one scary guy he plays, and you can really believe he's going to lose it at any time.

And the ending is just priceless.