Day 3 of Noirvember: Emmett Myers in The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Keep your eyes open. Today’s Noirvember post shines the spotlight on the ever-so creepy Emmett Myers of The Hitch-Hiker (1953).

Creepy.

WHAT’S THE HITCH-HIKER ABOUT?

Two buddies – Roy Collins (Edmond O’Brien) and Gilbert Bowen (Frank Lovejoy) – on a weekend fishing trip, catch more than they intended when they pick up a hitch-hiker named Emmett Myers (William Talman), who has recently escaped from prison. Myers is on a cross-country killing spree, and he holds the men hostage, forcing them to drive him to Mexico, and hindering any escape attempts with his paralyzed eye that always remains open. The film is based on the true story of Billy Cook; you can read more about Cook and his misdeeds here.

INTRODUCING EMMETT MYERS:

We’re initially only given a view of Emmett’s shoes as he exits a car, shoots the luckless couple in the front seat, takes an item from the dead woman’s purse, and walks away. And we get our first glimpse of his face when it’s plastered on the front page of a newspaper that tells us to “Be on the lookout for this man!” Next, we see him in shadow, and from behind, as he hitches a ride with a man, kills him, and drives off in his car. And even when that car runs out of gas and he’s picked up by Collins and Bowen, we still don’t see his face – as he sits in the back seat, his visage is almost completely concealed in shadow. It’s not until Bowen offers him a cigarette that Emmett brandishes his gun and leans forward to reveal himself to the men, and to us. It’s one creepy intro, let me tell you.

WHY DID I PICK EMMET?

“I don’t owe nobody.”

It certainly wasn’t because I like the character or enjoy watching him – he’s got to be one of the scariest dudes in all of noir. But he’s certainly not forgettable, I’ll give him that. At first, he just seems to be a monster – no feelings, no conscience – just a cold-blooded killing machine. But we do, very briefly, get a peek behind the monstrous mask to learn about Emmett’s past and the tragic upbringing that fostered his life of mindless crime.

FROM THE MOUTH OF EMMET:

“Nobody ever gave me anything. So I don’t owe nobody. My folks were tough. When I was born, they took one look at this puss of mine and told me to get lost. Well, I didn’t need ‘em. I didn’t need any of ‘em. Got what I wanted my own way.”

PLAYED BY WILLIAM TALMAN:

William Whitney Talman, Jr. was born on February 4, 1917, in Detroit, Michigan, where his father worked as an electrical engineer and auto parts manufacturer. (“[He made] enough to send me to school in a limousine each day,” Talman once recalled. “That meant I had to fight my way in and out.”) Talman began acting in school productions at the Cranbrook School in nearby Bloomfield Hills, continued his dramatic pursuits while a student at Dartmouth College, and landed his first professional acting job at the University of Michigan Drama Festival in Ann Arbor. After working in summer stock in New York, he debuted on Broadway in the short-lived Beverly Hills in November 1940. The following year, he was cast in Spring Again, but he was able to perform in this hit production for only a week before he was drafted into the Army.

After his discharge following the end of the war, Talman returned to Broadway, performing in Dear Ruth for 40 weeks, and in a series of stock productions before he was spotted by an RKO talent scout, invited to take a screen test, and signed to a contract. He debuted on the big screen in 1949, on loan to Paramount for the Betty Hutton musical Red, Hot and Blue. The following year, he was a standout with a starring role in his first film noir, Armored Car Robbery (1950). By the decade’s end, he would be catapulted to nationwide fame when he was cast as District Attorney Hamilton Burger on TV’s popular series Perry Mason. Sadly, Talman would die of cancer 1968 at the age of 53. A three-pack-a-day smoker for many years, he left behind a public service commercial for the American Cancer Society in which he implored viewers to stop smoking. “Before I die, I want to do what I can do to leave a world free of cancer for my children,” he said.

I hope you’ll join me in the shadows tomorrow for Day 4 of Noirvember!

~ by shadowsandsatin on November 3, 2021.