One would never suspect that IDA LUPINO was in the director's chair for a movie about two business men on a fishing trip who have the misfortune of picking up a hitch-hiker with a penchant for violent crime. The two men are well played by EDMOND O'BRIEN and FRANK LOVEJOY, and you have to wonder if there is a sub-text to their relationship when the killer (WILLIAM TALMAN) tells them: "You could have escaped if you didn't want to leave each other." But whatever suspense and intrigue the film has is due to the way the plot slowly evolves into a tense cat-and-mouse game between the two men, who desperately want to survive, and the man with one eye that doesn't shut (paralyzed eye) whom they suspect is still watching them around the campfire while he sleeps.
The acting is standard for this type of story but neither O'Brien nor Lovejoy is able to dig any deeper than the surface for their characterizations of men anxious about their fate. Based loosely on a true story about a killer who had already done several murders before taking the two men hostage in the desert near Mexico, it's got a certain amount of suspense but is nowhere as tightly structured as it should be for a film that runs a mere 71 minutes. I found myself checking my watch to see how far along the story was when it seemed to drag along with no chance of escape.
The acting is standard for this type of story but neither O'Brien nor Lovejoy is able to dig any deeper than the surface for their characterizations of men anxious about their fate. Based loosely on a true story about a killer who had already done several murders before taking the two men hostage in the desert near Mexico, it's got a certain amount of suspense but is nowhere as tightly structured as it should be for a film that runs a mere 71 minutes. I found myself checking my watch to see how far along the story was when it seemed to drag along with no chance of escape.