THE HITCH-HIKER

Two men (Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy) from El Centro, California, decide to go fishing in the Mexican city of San Felipe, in the Gulf of California. Just south of Mexicali, they pick up a hitchhiker named Emmett Myers (William Talman), whose stolen car ran out of gas. Myers turns out to be a psychopath who has committed multiple murders while hitchhiking between Illinois and Southern California. To evade the authorities, Myers forces the two men at gunpoint to head for the heart of the Baja California peninsula, to the city of Santa Rosalia, where he plans to take a ferry across the Gulf of California. Meanwhile, the men try to plot their escape from the violent and paranoid Myers. The sadistic Myers physically and mentally torments the men, forcing them to continue the journey on foot and mocking each other's loyalty, stating that they could have escaped separately. When arriving at Santa Rosalia, Myers tries to hide his identity by forcing one of the men to dress like him. Upon discovering that the regular ferry to Guaymas has been burned, Myers hires a fishing boat. However, things will not go as he expects.