Hitch Hike Lady

This B picture from Republic Pictures may have had a shoestring budget. But it boasts a nice group of familiar players with a very heartwarming story.

Hitch Hike Lady has Alison Skipworth in the title role. She's an old widow woman from the United Kingdom who after getting an unexpected windfall of an inheritance decides to visit her son Douglas Walton who writes to her every day saying he's a farmer in a place called San Quentin in California. She doesn't know that San Quentin is a prison and no one has the heart to tell her among all the people she meets.

That includes Mae Clarke who becomes her traveling companion and Jimmy Ellison who is a trailer salesman and who winds up giving them a lift to California. In a rather convoluted series of circumstances even con men Arthur Treacher and Warren Hymer become her friends and protectors.

If you've seen Lady For A Day it's clear that Hitch Hike Lady takes its inspiration from that Frank Capra classic.

Through a lot of maneuvering and conning it all works out for Skipworth and Walton. Dave the Dude couldn't have done any better.

A really nice story, catch it when broadcast.

I first saw Alison Skipworth in the movie Madame Racketeer, an absolutely delightful film. While this one was not quite as good that, it still was highly entertaining thanks to such a strong supporting cast especially Treacher (playing as ever, an upper crust English butler type) and Hymer as a couple of lovable scam artists. The plot is silly, of course – Amelia Blake (Skipworth), an elderly and poor English woman hasn't seen her son for several years receives a small inheritance from a former employer and decides to visit her son who lives in California. The thing is the son, wanting to spare his mother, told her that he owned a ranch call Ranchero San Quentin. She meets Judith Martin (Clarke) and a crook promising to drive them to California scams both of them. Neither of them has any money so they start hitch hiking and soon meet up with Jimmy Peyton (Ellison) who is traveling the country in a trailer. The Treacher and Hymer characters hide out in the trailer and the group continues on its way with an interesting interlude at a camp of dispossessed families on their way to California hoping to find work. The group bands together with the goal of keeping Mrs. Blake from finding out that her son is actually in prison. Netflix has a beautiful print of this and it is worth seeking it out.

When the story begins, an inmate in prison has sent a note to his mother back in England. The letter mentions nothing about prison and apparently the inmate never told his mother he was incarcerated. Instead, he regales her with lies about his 'work' here in the States. However, when the mother (Alison Skipworth) receives an unexpected small inheritance, she decides, spur ovoyagef the moment, to visit her son in California.

After an ocean voyage, Mrs. Blake is in New York with little money...not nearly enough for the train. She agrees to go with a group of folks by car...it's cheaper. But it turns out NOT to be a bargain when the driver soon takes off with everyone's money...and Mrs. Blake is stranded with her new friend, Judith (Mae Clark). What follows is a road picture of the pair meeting up with other folks and making their way towards California. However, her new American friends realize that this lovely old lady doesn't realize her son is in prison...and they all decide to try to do something to insure that her meeting with the son will go well. But how??

The film has a very simple premise but works very well due to some nice acting and very clever writing. All in all, a tough film to really describe...an easy film, however, to like.

In this episodic comedy, a cash-strapped older Englishwoman (Alison Skipworth) hitchhikes from New York to California to pay a surprise visit to her son. She mistakenly believes that San Quentin, the return address on his letters, is his orange ranch.

Along the way she shares misadventures with various new friends: a young woman, a trailer salesman, and a pair of wanted criminals.

It's not an all-time classic, but I loved spending an hour or so with these characters. The film has a solid cast, and even James Ellison (who I usually think of as a B-movie cowboy) acquits himself well here in a romantic-comedy role.

I saw the 77-minute theatrical version (rather than the 53-minute TV print) and found the pacing and storytelling just right.

Hitch Hike Lade (1935)

A true Depression era small-budget film with some laughs and goofiness on a trip from New York to California. The only familiar face (to me) was the leading young woman Mae Clarke, who is chipper and realistic and always fun. But the title character is an old English woman who has arrived in the U.S. to find her son.

So, penniless and ready for adventure, but clueless about nearly everything, she stumbles and bumbles her way West, meeting some friendly and peculiar sorts along the way. This is largely made of unknowns, produced by Republic Pictures (not a major or minor studio) and directed by Aubrey Scotto, as unknown as directors get. It's fast, fun, and often really funny. There are some silly actors doing silly things, but at its heart its warm and feelgood and not at all bad. By the end you are cheering the gang along and hoping for the silly improbable conclusion you can see coming.

As an extra, the editor here is Joseph Lewis, who went on to do a bunch of great B movies like "Gun Crazy" in the 1950s. It's better made than you might expect, and it has some great scenes that are straight from the middle of the Great Depression--not clichés of hardship, but other kinds of clichés of survival with no money.