The Hitch-Hiker

The Hitch-Hiker is a radio play written by Lucille Fletcher. It was first presented on the November 17, 1941, broadcast of The Orson Welles Show on CBS Radio, featuring a score written and conducted by Bernard Herrmann, Fletcher's first husband. Welles performed The Hitch-Hiker four times on radio, and the play was adapted for a notable 1960 episode of the television series The Twilight Zone. In the story, a man on a cross country drive repeatedly notices the same hitch-hiker standing along the side of the road. Though the hitch-hiker's appearance is non-threatening, the driver becomes increasingly disturbed upon inexplicably seeing him again and again alongside multiple roads across several states. Eventually, the driver becomes too afraid to stop his car and even attempts to run the man down in hysterical paranoia. After making a phone call home, however, he's shocked to learn information that totally changes his understanding of his predicament. Plot Ronald Adams is a young man embarking on a cross-country drive from his mother's home in Brooklyn to California. Minutes after getting underway in a steady rain, a hitch-hiker steps into the path of Adam's car on the Brooklyn Bridge and he swerves to avoid hitting him. The incident slips his mind until later that day, when he's startled to see the same man hitch-hiking along the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey. Adams shrugs it off as a coincidence until he sees the same hitck-hiker along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, then several more times along highways in Ohio and beyond. Though the man looks like an ordinary hitch-hiker, Adams cannot understand how he keeps getting ahead along his route, and he's especially unnerved that his coat is always splattered with fresh rain even though the weather has been dry since he left New York. After an unnerving encounter with the man at a lonely railroad crossing, Adams becomes reluctant to stop for the night. He's exhausted and desperate for company by the time he reaches Oklahoma, so he picks up a different hitch-hiker, a young woman heading to Amarillo, Texas. They make conversation until Adams sees the mysterious man again and almost crashes into a fence while attempting to hit him with his car. His passenger hadn't seen anyone, and after Adams admits that he'd tried to run someone down, she calls him crazy and flees the vehicle. She's soon picked up by a passing truck, and a shaken Adams decides to take a nap before continuing.