Arrow Video's 2K Restoration Of Hitchhike To Hell Heads To Blu-ray On Nov. 19

It was 1977 and Harry H. Novak’s Boxoffice International Pictures was in to its 14^th year of distributing adult-themed (The Dirty Mind of Young Sally, The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet, Below the Belt, etc.), horror films (Axe, Rattlers, The Mad Butcher) and exploitation thrillers … and then suddenly Novak folded up shop and Boxoffice was gone.    It remains something of a mystery as to exactly why.

Nevertheless, Novak then turned his attention to adult films and the launch of Valiant International Pictures, but that’s another story.   

One of the last films to be released under the BIP banner was the October of 1977 launch of director Irvin Berwick’s Hitchhike to Hell, which received some solid trade reviews (“As topical and tense as anything in the genre to come along in quite a spell” – Boxoffice Magazine, Oct. 31, 1977 edition) and has, over time, become something of a cult film, even to the point of suggesting that the film was shot sometime in the 1960s (not true).

In any case, word arrived this past week from Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, that a 2K restoration of Hitchhike to Hell — from the original film elements — will be available on Nov. 19 as newly-minted Blu-ray product offering.

Howard Martin (Robert Gibben — Trip with the Teacher, Goodbye, Norma Jean, Don't Go Near the Park, etc.) has a couple of problems.   His sister disappeared six years ago and he has obsessed about it ever since … she was a runaway.   His mother (played by Dorothy Bennett) hasn’t gotten over it.   So he obsesses about that too.

In the opening set-up, Howard’s problem would be no big deal, but as a delivery driver for a local cleaners, he comes across a young woman by the name of Sharon Parker (Jacqueline Poseley) and offers her a ride.   Nice enough at first, but when Sharon says that she’s running away from home because she can’t stand her mother, our boy Howard snaps.    A serial killer is born … he beats her, rapes her and then strangles her.

Detectives J. W. Shaw (Russell Johnson — yes, The Professor from Gilligan’s Island) and Phil Davis (Randy Echols) draw the case, but have few clues.   While they are busy with Sharon’s murder, Howard has a meltdown at home, plays with his toy cars and, sure enough, picks up another hitchhiker.   

This one is named Gail (Jane Ratliff) and she’s one tough chick who could give a rat’s patootie about what her mother thinks about her life on the road.   SNAP!!  He beats, rapes and then stranglers her with a handy coat hanger in the back of the delivery van and then dumps her body.

Ah ha, a clue!!   Shaw and Davis have a coat hanger and that could be significant.

By now you’ve got the pattern.   Howard picks up young women out hitchhiking, finds out that they don’t like mommy and murders them … at home his mother frets over him, his boss berates him for his erratic behavior, he plays with toy cars and has bad dreams.   A real sweetheart!

How many victims and how many clues before Howard is cornered?    

Bonus goodies include a newly minted video discussion of the film by author Stephen Thrower (“Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents,” “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco,” “Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci,” etc.) and the featurette titled “Road to Nowhere: Hitchhiking Culture Goes to Hell.”