It is a solid movie. I believe its reputation is magnified to a degree by the historic novelty of being a female-directed '50s noir, but William Talman delivers a creepy, engaging performance, and it has a nicely stark atmosphere in general. I would give it a B.

It starts off great. The vastness of the desert areas and the abandoned side roads are managed to be presented as a creepier environment (even during the daylight) than most try hard thrillers/horrors ever succeed with dark, "scary", claustrophobic sets. Talman's serial killer is a chilling character. The scene where they all sleep for the first time and he has his bad eye on them all the time and they're just watching him not knowing if he's really asleep or not is masterfully done. Exceptionally tense.

But as the movie progresses it starts to lose steam. I didn't mind undeveloped characters. In fact in this case it actually adds to the realness. You don't want to get friendly and share stuff with a mad serial killer that's holding you at gunpoint all the time. There's no time or need to get to know these characters. It's all about not breaking under pressure, not doing a single wrong move. But the story is a bit stretched out. If this was an episode of The Twilight Zone and condensed a bit it would be much better. I also didn't like the happy ending. There was absolutely no reason for it as the movie is bleak throughout and promises a bitter (maybe somewhat sweet) ending (the cautionary tale summary at the beginning also doesn't go hand in hand with the ending). But it ends abruptly and too happy. It kind of killed a vibe it had going for itself.

Hats off to Ida Lupino. Some great scenes in the movie.

*** / ***** (C)