Apparently, Charlene Tilton's turn on DALLAS had garnered her enough attention that somebody felt it permissible to give her a starring vehicle of her own, this luridly titled teleflick about teenagers who flirt with danger by accepting rides from strangers. Charlene is a teen with artistic ambitions who doesn't have her own wheels. Neither do most of her girlfriends. In order to get around, they all resort to hitching. Unfortunately for them, there's a sicko roaming the highways, picking up young girls and raping them. Guess who picks Miss Charlene up in the last reel . . . Not really a suspense movie, just a little melodrama that wraps the hitchhiking theme around the usual psychodrama and character development that usually fills these movies. The acting isn't bad, but the movie wasn't intended as anything more than a movie of the week.
6 Reviews
Not as good as "DAWN" or "BORN INNOCENT" but decent Teen Girl In Turmoil TV Flick
mamamiasweetpeaches9 January 2004
Warning: Spoilers
If you are heavy into cult trash TV movies and Afterschool Specials like I am then this TV Movie starring Charlene Tilton IS worth a peek, but not worth driving yourself nuts trying to get a copy of (I bought a used VHS of it from AMAZON for like two bucks). Charlene Tilton plays a cute young thing named Julie who is spending the summer working at the hot dog stand at the beach and hitching rides, even though she knows that girls who do that often get raped, beaten, killed or left for dead. A few of her friends who like to hitch turn up missing and STILL Julie hitches. Shame, shame, shame!
This movie is a little on the long side. It pads the plot to develop Julie's character: she's an artist who gets involved with an older man COACH's Craig T Nelson!) . That part is sort of boring. Obviously,the best parts are when you see girls getting in cars with strangers and just KNOW something bad is gonna happen! SPOILER.....I love the part where a girl gets in a car and the driver starts freaking her out, acting like he's going to hurt her.Then he pulls over the car and lets her know he is a friend of hers father and he was just trying to scare some sense into of her. That,to me, was the best scene in the movie. (END OF SPOILERS)
Very amusing was the casting of Peter Brady as the boyfriend Julie breaks up with early in the movie. Actually, there are a few familiar TV faces in this show. But for true classic Camp Art check out DAWN PORTAIT OF A TEENAGE RUNAWAY(Eve "Jan Brady" Plumb) or BORN INNOCENT(Linda "Excorcist" Blair)
This movie is a little on the long side. It pads the plot to develop Julie's character: she's an artist who gets involved with an older man COACH's Craig T Nelson!) . That part is sort of boring. Obviously,the best parts are when you see girls getting in cars with strangers and just KNOW something bad is gonna happen! SPOILER.....I love the part where a girl gets in a car and the driver starts freaking her out, acting like he's going to hurt her.Then he pulls over the car and lets her know he is a friend of hers father and he was just trying to scare some sense into of her. That,to me, was the best scene in the movie. (END OF SPOILERS)
Very amusing was the casting of Peter Brady as the boyfriend Julie breaks up with early in the movie. Actually, there are a few familiar TV faces in this show. But for true classic Camp Art check out DAWN PORTAIT OF A TEENAGE RUNAWAY(Eve "Jan Brady" Plumb) or BORN INNOCENT(Linda "Excorcist" Blair)
Classic '70s Made-for-tv Movie!
dgordon-13 June 2002
This is one of my favourite made-for-tv movies from the '70s! It starred Charlene Tilton of "Dallas" fame, and Dominique Dunne. It was made during a time when tv movies were trying to teach a moral message. I haven't seen this movie since the early '80s, but the images it showed are memorable. It was about a girl (Charlene Tilton) that works down at the beach. She is saving for a car, and the only way for her to get to this area is by hitchhiking. There are news reports on the radio warning against hitching because there have been a rash of young girls in the area that have been murdered by hitching a ride & never making it to their destination. This movie is not graphically violent, it's actually funny in parts. You never see the guy that's committing these murders. Instead, you see the car with it's chromed exhaust, and super-tinted windows from every angle possible before he traps his victims. The victims, of course, are only clad in bikinis or halter tops & jeans, you see them get in, laughing & thanking the guy for picking them up, then the next scene is the victims clothes on the ground, and the murderer driving over them. It's a pretty strong message, and makes a point without being graphic. It would be nice to see this movie again, and have it available on DVD or VHS because it's a movie that has left an impression with me.
Ridiculous, alarmist TV movie from the late 70's
lazarillo4 March 2008
Here's a cautionary TV movie about a social problem that doesn't really exist anymore: From the time I started driving more than twenty years ago now, I have NEVER seen a woman hitchhiking by herself, yet this movie would have you believe it was out-of-control epidemic. The titular teenage hitchhiker "Julie" (played by Charlene Hilton) is the kind of girl who has her name emblazoned on her shirt, presumably so she won't forget it. She's actually a terrible hitchhiker, kind of putting a slightly extended thumb just under her chin and wriggling it. She continues thumbing rides in this manner even after one friend is beaten and raped while hitchhiking and another is killed in a high-speed chase doing the same. She doesn't do this, however, because she's rebellious or self-destructive, but because she's an insufferable goody-two-shoes who wants to get to her job, but won't let her concerned parents buy her a frickin' car.
The sexy female hitchhiker movie was practically its own genre in the 1970's (.e. "The Hitchikers", "Thumb Tripping","Girls on the Road"), but obviously, since this was a TV movie, it's a lot less exploitative--and a lot less entertaining--than most. There's obviously no sex (aside from some scanty cladding), and potentially scary scenes involving an ominous black Mercedes are pretty ham-handedly executed. Which leaves character development--lots and lots of character development. "Julie" meets a wealthy, older architect who is so incredibly nice that he doesn't mind that she won't put out, or that she dresses and acts like the the most matronly 17 year old ever witnessed in the 1970s. You see he genuinely believes she's a talented sculptress and wants to encourage her "artistic talent"--none of which exactly advances the plot too much. The movie has an ending that is nice and ominous, but doesn't really fit the rest of the movie, which alternates between meandering and cloying.
Besides Charleen "Dallas" Tilton, this movie features any number of 70's TV actors like Dick "Eight is Enough" Van Patten, Katherine "Soap" Helmond, Christoper "Peter Brady" Knight, and even the guy who played "Les Nessman" on "WKRP in Cincinatti". The actor who really stands out though and showed the most promise for a real career outside of network television is Dominique Dunne, who plays a pregnant, ill-fated friend of "Julie's". Tragically, this actress (who was later in "Poltergeist") was actually murdered in real-life, not by a stranger in a black Mercedes, but by her former boyfriend. It's hard to not think about that now watching this ridiculous, alarmist TV movie.
The sexy female hitchhiker movie was practically its own genre in the 1970's (.e. "The Hitchikers", "Thumb Tripping","Girls on the Road"), but obviously, since this was a TV movie, it's a lot less exploitative--and a lot less entertaining--than most. There's obviously no sex (aside from some scanty cladding), and potentially scary scenes involving an ominous black Mercedes are pretty ham-handedly executed. Which leaves character development--lots and lots of character development. "Julie" meets a wealthy, older architect who is so incredibly nice that he doesn't mind that she won't put out, or that she dresses and acts like the the most matronly 17 year old ever witnessed in the 1970s. You see he genuinely believes she's a talented sculptress and wants to encourage her "artistic talent"--none of which exactly advances the plot too much. The movie has an ending that is nice and ominous, but doesn't really fit the rest of the movie, which alternates between meandering and cloying.
Besides Charleen "Dallas" Tilton, this movie features any number of 70's TV actors like Dick "Eight is Enough" Van Patten, Katherine "Soap" Helmond, Christoper "Peter Brady" Knight, and even the guy who played "Les Nessman" on "WKRP in Cincinatti". The actor who really stands out though and showed the most promise for a real career outside of network television is Dominique Dunne, who plays a pregnant, ill-fated friend of "Julie's". Tragically, this actress (who was later in "Poltergeist") was actually murdered in real-life, not by a stranger in a black Mercedes, but by her former boyfriend. It's hard to not think about that now watching this ridiculous, alarmist TV movie.
Great classic 70s made for TV movie!
alannasaddress22 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
In the days when social awareness about various societal ills were coming more and more into mainstream consciousness and mass media this made for TV movie addresses the dangers of hitchhiking in America. With all the fun of teenage life mixed with serious trauma and melodrama, "Diary of a teenage hitchhiker" is a real, poignant look at this issue, the movie acts as an entertaining PSA to all ppl warning of the dangers of hitching and what could potentially happen when stepping into the "wrong car". The setting is late summer, 1979 in the fictional seaside beach town of Port Kirby, located in sunny Southern California. The main protagonist is Julie Thurston, a recent high school graduate who spends her days contemplating her future and hanging on the beach with her best gal pals, Cathy, Dana, and Francine and her boyfriend Nick. She shows an interest in sculpting and art which she feels her bf and most ppl don't support. Things start out peachy and carefree but radio reports warn young ppl of a scary psychopath picking up young ppl in the area and murdering/raping them. However her pals still hitch, Francine to beauty college, Dana because she totaled her car, Cathy because she's afraid to drive and is looking for a Dr. To terminate her secret pregnancy she hides from everyone except her friends, with Julie being her true support through it all. The consequences are dastardly, Cathy gets raped, beaten and suffers a miscarriage after a bad ride, Dana gets killed by the same psycho who picks her up and then crashes due to speeding from the police. Francine meets perverts but luckily is careful. Julie, who since has broken up with Nick and has obtained a job at Karps Kave, the local beach hangout/burger joint is trying to save money for a car although her nervous parents are urging her to be more careful and to quit the job if it means she had to hitch to get there. Also in the interim Julie meets Ron, a handsome young architect who starts dating her and encourages her sculpting. He takes her to Los Angeles for her 18th birthday and tries to advance her artistic career, as Julie tries to make it back there for a big break, she meets with the most terrifying ride of her life...will she make it? With her dreams, her ambitions...her life??? This movie ends on an interesting note but now it shows Julie's younger sister is starting to learn to hitch....yikes....all in all this movie is very entertaining and tries to have a great moral message about scary and dangerous hitching and thumbing rides can be. One chilling scene, in particular, shows 2 innocent teen girls at night who get in the wrong car after hitching and then it cuts to a scene showing the psychopath running over their bloody clothes with his car after presumably murdering them. I found it a great dark chick flick, and as far as made for TV movies of the time this one definitely shines. And the cast is relatively famous too, Katherine Helmond from "Soap" is Julie's mom, her boyfriend Nick is Christopher Knight from the "Brady Bunch" Dominique Dunne from "Poltergeist" is Cathy, Dick Van Patten from "Eight is enough" is Julie's dad, Less from WKRP in Cincinnati is Dana's dad Craig T. Nelson plays a guy who picks up Julie hitching etc. Etc. It's definitely worth a watch, and I really enjoyed it! Only thing I couldn't understand is why the friends continued to hitch knowing how it affected all their friends but I guess you gotta to leave that all up to your imagination.
Tacky, Tawdry, Too Good to be True TV Trash from the Terrific 70s!
Atomic_Brain23 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker is one of the last great TV movies of the magnificent 1970s, containing some over-the-top elements which make it a jaw-droppingly tawdry and lurid experience. The film is sensationalist to a fault, almost a living tabloid newspaper, detailing in gruesome detail a phenomenon which may or may not have actually existed - young girls hitchhiking with dubious strangers. If this did occur, poor girls! The notion of the sexy virgin hitchhiker was a hardy movie genre during this time period, with films such as Pickup on 101, The Hitchhikers and Girls on the Road examples of theatrical films which took the subject to sometimes surreal extremes. This being a TV movie makes Diary only a tad less sleazy than its theatrical brethren, but not by much.
Charlene Tilton plays Julie, a very good girl who gets a job at a local hot dog stand, in order to save up cash to buy her own car. Sadly, her job is eight miles from home, so she simply must stick out her thumb and hitch rides with random strangers, because of course neither parent can drive her there, god forbid! In fact, the main reason Julie (and her pals) hitch rides with creepy strangers is because their square parents won't buy them cars. What comes to mind first off is the extraordinary naiveté of these cute young things, seriously underdressed in most cases, carelessly hopping into any strange contraption that happens by, a narrative conceit almost too hackneyed to be true. Also unaddressed - excepting in the most peripheral way - is the families' seeming indifference to what is a demonstrably hideous crime wave occurring right in their collective backyard.
Dick Van Patten, the archetypal Dad from Eight is Enough, is pretty humorous as Julie's father, alternately cloying and strident, and coming across as pretty ineffectual overall. Katherine Helmond is adequately long-suffering as Julies' Mom, although Helmond would really hit her stride in Soap, essentially playing a parody of all her thankless "straight" characters from her TV Movie days. Christopher Knight, the middle Brady boy, is kinda creepy as Julie's kinda seedy boyfriend, who - like everyone else in Julie's social circle - seems unwilling to offer any transportation assistance whatsoever. Last but definitely not least, Julie's perky kid sister is played by none other than the delightful Katy Kurtzman, one of the great child actors of the era, who will be forever remembered for her star turn with Burl Ives in the memorable TV movie-musical, The New Adventures of Heidi.
The circuitous screenplay careens all over the place, and seems at times on the verge of crashing completely. The best scenes, of course, are those in which innocent girls find themselves at the mercy of sex-crazed driver-predators. Diary does contain some surprisingly strong scenes, including a really creepy hospital scene wherein one of Julie's pals lies in bed, her face beaten to a bloody pulp, wailing and weeping as she describes her rape and torture by a deranged motorist. Also unnerving are grisly reports of local girls getting raped and murdered by strangers in motor vehicles, gleefully chirped over ubiquitous transistor radios. And, in what has to be one of the most implausible plot points of the entire 1970s, it is actually suggested that Julie might make a career for herself as a sculptress! It should be noted that the title promises a wraparound or framing device totally absent from the film - at no point is it suggested that this sad tale was recorded in Julie's (or anyone else's) diary, depicted either via narrative or voiceover. It just makes for a great title, that's all.
Yet what catapults Diary into sheer "cultfilm legend" territory are the ham-fisted inclusion of two then-recent cultural references, both inserted purely for exploitation value. In contrast to the many sleazy gropers and molesters who (apparently) infest California highways, there is also a bona-fide serial killer loose amongst them, and he drives a big black car (either a Lincoln Continental or a Cadillac, hard to tell). This killer waits in the hills near the main highway, his open pipes roaring like a lion, ready to pounce upon yet another bit of young prey. The car is formidable - immense, sleek, black, with lots of chrome - and the camera lingers on various angles of the sinister vehicle, trying to create the impression that it is a "demon car," possibly piloted by the Devil himself. No self-respecting film buff of the era can fail to see these scenes as crude rip-offs of similar moments in Universal's 1977 smash hit, The Car, the studio's wildly successful answer to Spielberg's dumb and overrated Jaws. Indeed, the fetishization of the "demon car" comes straight from various scenes in The Car, although that terrific film handled the effect much, much better; here, the same impression is created awkwardly, haphazardly, even sloppily - but the spirit is definitely there. And to add insult to injury, when we finally see the driver/killer, he is a non-descript male distinguishable by two telling features: big aviator sunglasses, and a fire-red dress shirt. Again, this image of an oddly-dressed charismatic predator instantly brings up comparisons with Jim Jones, the mad preacher who somehow convinced almost a thousand lost souls to kill themselves for Jones' cruelly misnamed "Peoples Temple" In November 1978. In photos and news footage, Jones - especially in his latter days - was seen to almost exclusively wear aviator glasses (to hide his deteriorated physical condition due to drug use) and flaming red shirts. The similarity is uncanny, and with this TV movie airing mere months after the tragedy of Jonestown, there can be little doubt that this was an opportunistic (and quite tasteless) attempt to add some topical "shock value" to an already very sleazy production.
Yet with all the deadly shenanigans going on, Diary ends almost in a stalemate, as the killer goes free, and a weird, open-ended finale cautions the audience that all those sleazy predators are still out there, and if they catch one, more will immediately leap from out of the shadows. Enough to scare any prospective teenage hitchhiker - and that was probably the point. In a poignant coda, little Katy Kurtzman, shockingly underdressed for a road trip in a bikini and light blouse, stands on a street corner, thumb out, just waiting to be picked off by the next creep to happen by. The tragedy inherent in this grim parting shot can send shivers down the spine, or reduce the viewer to tears. They sure don't make 'em like this anymore, folks!
Charlene Tilton plays Julie, a very good girl who gets a job at a local hot dog stand, in order to save up cash to buy her own car. Sadly, her job is eight miles from home, so she simply must stick out her thumb and hitch rides with random strangers, because of course neither parent can drive her there, god forbid! In fact, the main reason Julie (and her pals) hitch rides with creepy strangers is because their square parents won't buy them cars. What comes to mind first off is the extraordinary naiveté of these cute young things, seriously underdressed in most cases, carelessly hopping into any strange contraption that happens by, a narrative conceit almost too hackneyed to be true. Also unaddressed - excepting in the most peripheral way - is the families' seeming indifference to what is a demonstrably hideous crime wave occurring right in their collective backyard.
Dick Van Patten, the archetypal Dad from Eight is Enough, is pretty humorous as Julie's father, alternately cloying and strident, and coming across as pretty ineffectual overall. Katherine Helmond is adequately long-suffering as Julies' Mom, although Helmond would really hit her stride in Soap, essentially playing a parody of all her thankless "straight" characters from her TV Movie days. Christopher Knight, the middle Brady boy, is kinda creepy as Julie's kinda seedy boyfriend, who - like everyone else in Julie's social circle - seems unwilling to offer any transportation assistance whatsoever. Last but definitely not least, Julie's perky kid sister is played by none other than the delightful Katy Kurtzman, one of the great child actors of the era, who will be forever remembered for her star turn with Burl Ives in the memorable TV movie-musical, The New Adventures of Heidi.
The circuitous screenplay careens all over the place, and seems at times on the verge of crashing completely. The best scenes, of course, are those in which innocent girls find themselves at the mercy of sex-crazed driver-predators. Diary does contain some surprisingly strong scenes, including a really creepy hospital scene wherein one of Julie's pals lies in bed, her face beaten to a bloody pulp, wailing and weeping as she describes her rape and torture by a deranged motorist. Also unnerving are grisly reports of local girls getting raped and murdered by strangers in motor vehicles, gleefully chirped over ubiquitous transistor radios. And, in what has to be one of the most implausible plot points of the entire 1970s, it is actually suggested that Julie might make a career for herself as a sculptress! It should be noted that the title promises a wraparound or framing device totally absent from the film - at no point is it suggested that this sad tale was recorded in Julie's (or anyone else's) diary, depicted either via narrative or voiceover. It just makes for a great title, that's all.
Yet what catapults Diary into sheer "cultfilm legend" territory are the ham-fisted inclusion of two then-recent cultural references, both inserted purely for exploitation value. In contrast to the many sleazy gropers and molesters who (apparently) infest California highways, there is also a bona-fide serial killer loose amongst them, and he drives a big black car (either a Lincoln Continental or a Cadillac, hard to tell). This killer waits in the hills near the main highway, his open pipes roaring like a lion, ready to pounce upon yet another bit of young prey. The car is formidable - immense, sleek, black, with lots of chrome - and the camera lingers on various angles of the sinister vehicle, trying to create the impression that it is a "demon car," possibly piloted by the Devil himself. No self-respecting film buff of the era can fail to see these scenes as crude rip-offs of similar moments in Universal's 1977 smash hit, The Car, the studio's wildly successful answer to Spielberg's dumb and overrated Jaws. Indeed, the fetishization of the "demon car" comes straight from various scenes in The Car, although that terrific film handled the effect much, much better; here, the same impression is created awkwardly, haphazardly, even sloppily - but the spirit is definitely there. And to add insult to injury, when we finally see the driver/killer, he is a non-descript male distinguishable by two telling features: big aviator sunglasses, and a fire-red dress shirt. Again, this image of an oddly-dressed charismatic predator instantly brings up comparisons with Jim Jones, the mad preacher who somehow convinced almost a thousand lost souls to kill themselves for Jones' cruelly misnamed "Peoples Temple" In November 1978. In photos and news footage, Jones - especially in his latter days - was seen to almost exclusively wear aviator glasses (to hide his deteriorated physical condition due to drug use) and flaming red shirts. The similarity is uncanny, and with this TV movie airing mere months after the tragedy of Jonestown, there can be little doubt that this was an opportunistic (and quite tasteless) attempt to add some topical "shock value" to an already very sleazy production.
Yet with all the deadly shenanigans going on, Diary ends almost in a stalemate, as the killer goes free, and a weird, open-ended finale cautions the audience that all those sleazy predators are still out there, and if they catch one, more will immediately leap from out of the shadows. Enough to scare any prospective teenage hitchhiker - and that was probably the point. In a poignant coda, little Katy Kurtzman, shockingly underdressed for a road trip in a bikini and light blouse, stands on a street corner, thumb out, just waiting to be picked off by the next creep to happen by. The tragedy inherent in this grim parting shot can send shivers down the spine, or reduce the viewer to tears. They sure don't make 'em like this anymore, folks!
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