Breakdown (1952)

Synopsis: After their new jeep conks out on a desolate stretch of Arizona highway, a well-heeled Massachusetts couple accepts the help of a kindly, honest-seeming trucker, who drives the wife to a diner while the husband stays behind to "protect" the vehicle. After saying goodbye, the husband gets two... After their new jeep conks out on a desolate stretch of Arizona highway, a well-heeled Massachusetts couple accepts the help of a kindly, honest-seeming trucker, who drives the wife to a diner while the husband stays behind to "protect" the vehicle. After saying goodbye, the husband gets two surprises: the Jeep starts, and his wife never actually arrived at the diner--and the trucker doesn't recollect picking her up at all. A spare, economically-filled suspenser light on special effects bombasticism and heavy on the old-fashioned Hitchcockian chills. Strongly reminiscent of "The Vanishing" (1988, remade in 1991). [More]