“The Devil Thumbs a Ride is as frenzied as Gun Crazy, as darkly depraved as Detour, but simpler, more linear...Lawrence Tierney invests this basically stupid plot with such genuine virulence that Devil must be ranked in the upper echelon of indelibly American noir...The hours covered in the film are from midnight to dawn, the period during which reality is suspended, when the rational mind loses control, and everything goes haywire...Tierney is at his most vicious and amoral here...the wickedest looking big lug in B-movie history. He dresses sharp. He's got big shoulders and a snap-brim fedora; evil doesn't lurk in his face, it gloats.” (Barry Gifford) The plot hinges on the unfathomable gullibility of its protagonist-a traveling salesman named Furgie, with whom murderer/con-man Tierney hitches a ride into a hellish San Diego night. They pick up two young women (Tierney: “You've got those hard-to-find Technicolor eyes”) and come to rest in a Newport Beach hideaway where Balzac, booze and many blows await them. A boy-genius gas-station attendant and cops who play poker until it's too late make Tierney's job a little easier.