Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker

In the fictional Southern California town of Port Kirby almost 18 year old teenage Julie Thurston joins her friends Kathy, Francine, and Dana on a hitchhiking circuit that is popular among the teen girls in the town. It’s the summer after their high school graduation and while everyone is hanging at the beach Julie is seriously wondering about her future. She wants to be a sculptor but her boyfriend Nick has other plans. Meanwhile Francine has a good head on her shoulders, going to beauty college, Dana is a wild party girl who might want to be a spy and Kathy is pregnant from her boyfriend and only her best friends know. Whether they are headed towards the beach or to school or to a job they view hitchhiking as their only way of getting around, against parental advice. Julie’s parents worry very much about their daughter particularly after there is rumors of a maniac predator in the area driving around and definitely get even more worried after Dana gets in an accident. Her younger sister Trish also worries about her. Julie secures a job at the local beach hangout, Karp’s Kave working with her other friend Roz. In order to get there she hitches with a guy whom initially seems dangerous but is just a dad who tries to scare her out of hitching. Her boyfriend Nick shows up one day and they finally break up when he decides to go out on the road. Julie in the interim meets a nice older man named Ron who encourages her sculpting. Meanwhile Kathy is planning an abortion and while headed to the dr. she hitches with a maniac who attacks and sexually assaults her causing her to miscarriage and she ends up in the hospital. Next victim is Dana who dies in the same maniac’s car after an accident. Ron has been spending a lot of time with Julie and while comforting her loss he asks her to join him in Los Angeles to look into getting into sculpting. After she returns home he calls to say he hooked her up with a possible scholarship and a great opportunity for her sculpting future. She has to get back to him with samples of her work so she hitches and this time she encounters a dangerous predator. Luckily she survives his attacks but never makes it back to L.A. While recovering at home her parents commend her for being brave and support her decision to continue her life in Los Angeles studying art and sculpting. The movie closes with the assumption that Julie will have a bright future and we see her little sister Trish attempting to hitch. The movie’s moral is basically to teach young girls to stay away from hitchhiking and to teach the consequences of riding in cars with strangers.

• Charlene Tilton as Julie Thurston
• Dick Van Patten as Herb Thurston
• Katherine Helmond as Elaine Thurston
• Katy Kurtzman as Trish Thurston
• Dominique Dunne as Cathy Robinson
• James Carroll as Jordan as Ron Leland
• Christopher Knight as Nick
• Brad David Stockton as Wayne
• Karlene Crockett as Dana
• Shelley Batt as Francine
• Alain Patrick as Claude
• Richard Sanders as Mr. Fogarty
• Patricia Smith as Marion Burke
• Jack Rader as Sean Burke

• Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker at IMDb