]William A.Drake""s screenplay was based on his own play adaptation of author/playwright Vicki Baum""s 1929 best-selling novelMenschen im Hotel(translated ""People at the Hotel"").The iconographic, ""buddy"" film, actually minimal in erms of its artistic merit and plot, is both memorialized as an image of the popular and historical culture of the time and a story of a contemporary but apocalyptic journey by two self-righteous, drug-fueled, anti-hero (or outlaw) bikers eastward through the American Southwest.He also added: "I killed Schneider." He explained how Freddy had taken control of his body: "He""s inside me and he wants to take me again.In the Main Office of he Criminal Division (Room 220), Mildred identifies herself as "Mildred Pierce Beragon.Myers then tipped and flipped the car over with Laurie still in it.When the car caught fire, the hulking giant Michael carried the unconscious Laurie to a nearby barricaded shack where he had been camping - verified by an eyewitness""s report.