Detour

 

 

DETOUR-1945-This is a classic film noir with NYC club pianist Al (Tom Neal) working in a seedy joint with his singer fiancé Sue (Claudia Drake). She decides to head for Hollywood, leaving Al high and dry. He misses her and decides to hitchhike to LA. In Arizona, a bookie, Haskell (Edmund MacDonald), picks him up. When Haskell accidentally dies, Al panics. He sort of assumes the dead man's identity, taking his car, clothes, money and ID. In California, he gives a ride to Vera (Ann Savage), a woman who had ridden earlier with Haskell and realizes Al's secret. She blackmails him into doing what she wants. “Just as rotten in the morning as she'd been the night before”. Crazy Vera comes up with the idea to use Al in an inheritance scheme with Haskell's estate. Things go from bad to worse when Al accidentally strangles Vera. Though not the first, this film probably set a kind of standard as far as film noir goes.

Director Edgar G. Ulmer (THE BLACK CAT (1934)) could really show how a classic movie could be made on a low budget (Hey, this was produced by PRC after all) and in little than a month! He made the eerie BLUEBEARD the year before. According to Ann Savage's autobiography, though she and Ton Neal had made 3 movies together previously, they didn't get along on DETOUR and never spoke except for their scenes together. Screenwriter Martin Goldsmith also wrote NARROW MARGIN (1953) and SHAKEDOWN (1950). 

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