Detour (1945)

Detour (1945)

“That’s life: whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you.”

Synopsis:
While on his way to Los Angeles to meet his girlfriend (Claudia Drake), a pianist (Tom Neal) hitches a ride with a gambler (Edmund MacDonald) who drops dead during the middle of the night. Deciding that no one will believe him if he tells the truth, Al (Neal) adopts MacDonald’s persona — but a sullen hitchhiker (Ann Savage) calls Al’s bluff, and soon has him embroiled in more trouble than he could ever have imagined.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Edgar G. Ulmer Films
  • Femmes Fatales
  • Flashback Films
  • Living Nightmare
  • Mistaken or Hidden Identities
  • “No One Believes Me!”
  • Road Trip

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary notes, this “near-legendary work” by Edgar G. Ulmer is “regarded by many critics as the greatest ‘B’ film ever made”, and is “truly an unusual film”. Featuring “one of the screen’s all-time great losers” (Neal) and noir‘s most unabashedly shrewish femme fatale (Savage), viewers can’t help but stay hooked even while wishing they could divert their eyes from the disaster unfolding in front of them. As a flashback film told exclusively from the perspective of an anti-hero (“a sourpuss, doom-sayer weakling”), the entire story smacks of self-indulgent pitying: one never knows whether Al’s version of events is truth or fantasy, and the film’s notoriously ultra low-budget (“it uses only six minimally furnished indoor sets”) simply adds to its overall air of nightmarish surreality.

Critics have long debated the role of Fate in “pessimistic Neal’s” downward spiral, with Peary pointing out that “in truth he does nothing to ward it off”, instead using “Fate as an alibi… when [it was] his own foolishness [which] caused him to dump MacDonald and steal his possessions… [and] to pick up Savage when he should have been keeping a low profile.” Regardless of Al’s personal culpability, however, few would wish a vulturous harridan like Savage on him or any man; as Peary notes, “she looks as if she wants to rip you apart with her teeth and devour you piece by piece”, but “even more terrifying than her face is her voice, which is loud, scratchy, vulgar, [and] intolerable” — a femme fatale, indeed!

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Tom Neal as Al
  • Ann Savage as Vera — as Peary notes, her no-holds-barred performnce here is ultimately “what makes the film special”
  • Effective, stylish use of an extremely low budget

  • Martin Goldsmith’s pulpy script:

    “When this drunk gave me a ten spot, I couldn’t get very excited. What was it? A piece of paper crawling with germs.”

Must See?
Yes, as perhaps the most celebrated B-noir of all time. Discussed at length in Peary’s Cult Movies (1981).

Categories

  • Cult Movie
  • Historically Relevant

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

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3 thoughts on “Detour (1945)

  1. From all accounts I know, an indisputable must.

    I’m in enthusiastic agreement with Peary – at least as far as his comments re: Savage. The first half of the movie (the set-up) moves along nicely in noir fashion, but it’s true – it’s only with Savage’s entrance (and what a studied, generous entrance she’s given) that ‘Detour’ begins to sizzle. When Savage begins sinking her claws into Neal, the film becomes riveting to the end. The two of them aren’t merely co-stars; they’re very much in the ring together and director Ulmer keeps the pace taut, with ping-pong dialogue delivery and an ever-present undertone on Savage’s part that she would very possibly become putty in Neal’s hands if he would – well, put his hands on her and all over her, and mean it.

    I don’t know if I’d want to debate about this film the way critics have – but it would be easy to pull it apart. To a degree, the whole thing’s preposterous. But then, that’s rather the point of how Neal’s character sums up at the end. (It’s a nifty closing speech.)

    I’ve seen this pic a number of times over the years – and have never, ever seen a decent print of it. Tho the ragged look of it has added to the mood of this hard-luck story when I’ve watched it, I’ve wondered at the same time why no one has gotten around to restoring this undeniable cult classic.

    Sidebar: check out Neal’s bio at imdb; it’s an eye-opener.

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