Detour (1945)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Bob S

  
  Doh! Hate it when I think I there is a great movie that I haven't seen - and it turns out I've actually seen it. Pretty killer z-budget noir. Great femme fatale / nagging sloppy drunk live-in girlfriend. Lesson: fate will crush a wus, everytime.

• Josh M

  
  I, and thousands of others, have been obsessed with Detour since we first saw it. This seedy, NO-budget noir flick is chock full of every type of physical and story telling flaw, yet somehow magic lightning is a captured in a cracked, dirty bottle. Somehow all this film's… More
  I, and thousands of others, have been obsessed with Detour since we first saw it. This seedy, NO-budget noir flick is chock full of every type of physical and story telling flaw, yet somehow magic lightning is a captured in a cracked, dirty bottle. Somehow all this film's limitations are tranformed into strengths with the German expressionist vision of iconic expatriate director Edgar Ulmer, who knows how to make an audience care and transfix. Ulmer turns every moment of this story into something allegorical that any of us flawed humans can relate to. For me, the theme of this film is how people who have every opportunity to escape a self destructive situation, choose to stay and let it play out, to our own destruction. In the story, honky tonk piano player Al Roberts (Tom Neal), broke, is going to follow a singer, Claudia Drake, the woman he loves to LA. Hitchhiking, his driver dies in an accident, Al hides the body and steals the car, never alterting the cops to the tragedy. Going even further down the degradation highway, Al picks up another mysterious hitchhiker, an angry, toxic femme fatale (Ann Savage) with some conection to the dead man. They hole up in a cheap hotel, in mutual self destructive hate, they go down to their horrible doom. To start with, the cast of limited actors, protagonist Tom Neal and femme fatale Ann Savage, take such a sincere, direct approach to their self inflicted pain. that they are utterly mezerizing. The fact that a fog machine covers up for having zero scenery budget, gives the film a timeless allegorical feel. The flipped negative with the driver's seat consistently on the wrong side gives the film a hallucinogenic, dream quality, the cheesy jazz song 'I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me' has a haunting melody and is appropriately self depracating I could go on, the film is so full of limitations. It is full of memorable classic film noir lines, though. "There oughtta be a law against dames with claws', etc. In short, don't miss this unforgettable piece of weird, accidental genius, and note: it's available for free online. It would be great if someone found a good print and released a digitally remastered version, but its numerous scratches and pieces of hair on the lens add to Detour's seedy mystique. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

• Tsubaki S

  
  Moody noir that, like many others of the time hasn't really aged well. Stuck in the cliches of the genre, depending on huge coincidences and what not. Worth a check for anyone interested in the genre, but nothing you will remember much.

• Randy T

  
  Tom Neal's having a really, really, really, really bad couple of days. Seriously.

• Reid V

  
  A gritty little B Noir about a man who always seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. This grim tale of fatalism has one of the more memorable femme fatales that the silver screen has to offer. I'm not kidding, ever since I saw the film visions of Ann Savage have been… More
  A gritty little B Noir about a man who always seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. This grim tale of fatalism has one of the more memorable femme fatales that the silver screen has to offer. I'm not kidding, ever since I saw the film visions of Ann Savage have been assaulting me in my sleep.

• Veronique K

  
  "detour" is one of those edgy b-noirs which strives to have a decent revolt of social criticism in its time. it's highly predicable, and you just expect the dude to do worse in every turning point of plots. to put it in a complicated way to say would be: fatalistic… More
  "detour" is one of those edgy b-noirs which strives to have a decent revolt of social criticism in its time. it's highly predicable, and you just expect the dude to do worse in every turning point of plots. to put it in a complicated way to say would be: fatalistic deterioration has taken its toll in detour as karma has striken our protagonist with a sneering whack over the head. (here i am using big-word to describe a simple idea)...i have no idea to review such an archetypical filmnic genre because every step it takes is a formula for the late-comers to pay his tribute or homage to.. let's aetheticize it: detour is a cinema-piece which mercilessly lays bare its anti-californianism criticism, and californianism - the stuff that dreams are of - is the target for the director as well as the screenwriter to harshly hit upon. during the decade it was made, detour was a daring social critic channeled through cinema, but later it becomes a feast for cinephiles who celebrate its starky usage of chiascuro cinematophography and neatly potent way of story-tellings. an inland pianist aspires to hitchhike his ways across several states to reunite with her girlfriend, who leaves him for the opportunities in hollyowod. at the moment he steps into los angeles, south california, he stumbles into a chieseller who has a heart-issue. fate seems to favor playing mischief upon him, the chieseller meets his sudden death and leaves our protagonist in a state of dismay. at the very minute he decides to take over the chieseller's identity, our protagonist just determines his doom for the worse. when he's about to enter hollywood, he picks up a woman on the road, and that woman happens to be the chieseller's female acquitance who threatens to expose his false identity if he chooses not to be her accomplice of crimes. then he's implicated into a series of fraud, blackmails and murder. ...eventually, he doesn't get to be with his precious lover and his trip to los angeles and hollywood fails. he spends his days being haunted by those nightmarish memories on the roads of california until he concedes himself to the highway patrol. the metaphor is obvious, the dude takes his first detour to california, he meets a posing chiesler. at his second detour to los angeles, the chieseller dies to leave a tough suspicious spot of murder to him. then at his third detour to hollywood, he just has the GOOD LUCK to meet one of the most difficult dames in the world that gives him the ultimate doom. the dame is a symbol to summon up the traces of corruptions in hollywood: mercenary, helplessly alcoholic, a vacant life without bright vision, and a hollywood resident who has no other urge of life except the flamy anguish to squeeze more dough to feed her ways of depravity. how negative the writer has portrayed southern california, los angeles (city of DEAD angeles who have no wings) and the man-eating hollywood which is piled up with the dead bodies of dreamers. it barrows the early french naturalism from emile zola who is masterful at using the environment atmosphere to render deployments of fates. zola's conclusion of humanity is: we're all products influenced and guided by our environments. detour certainly gives a very good embodiment of such zola-esque notion on humanity. also, detour could be an experimental noir on the road, and a pioneer for road movies in decades to come. (ps) the scene i appreciate most about the movie is the shot of the man in the bar, and his face is all covered by shadows while his eyes full of apprenhensions are lightened off by the camera. you see a pair of worrisome eyes starkly illuminating alone in the engulfing surroundings of darkness. what an ominous picture!

• AJ V

  
  A suspenseful movie with an interesting yet simple plot. Really worth checking out.

• Robert C

  
  As a quintessential example of the classic film noir style, this is not to be missed. The story is mostly predictable, but the journey itself is good fun. This film is so "noir" that at times...it seems almost like a parody! Ann Savages performance as (Bad girl)… More
  As a quintessential example of the classic film noir style, this is not to be missed. The story is mostly predictable, but the journey itself is good fun. This film is so "noir" that at times...it seems almost like a parody! Ann Savages performance as (Bad girl) "Vera" is not to be missed. Watch this film or she might "kiss ya with a wrench!" : P

• Pierluigi P

  
  Nightmarish, gritty and substantial post war noir. an A class B picture.

• Ken S

  
  Great B Noir. Well worth checking out, just to see Tom Neal's disheartening look.

• Aaron N

  
  Al Roberts: That's life. Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you. Oh man, this is like the El Mariachi of Film Noir. Its a dirt cheap film, that's only 67 minutes long. Because of that however, you take care of having unnecessary filler scenes and the… More
  Al Roberts: That's life. Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you. Oh man, this is like the El Mariachi of Film Noir. Its a dirt cheap film, that's only 67 minutes long. Because of that however, you take care of having unnecessary filler scenes and the pacing stays pretty level. The movie has a number of twists that make it hard to explain without giving too much away. Suffice it to say that the lead character starts the film, narrates his past, meets some unexpected issues and has to deal with a bitch of a women for a long portion of the film. For a cheap movie, it is well done, but I'd imagine its rare enough where you'd be luck to catch it anywhere anytime soon. Vera: I'm gonna see that you sell this car so you don't get caught. Al Roberts: Thanks! Of course your interest wouldn't be financial, would it? You wouldn't want a small percentage of the profits? Vera: Well, now that you insist, how can I refuse? 100% will do! Al Roberts: Fine! I'm relieved! I thought for a moment you were gonna take it all! Vera: I don't wanna be a hog!

• Michael G

  
  Heavy-handed noir that could've been a contender with a bigger budget.

• Byron B

  
  Al narrates most of the story with a bitter understanding of the cold hand of fate. The dialog crackles with post-war film-noir jargon. An innocent man's life is torn apart by cruel circumstances. Tom Neal plays the desperate man Al who assumes another man's identity.… More
  Al narrates most of the story with a bitter understanding of the cold hand of fate. The dialog crackles with post-war film-noir jargon. An innocent man's life is torn apart by cruel circumstances. Tom Neal plays the desperate man Al who assumes another man's identity. Ann Savage chews the scenery and her costar for that matter as Vera, an opportunistic dark influence. With all the scenes that take place in a car rolling down the highways of America it was difficult for me to tell if sound stages and rear projections were used or if filming was possible at that time with a camera attached to a moving vehicle on location. In either case, it was done well. The focus on eyes whether in car rear view mirrors or with shadow cast on Al's face except for a beam of light across his eyes was classic.

• John M

  
  "Detour" is quite short with its 67 minutes of running time but it still manages to tell a entire story, with character build up, twists and basically everything else you could expect from a genre movie made during the '40's If you like Film-Noir and the movies… More
  "Detour" is quite short with its 67 minutes of running time but it still manages to tell a entire story, with character build up, twists and basically everything else you could expect from a genre movie made during the '40's If you like Film-Noir and the movies check it!!!

• Anastasia B

  
  So deliberately flawed that it remains a classic, this B movie has all the quintessential characteristics of the film noir genre magnified so much that the film may be scorned upon by a careless viewer. I would have given much more credit to the film if I wasn't so thoroughly… More
  So deliberately flawed that it remains a classic, this B movie has all the quintessential characteristics of the film noir genre magnified so much that the film may be scorned upon by a careless viewer. I would have given much more credit to the film if I wasn't so thoroughly unconvinced by the "magic" coincidences of the plot and the apparent lack of level-A acting talent by Tom Neal. Ann Savage is quite the revelation, though!

• Christopher B

  
  Great, moody and gritty noir piece. The whole tone of the film is downbeat and the actors wallow in the atmosphere. Excellent.

Read all 16 featured audience ratings