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Detour (1945) 5/10:rotten:



It's kinda sad that I can't recommend this, but there is a problem with this movie that bugged the hell out of me. Al Roberts (Tom Savage) is a man who decides to hitchhike from New York to L.A. to be with his singer girlfriend. He gets all the way to Arizona without incident, but then the trouble starts. He is picked up by a man named Haskell, who suddenly dies. Fearing that the police would never believe his innocence, he takes Haskell's car, money, and identity. He plans to go all the way to L.A. and ditch the car. Then he makes the mistake that ruined the movie for me...he picks up a hitchhiker! I don't know about you, but I would not be making any unneccessary human contact in this situation. But this isn't just any hitchhiker, no, it's a woman who had a past with Haskell.

That one major flaw ruined what could have been a great movie. Instead, all of the conflict in the second half of the film felt forced. I can overlook some of the film's other flaws (one-dimensional characters, too many coincidences, technical flaws, etc.), but not this one. Despite the problems, this film does have a terrific premise. This movie is also well-paced, as it tells its story in about an hour, but never feels rushed.

The fact that this was low budget, and shot in six days (!?), makes the film admirable in that it was able to be memorable after all these years. You may be more forgiving than I was, and if you can be, you will probably think this is a great one.

**/****

Pro: The crane shots. The noir feel. Savage. The ending.

Con: The dialogue. The "b" movie feel. The lead actor. The corny interactions between leads.

Detour is a wonderful little movie that proves you don't need a big-budget to make a great film. I can easily say this film defines film-noir in every single aspect. The lead character faces several dilemmas and runs into problem after problem after problem. In the end, there is no resolution between him and the woman he set-out to reach, which is a major flaw. The ending was also quite weak, thanks to the studios who ruined it.

The atmosphere Ulmer sets up is fascinating to watch. The main character, played wonderfully by Tom Neal, blends in the backdrop along with his problems. The cinematography is done well, but there are far too many shots of Neal driving the car. It's almost as if they didn't want to waste any money they spent while renting the studio, so they just weaved in several car shots with moving backgrounds. Ann Savage's character is not written very well and her performance isn't that well either. The interaction between the two feels somewhat corny at times, but works overall. The dialogue is also weak, but also works overall.

Detour works as a atmospheric narrative and is a prime example of where film-noir was born. You can tell the film was shot on a very low budget, akin to El Mariachi, but it's easy to look past that. Any film-noir buffs out there must see this film to even be considered a film-noir buff.

Comments pending.

I don't have much to say about this. I didn't care for the story or the main actor in it. This guy decides to hitchhike to LA from New York. He wants to meet up with his girlfriend their. While he is driving a guy's car the guy dies. He doesn't know what to do, and ends up meeting the typical film noir woman. From there the story really goes bad. I felt the screenplay was weak as well as the acting. The directing is mediocre at best and the editing is awful. The dvd I watched was also awful poor sound quality and picture. I don't understand why people would like this when much better film noir had already come out. Don't bother with this one.

SASSY LOW BUDGET FILM NOIR, BUT IT DOIES A REMARKABLE JOB WITH THAT BUDGET. TOM NEAL AND ANN SAVAGE ARE GREAT. VERY SUSPENSEFUL AND INTERESTING. GOOD DIRECTION BY ULMER.

Detour is notable for how much it famously made out of next to nothing. At a brisk 70 or so minutes the film boils film noir down to it's most basic self. What's notable about the characters and settings, though, is how extreme they are in their positions. Tom Neal's down on his luck piano man is so pitiful and out of luck that it's hard to take his tale at face value, especially when up against a gal as ruthless and without humanity as the one played by Ann Savage. For a film made up of sets that are probably nothing more than cardboard and smoke it never goes so far as to allow the viewer to lose a sense of being in the movie. The extreme genre fitting dialogue too borders but never cross the line into absolute campiness.

(***)

Detour (1946, Ulmer):

A bargain basement Noir cult classic from stylish "poverty row" director Edgar G. Ulmer, which tells the story of an impoverished hitchhiker who gets more than what he bargained for after being picked up by a free-spending gambler. All the prinicipal Noir elements are here: flashback, voiceover, femme fatale and countless plot twists; yet, what makes this film unique is Ulmer's ability to conjure a lot of atmosphere out of very little on a shoe-string budget and tight six-day shooting schedule. Ulmer borrows the rear projection from Hollywood; lighting from German Expressionism; the weather from French poetic realism and the plot from one of Hitchcock's "wrong man" thrillers. The dialogue is snappy, while the acting ranges from tawdry to subtle. Not a masterpiece (the pace is at times sluggish and Ann Savage's fatale is slightly overcooked) but it is certainly fascinating in its own little way with one of the more interesting finales in the entire genre.

Recommended for Noir enthusiasts.

B- (7/10)

I know I've been gone for quite some time; school was relatively tough near the end, so I didn't have much time to visit Rotten Tomatoes. But, I've made a return, and will start posting again.

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Detour: 7.5/10

Detour, a film-noir with the smallest of budgets, weighs in at roughly 70 minuts in length. The acting was fair, nothing that I felt stood out. The plot was fairly interesting, but stripped of any real plot twists, surprises, or truly compelling scenes. This can, of course, be credited to the extremely small budget which this film possesed. I'm pretty sure google videos still has it up under their free, so called "classic" films (many of which are terrible) of the day. I'd recommend checking it out; it won't blow you away, but it will offer you some solid film-noir entertainment.