Detour (1945) always seemed like the ultimate example of film noir to me on account of the mythos around it; that it wasn’t a big studio picture, that it was low budget and shot quickly, and that its lead star would later in life would be involved in Hollywood true crime gossip (was it an accident or murder?). Clocking in at a very tight 68 minutes, this has always been available in one form or another on YouTube or access TV, but a remastered print released by Criterion Collection is available to stream on Kanopy. The film opens on the sadsack face of Al Roberts (Tom Neal) sitting in a roadside diner, stark contrasts in the black and white cinematography across his face as he flashbacks to his story. Once a promising piano player in New York City with a talented love in his life, Sue (Claudia Drake), Al is left alone when Sue heads out to the west coast to make it big. Finally following her later on, Al finds himself hitch-hiking and getting into trouble with a fast-talking gambler (Edmund MacDonald), the kind of trouble that is either bad luck or unspoken desire. This leads to Al becoming caught in the clutches of Vera (Ann Savage) who knows a dirty secret and blackmails him. It’s a perfect noir in the way that doom and fate corner a loser (and maybe he’s just bluffing himself into thinking he’s a “good guy”). Neal is a great sad-sack (and later in his life befell serious trouble himself) and Savage is excellent as the femme fatale who has both a wounded vulnerability and a righteous fury to her characterisation. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. A clear influence on the future work of everyone from the Coens to David Lynch.
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