Edgar G. Ulmer directed Detour, a quintessential film noir starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage, which was adapted by Martin Goldsmith and Martin Mooney from the former’s 1939 novel.
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Made on an ultra-low budget (though not $20,000, as Ulmer claimed) and quickly shot (though not in six days) the film was released by the Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), a Poverty Row studio, and scored at the box office (vis-a-vis its budget).
Critical Status
In 1992, Detour was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
A 4K restoration by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences premiered in L.A. at the TCM Festival in April 2018. A Blu-Ray and DVD was released in March 2019 from the Criterion Collection.
Tom Neal plays a piano player named Al Roberts, first seen in a club, who narrates the whole story, which relies too much on voice-over.
Al remembers being bitter about squandering his musical talent working in cheap nightclubs. His girlfriend Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake), the nightclub singer, leaves for Hollywood, which throws him into depression. He decides to go to California and marry her; and with no money, he is forced to hitchhike his way.
A bookie Charles Haskell, Jr. (Edmund MacDonald), driving from Florida to Los Angeles to bet on a horse, gives Al a ride in his convertible. During the drive, Al pass him some pills, which Charles swallows as he drives.
A rainstorm forces Al to pull over, but he is unable to rouse Haskell. While opening the door, Haskell tumbles out, striking his head on a rock and dies.
Fearful he would be accused of killing Haskell, Al drags the body off the road. He then takes the dead man’s money, clothes, and identification, and drives away.
He crosses into California and spends a night in a motel. The next day, leaving a gas station near Desert Center Airport, he picks up a hitchhiker, Vera (Ann Savage).
At first, she is quiet, but then she begins challenging his identity, car ownership, and his whole story.
She had been picked up by Haskell earlier in Louisiana, but she got out in Arizona after he forced himself on her. She blackmails him by threatening to turn him over to the police. She takes the money Al retrieved from Haskell and wants whatever money they can get by selling the car.
In Hollywood, they rent an apartment, posing as Mr. and Mrs. Haskell. Al is resentful of the situation but Vera revels. About to sell the car, Vera learns from a newspaper that Haskell’s wealthy father is near death and a search is under way for his long-estranged son. Vera demands that Al impersonate Haskell once the father dies to inherit the estate. Al refuses, arguing that impersonation requires the kind of detailed knowledge he lacks.
In a drunken rage, Vera threatens to call the police, and running into the bedroom, she falls with the phone cord around her neck. He breaks down the door and discovers Vera strangled by the cord.
Al gives up the idea of contacting his girlfriend Sue and returns to hitchhiking. He finds out that Haskell is wanted in connection to murdering his wife, Vera.
The feature ends back in the framing narrative in the Reno diner, where the film began, with Al imagining his arrest by the police.
There has been dispute over the budget and length of the shoot of Detour. Estimates range from $20,000 to $100,000, and though Ulmer claimed that the picture was shot in 6 days, other evidence suggests that it lasted at least three weeks.
The original musical soundtrack is by Leo Erdody, who had worked with Ulmer on Strange Illusion.
Edgar Ulmer died in 1972, before Detour would gain a new critical evaluation, alongside elevation of his whole career.
Tom Neal died the same year, but Ann Savage continued to make live appearances with the film for decades.
Though the performances by the actors (then unknown) are not impressive–Savage sneers a lot and is too tough–Ulmer manages to sustain a haunting and creepy mood throughout the tale. It is an achievement, considering the limited sets of the story, half of which takes place inside a car driving against shaky back-projection.
A used-car lot is one of the few exteriors, but Ulmer conjures up a dark, paranoid vision, emphasizing how greedy ordinary characters find themselves trapped in a spiral of events over which they have little control, and which turns them into shabby, amoral creatures.
Cast
Ann Savage and Tom Neal
Tom Neal as Al Roberts
Ann Savage as Vera
Claudia Drake as Sue Harvey
Edmund MacDonald as Charles Haskell Jr.
Tim Ryan as the Nevada diner proprietor
Esther Howard as Holly, the diner waitress
Pat Gleason as Joe, the truck driver
Credits:
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
Screenplay by Martin Goldsmith
Based on Detour: An Extraordinary Tale, a 1939 novel by Martin Goldsmith
Produced by Leon Fromkess
Starring Tom Neal
Ann Savage
Narrated by Tom Neal
Cinematography Benjamin H. Kline
Edited by George McGuire
Music by Leo Erdody
Production
company
PRC Pictures
Distributed by Producers Releasing Corporation
Release dates
November 15, 1945 (Boston, Massachusetts)
November 30, 1945 (limited)
Running time
68 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $20,000-$100,000
Box office US$1,000,000
