Detour (1945). 68 minutes. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. Starring Tom Neal (as Al Roberts), Ann Savage (as Vera), Claudia Drake (as Sue Harvey), Edmund MacDonald (as Charles Haskell, Jr.), Tim Ryan (as Nevada diner proprietor), and Esther Howard (as Holly). Cinematography by Benjamin H. Kline.
There is some dispute about how long it took to make Detour, a film noir from the so-called “poverty row” of the 1940s Hollywood studio system. Whether it took under a week (as many claim) or whether it took longer, the movie still has the appearance of an extremely economical endeavor, with very few indoor sets and only a handful of characters—even the car that carries the protagonist through the movie and is the source of so much of his troubles had to be borrowed from director Edgar G. Ulmer. Yet in spite of the movie’s limited resources and the fact that it was practically made to be forgotten, Detour manages to be … Read the rest