Detour (1945) [Film Noir] [Drama]

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Piano player Al (Tom Neal) is bitter about having to work in a New York nightclub. After his girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake) leaves to seek fame in Hollywood, he decides to join her. With little money, he has to hitchhike his way across the country. In Arizona, bookie Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald) gives him a ride in his convertible. Haskell has Al pass him pills several times along the way. That night, Al is driving while Haskell sleeps, when a rainstorm forces Al to pull over to put up the top. Unable to rouse Haskell, Al opens the passenger-side door. Haskell falls out and strikes his head on the ground. Al then realizes the bookie is dead. Fearful that the police will believe he killed Haskell, Al dumps the body off the side of the road, takes Haskell’s money, clothes and identification, then drives away. After spending the night in a motel, Al picks up another hitchhiker, Vera (Ann Savage), at a gas station. By sheer bad luck, it turns out that the femme fatale had also been picked up by Haskell earlier. She scratched him deeply in the arm and got out after he tried to become too friendly. When Al identifies himself as Haskell, she blackmails him by threatening to turn him in.

In Hollywood, they rent an apartment, posing as Mr. and Mrs. Haskell to provide an address when they go to sell the car. However, Vera learns from a newspaper that Haskell’s wealthy father is near death and looking for his son, who ran away as a youth after accidentally injuring his friend. Vera demands that Al impersonate Haskell, but Al balks at this notion, pointing out that he knows nothing about the dead man. Back in the apartment, Vera gets drunk, and they begin arguing. She threatens to call the police, running into the bedroom with the telephone and locking the door. She falls into a stupor on the bed, with the telephone cord tangled around her neck. Al tries to break the cord. Then, when he breaks down the door, he sees that he has accidentally strangled her. He goes hitchhiking again, but is picked up by the police.

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Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, produced by Leon Fromkess, written by Martin Goldsmith and Martin Mooney, 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, Esther Howard as Holly, Diner Waitress, Pat Gleason as Joe, Trucker at Diner and Don Brodie as the Used Car Salesman.

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Source: “Detour” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 4 January 2013. Web. 07 April 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detour_(1945_film).

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45 Replies to “Detour (1945) [Film Noir] [Drama]”

  1. When he gets his first ride from a farmer in a truck about 12 minutes into the movie, he climbs into the presumably empty drivers side…haha

  3. When they are in the apt. together drinking and Vera starts coming on
    to him, he must be out of his mind …or sickly. Any normal man would have
    been plowing her to Kingdom Come…

  6. Excellent movie -Vera was bitter and hard as nails. I cracked up when she's spits out: you'll be sniffing' that perfume that arizona hands out  free to murderers.  great acting and script.

  7. This film has its moments, the tacked on ending was to satisfy the Hayes office. No murderer could go unpunished. Still, with the snappy dialogue and a femme-fatale from hell, who dies in an almost three stooges sorta way, I liked it. Ann Savage kills it as the fast talking Lil' hustler Vera.

  11. Here's a thought genius.  Drive to the police station or the hospital with the dead guy and nobody will think twice about any of it.  Oh, and don't take the money idiot.

  13. Cop is driving a motorcycle on a highway…in a rainstorm..and he's not wearing any rain gear or any kind of goggles or even glasses…and he's telling the guy…"that's how accidents happen"!

  17. Vera was one smart, tough broad. Actually this film was slightly controversial in that Al (Tom Neal) was not shown receiving justice for what he had done, all we saw was a highway patrol car picking him up. The one part of the movie I most remember was when Al first picked up Vera and pretended to be that Haskell guy. She was or pretended to be napping, then she just opened her eyes and said "where did you leave his body?"

    One of the more pessimistic and controversial movies where the main character literally gets away with murder is Scarlet Street with Ed. Robinson.

  22. After watching many old movies, I can't help but see that what was lacking was respect. They threw their cigarette buttes on the floor, whether they were in a museum or a whorehouse.  I'm a smoker but I'd never do that.  I think there  were a lot of assholes in that time period.

  23. The Underground Man goes to Las Vegas! What a story! Anne Savage (as Vera) pays the role to a tee–with a certain savageness! Really a great flick!

  24. Why are they driving on the left side of the road with right hand drive cars in the USA? Is this a glitch in transferring film to video? Seems to be an intriguing film as of minute 15:04 into it, but for a movie largely about life on the road in America, couldn't someone have noticed that EVERYONE is driving on the "wrong" side of the hi-ways and byways? Great black and white multi-tonal cinematography, so I guess the glaring dissonance of "wrong way" driving (and the concomitant "wrong way" hitchhiking) can be overlooked – with repeated effort! And now, back to tonight's main feature!

  25. WOW! What a convertible! Is that a Lincoln? Seems like all trademark traces have been removed for the film's on-the-cheap producers, but that's one fine classic old auto indeed! And what a handsome guy, that Tom Neal! Man alive, after a google search, it seems that his previous-to-acting stint as a boxer plagued him Mike Tyson style, with him eventually being arrested for assault and battery and then later being convicted of manslaughter! Geez, some people just don't know how good their future will be and do all they can to self-destruct. Really sad that he died of an apparent heart attack at only age 58, and as an ex-con gardener in Palm Springs. Hollywood has a million sad stories of lives all too short lived.

  34. People make a big mistake in calling Vera a "femme fatale." She's no femme fatale. There's not enough that is sensuous for that title. Femme Fatales are much more sexual. Vera is just rough and bitter and grasping and greedy.

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