Movies - Detour

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	Movies - Detour

Detour is a 1945 film noir cult classic that stars Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake and Edmund MacDonald. A B-movie, it was shot in six days. The film, budgeted for $89,000, ended up costing $117,000 to make. To preserve the films right-to-left orientation used in the cross-country scenes, the movie's director reversed many of the hitchhiking shots so that now the cars are on the wrong side of the road.

The movie was adapted by Martin Goldsmith and Martin Mooney (uncredited) from Martin Goldsmith's novel, and was directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. The 68-minute film was created and released by the Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). Because the 1945 Production code mandated that "murderers... must be brought to justice" in all films made, director Ulmer satisfied censors by ending the movie with Al the hitchhiker being picked up after predicting his arrest earlier.

Plot

A piano player, Al (Neal), sets off hitchhiking his way to California to be with his girl. Along the way, a stranger in a convertible gives him a ride. Al and the paranoid stranger pull over to put the top up only to find the driver dead at the wheel. Al panics and dumps the body in a gully and drive off in his car. Later, he picks up another hitchhiker. Vera, (Savage) a femme fatale, threatens to turn him in for the supposed murder unless he assumes the identity of the dead man to collect an inheritance.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Critical response to the film today is almost universally positive. Time Magazine lists the film in the magazine's All Time 100 Films while Roger Ebert wrote: "This movie from Hollywood's poverty row, shot in six days, filled with technical errors and ham-handed narrative, starring a man who can only pout and a woman who can only sneer, should have faded from sight soon after it was released in 1945. And yet it lives on, haunting and creepy, an embodiment of the guilty soul of film noir. No one who has seen it has easily forgotten it."

Quote

I know. Someday a car will stop to pick me up that I never thumbed. Yes, fate, or some mysterious force can put the finger on you or me for no good reason at all.

Cast

Tom Neal
Al Roberts
Ann Savage
Vera
Claudia Drake Sue Harvey
Edmund MacDonald Charles Haskell Jr
Tim Ryan Nevada Diner Proprietor
Esther Howard Holly, Diner Waitress
Pat Gleason Joe, Trucker at Diner

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Movies - Detour

Plot

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