Rating: 
Summary: A B-Movie Noir with an Unforgettably Vicious Villainess.
Review: "Detour" is a low budget film noir whose low budget really shows. But it's a classic tale of a man who falls victim to his own foibles, with the help of an unscrupulous woman and a series of fateful coincidences. Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is a struggling pianist in New York City who plans to marry Sue (Claudia Drake), the singer in the club where they both work. But Sue doesn't want to give up on her career just yet. She wants to try her luck out in Hollywood before she settles down. A resentful Al eventually decides to stop sulking and join her in Hollywood. He can't afford transportation, so he hitchhikes his way westward. Somewhere in Arizona he is picked up by a well-to-do bookie (Edmund MacDonald) who can drive him all the way to L.A. But the man dies of apparently natural causes. Afraid that he will be suspected of murder, Al hides the body and takes the man's identity. But he makes the mistake of picking up another hitchhiker: a rough, tough-talking woman named Vera (Ann Savage), who happens to have known the dead man.
"Detour" is told mostly in flashback with voiceover narration by Al. Al is a morose man who tends toward self-pity and seems to unconsciously be seeking something other than what he admits. If you get past the low production values, this is a wonderfully sardonic story about a couple of characters who start out poorly and spiral downward from there. Ann Savage's performance is unforgettable. Vera isn't the typical femme fatale. She dispenses with such niceties as seduction and manipulation in favor of outright bullying and blackmail. She's predatory, hateful, and, yes, savage -which makes it easy to remember the actress who brought her to life. "Detour" has a distinct B-movie flavor, and even noir aficionados may be taken aback by Vera's viciousness. But this is a gritty classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Edgar G. Ulmer's "Poverty Row" B-Movie Classic Film Noir
Review: "Detour" was the first classic B-movies from "Poverty Row" to be selected for the National Film Registry in 1992. Director Edgar G. Ulmer had no money and made up for the film's economic shortcomings with innovative visual techniques. The story is of Al Roberts (Tom Neal), a young piantist who is hitchhiking across the country and becomes involved in two murders he did not commit because he is, well, pretty stupid. However, Al just thinks that he is unlucky, saying at one point: "That's life. Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you." Yeah, right. Ann Savage steals the film as Vera, the femme fatale who hops a ride with Al and turns out to be one of the most unpleasant creatures even see in a film. "Detour" combines a lurid plotline and visual creativity to create a unqiue film noir classic. If you enjoy the genre and have not yet stumbled across this one, then you should make an effort to track it down.
Rating:
Summary: Terse, taut, and vicious.
Review: "Detour" is an accomplished work--and was recognized as such at the time of its original release, (see the "Parent's Magazine" review from 1945 for example). Way too much has been made of its low budget. Neither the story nor script call for a high budget. It is, after all, an intimate drama focusing on only a few characters depicted in merely a few settings. Were this same story to have been shot by RKO, Columbia, Universal, or even MGM, I daresee today's viewers might be startled by the pictorial similarities. For example, compare the outdoor highway/hitchhiking scenes in "Detour" against the roadside tramping of Lana Turner and John Garfield in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and you will note a strong similarity in visual presentation. Indeed, the sets are really on the beam, since, overdressed, overly lavish settings would have defeated the picture's intentionally shabby mise en scene. Moreover, the lighting is superb in the cafe scenes and the fog bound walk on Riverside Drive--very ghostly, very dreamlike. All of which is to suggest, that had Mr.Ulmer a great deal more $$$ here, I very much doubt he would have approached this script, this story, by hurling unnecessary oodles of cash at it. He was shrewd enough to use such funding for those films of his which required a more opulent look, such as "Club Havana" or "Bluebeard".
Rating:
Summary: Edgar G. Ulmer's "Poverty Row" B-Movie Classic Film Noir
Review: "Detour" was the first classic B-movies from "Poverty Row" to be selected for the National Film Registry in 1992. Director Edgar G. Ulmer had no money and made up for the film's economic shortcomings with innovative visual techniques. The story is of Al Roberts (Tom Neal), a young piantist who is hitchhiking across the country and becomes involved in two murders he did not commit because he is, well, pretty stupid. However, Al just thinks that he is unlucky, saying at one point: "That's life. Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you." Yeah, right. Ann Savage steals the film as Vera, the femme fatale who hops a ride with Al and turns out to be one of the most unpleasant creatures even see in a film. "Detour" combines a lurid plotline and visual creativity to create a unqiue film noir classic. If you enjoy the genre and have not yet stumbled across this one, then you should make an effort to track it down.
Rating:
Summary: Which Is It?
Review: 'Detour' is either the worst B movie ever made or it's a masterpiece, I can't decide which. Roger Ebert includes the film in his book 'The Great Movies,' yet other critics dismiss it with a laugh. So which is it? From the opening, I immediately had my doubts: Shaky camera work on an already unsteady highway, shots of a stationary car while the background changes, lights going down in a restaurant with the main character's face lit up for a flashback...all cheap B movie stunts, which you expect. But what you don't expect are good performances. 'Detour' contains at least one good one and one superb one. Tom Neal plays a piano player from New York hitchhiking to L.A. to meet his sweetheart. Neal is right on target as the passive loser. His face looks like it was formed in a vat of perpetual disappointment. Something happens on his trip to L.A. that makes his life even worse, if that's possible. Then he meets a woman named Vera. If they had a Best Actress category for B movies, Ann Savage's portrayal of Vera would be the standard by which all other actresses would be judged. She's evil, scheming, conniving, wicked, hateful, vengeful...and that's all before breakfast. Savage multiplies Neal's problems a thousand-fold and grinds the tension out all the way until the end. With a better script and better production values, Savage and Neal could have lit up the screen for the definitive film noir. But director Edgar G. Ulmer makes the best use of the limitations he has. Despite its problems, 'Detour' is a better than average B movie/film noir that deserves to be seen. 69 minutes, black and white
Rating:
Summary: Gloriously Cheap, Dark Little Noir Gem
Review: 'Detour' manages to do in 67 min. what most films dream about in two hours. Made for almost nothing in 5 days by a small-time studio, this goes to show that you don't need money or big studio support to create an enduring movie. You can sense the tight budget all around. Take into consideration for example that Ulmer shot a big portion of the film inside cars (notice how the first few cars have the driver's seat on the left side, like English automobiles), a cheap nightclub and a creaky apartment. Also in the flashback sequence when Tom Neal is sitting in the restaurant, Ulmer simply put out the lights, made a close-up on Neal's face and shed a rectangular light onto his eyes to create the flashback effect. All this techniques, while not very innovative, add to the effect of this bleak little gem. A dark little drama that is deserving of it's cult following. Tom Neal is the ultimate screen chump as an innocent man who happens to land on Ann Savage's deadly lap. Ann Savage creates one of the most ruthless characters ever to grace the silver screen, her character doesn't have a shred of human kindness or decency, she's tough, greedy, ruthless and relentless. It has all the elements of great noir; a truly memorable femme fatale, dark foggy streets, acid-stingy dialogue and a hero who gets his just desserts. A dark little gem that deserves to be discovered by noir fans. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film an 8!
Rating:
Summary: One thought about the transfer to dvd...
Review: ... It was awful, in my opinion... I can't believe that they couldn't have come up with a cleaner copy. For a DVD with no extras, this was pretty edgy quality. I can't add anything to previous reviews of the film itself -- it is what it is: a quality example of noir. But don't expect superb reproduction because this is a long way from that.
Rating:
Summary: A low-budget film noir classic
Review: 1945's Detour is not only one of your truly vintage film noir classics of all-time, it is also ranked by many among the best low-budget films ever made, largely due to the memorable performances of Tom Neal and Ann Savage. The directorial slant which frames the story is dead on, and one has to think that a larger budget would probably have done more harm than good to this gritty, realistic, film noir tour de force. Tom Neal plays Al Roberts, one of those unfortunate men who was born both stupid and incredibly unlucky. Shortly after his girl Sue up and goes to California looking for stardom, Roberts decides to go west and join her, hitchhiking his way across the country. This one fellow picks him up in Arizona and says he will take him all the way to L.A.; then the guy has the audacity to keel over dead. Afraid he will be accused of murdering the guy, Roberts decides to hide the body, take the guy's money, and assume his identity until such time as he can ditch the car in a big city. Then he himself picks up a hitchhiker, a woman who ends up being the last person on earth he would ever have wanted to encounter. Vera (Savage) know that Roberts is not the man he claims to be, and Roberts quickly finds himself quite at the mercy of this shrew of a woman. Her greed knows no bounds, and Roberts' life becomes more and more complicated and unhappy by the hour. Ann Savage's character Vera is perhaps the most blunt, cold, evil, wholly unlikable woman I have ever heard tell of. It is quite easy to see why the man we meet in the opening scene is as hateful and short-tempered as he is. As we flash back to the whole story of Roberts' hard times, accompanied by plenty of voiceover narration, one cannot help but feel sorry for the guy. His initial decision to cover up the death of the guy who picked him up is a bad, undeniably stupid, mistake, but he certainly does not deserve the level of vitriol and pure evil that afflicts him in the form of Vera. The ending is a tiny bit flat, but the story itself is fascinating and the performances of Neal and Savage are not to be missed. Detour is vintage film noir and should not be missed by any and all fans of the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Really good, but bizarre.
Review: A "cheapie" film-noir movie made in 6 days, but with all the great aspects that made film-noir what it was. Very thought-provoking--I'm still not clear what was going on. It involves a paranoid, masochistic guy stuck with a vicious, psychotic woman. Their motives are never clear (at least to me) but they make you think a lot. Is he as innocent as he thinks or does he bring the heat on himself? Is she nasty or nuts? Good background music, too.
Rating:
Summary: It was a fatal decision !
Review: A young musician but no smart guy decides in a rainy night to hitchike . But the fate will appear in his life turning his existence in a real hell . These random agressions will lead us to a passionate and brilliant film noir .
Jacques Tourneur made to me his glorious masterpiece with this work which I guess influenced decisively to Louis Malle to make eleven years after Elevator to the Gallows .
The particular charm of this film is that somehow the movie overcomes the genre and becomes a tragic play with all its sinister ugliness.
One of the five top noir films in any age !
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