Noir Watch: Detour (1945)

I'd read a bit about Detour in Eddie Muller's history of noir, Dark City,a great handbook for growing an appreciation or understanding of noir.  Detour was extremely low-budget, shot in about a week, and shows its rough edges pretty much everywhere in the film.  But after one viewing I can see why folks come back to this movie again and again.  Its not always about the professionalism of the product when you've got story and actors that make it work. 

Detour might not be an "A" noir, or even a "B" noir.  It has much of the same production quality I've come to know and love from years of watching cheap sci-fi and genre films on Mystery Science Theater 3000. But I'd argue it rises above its low-rent roots, maybe becomes it understands what its like to be a hard-luck case to begin with.

Tom Neal plays Al, a down-on-his-luck musician who watches the love of his life leave New York to try her hand at stardom in LA.  Eventually, Al follows her, but uses his thumb to find a ride.  In Arizona, he comes across a bookie who doesn't just fall dead, he manages to die just right so that any sane cop finding them would book Al for murder.  Figuring his way out, twisted logic convinces Al to assume Charles Haskell's identity just until he can make it to LA.  Unfortunately, just inside California, Al picks up a hitchhiker, Vera, who knew Haskell and who finds all sorts of new ways to ruin Tom's day.

Vera is played by Ann Savage as (please excuse my french) one seriously crazy bitch.  Yes, Vera is a villain of some sort, but this is the breed of noir populated by losers who wear their motivations on their sleeves.  Nobody is coming up roses in this picture, including the angelic Sue who practically bails on her man at the alter so she can go sling hash in LA and think big Hollywood thoughts.

And you'll see a lot of sly, conniving women in noir, but that isn't Vera.  She's an awful, thoughtless being of pure self-serving energy.  I really don't even know what to compare her to, other than suddenly realizing you're trapped in a situation where a particularly ferocious yappy dog has your life dangling by a string.

I could look at Ann Savage for far longer than the movie lasts (a scant 67 minutes), as her face goes from witch-angry to lovely to mortified over and over as she wrestles with what's a serious case of booze-enhanced bi-polar.

way, way more trouble than you're going to guess

There's a suggestion that something is actually wrong with Vera, beyond the possible mental instability.  She's more than a wee bit nihilistic, and people don't generally cough in movies unless there's a reason.  Add in her desperation for money, and...  anyway.  Its an interesting bit made all the more curious by the fact it never gets resolved in the cut I watched.

Tom Neal's role as Al isn't thankless, but its a bit tough.  Perhaps because its such a short feature or because they knew they needed to keep it tight and understandable on their budget, director Edward G. Ulmer and writer Martin Goldsmith knew exactly that noir is about everyday joes (ie: us losers) getting in way over our head.  Al is a nice guy, and in the race Al accidentally enters, its not that nice guys finish last, its that he's accidentally entered a demolition derby.

Its not the "boy, you have to see this" sort of fireworks I'd point to with The Big Heat, but it reads like a great crime drama novella where all the pieces fall exactly into place, and they were lucky enough to find Ann Savage to pull off the part of Vera and raise the movie beyond forgettable middling fodder.

just another leisurely car-ride with Mr. and Mrs. League

Its not a perfect movie, and one can see a few plotholes, including Al's insistence on not just clubbing Vera over the head.  Or ditching the car or some other ploy which you'd think someone would come up with in his situation, but its still a really great movie, and I'll be looking elsewhere for Ann Savage.

Here's an interesting fan made trailer for Detour.