Shut up – you’re makin’ noises like a husband. – Detour (1945)
Detour (1945)
What if one bad ride down a dark highway could destroy your entire life? In this film, fate doesn’t just knock, it hunts you down. When people talk about “pure noir,” this is the film they mean. Cheap, fast, nasty, fatalistic, and absolutely unforgettable.
“So, let’s start at the beginning.”
Hello to all of the classic people who are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors. Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on Detour (1945). With a run time of only 66 minutes, it is amazing how much director Edgar G. Ulmer crammed into this movie.
IMDb.com rates this film at 7.3[1], which is pretty good for a short Film Noir. RottenTomatoes.com got it right with 98 percent on the Tomatometer and a 77 percent audience score[2]. Great film critic Roger Ebert gave this film 4 of 4 stars[3] and placed it on his greatest films list.
Ebert said, “Detour is a movie so filled with imperfections that it would not earn the director a passing grade in film school. 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.”[4]
In 1992, the Library of Congress added Detour (1945) to the National Registry of Film, making it the first Film Noir and B-movie on the list.
On my All Film Noirs list, I have initially slotted this film at 28. This initial placement put this film in company with The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and Brute Force (1947).
Actors – Detour (1945)
Returning
The awesome actress Esther Howard had a tiny role as the diner waitress. Howard was first covered in the great Film Noir Born to Kill (1947), where she fought Elisha Cook Jr. with a giant hatpin. There is a link in the description.
New
Tom Neal played doomed Al Roberts. Neal was born in Illinois in 1914. He started out pretty well as a boxer at Northwestern University. In 1935, he won the N.C.A.A. light-heavyweight boxing championship. He also made his first appearance on Broadway in 1935. He earned a law degree from Harvard in 1938 and appeared in his first film, Out West with the Hardys (1938).
Neal spent the 1940s and 50s appearing regularly in films, often as a tough guy. Some of his Film Noir roles include The Great Impersonation (1942), The Unseen (1945), Apology for Murder (1945), his masterpiece Detour (1945), and John Garfield’s masterpiece The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
Neal had an on-again, off-again relationship with actress Barbara Payton. I spoke about her tragic life in the Film Noir Trapped (1949). There is a link in the description. Neal had a fight with another of Payton’s lovers, Franchot Tone. As a former boxer, Neal gave Tone a violent thrashing. Hollywood stood by Tone and turned their backs on Neal. He worked in landscaping following his informal blacklisting. Payton and Tone were married in 1951. After they married, Tone discovered that Payton and Neal were continuing their affair, Tone was granted a divorce in 1952. The Payton and Neal relationship essentially ended both of their careers. But they managed to capitalize on the bad press coverage by touring in plays such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, based on the 1946 film of the same name. They also starred together in the movie The Great Jesse James Raid 1953. In England that year, Payton co-starred in two low-budget pictures for Hammer Films: Four Sided Triangle and The Flanagan Boy (or Bad Blonde). In May 1953, Payton announced that she and Neal were to be married; however, the couple broke up in 1954.
In 1965, Neal was charged with murdering his wife, Gail, by shooting her in the back of the head with a .45-caliber pistol. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and received a 10-year sentence. He served 6 years in prison before being released early. He died 8 months later in December 1972.
Ann Savage played the role of Vera. And man was she tough. I included Savage in my 2024 NOIRvember videos, and she currently sits at 29 on my list of the Greatest Femme Fatales for her performance in today’s film.
Savage was born in South Carolina in 1921. At age 9, Savage’s mother moved the family to Los Angeles. Savage appeared in local theater and studied at Max Reinhardt’s acting school. Ann’s first film was One Dangerous Night (1942). Over her career, she appeared in several crime films that teetered on the edge of Film Noir. In addition to the above, these films include Murder in Times Square (1943) and Passport to Suez (1943). Other Film Noirs include today’s film Detour (1945), The Spider (1945), Apology for Murder (1945), The Last Crooked Mile (1946), and Pier 23 (1951).
Of course, she appeared in Westerns, comedies, and dramas as well. Later in her career, Savage worked in television and attended film festivals. She died in 2008.
Story – Detour (1945)
The credits roll over an isolated section of desert roadway. At night, sad sack Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is walking a road. He is shown being given a ride to Reno, Nevada, by a stranger. He takes his sour puss face into a diner where his story is told in flashback, as with all good Film Noirs. The waitress is played by Esther Howard. A northbound trucker offers Al a ride. Al says he is heading east and coming from the west. He picks a fight with the trucker, and hands are almost thrown.
Al is snotty with the waitress. The trucker puts a song on the jukebox, and Al gets very aggressive. The camera zooms in on his face, and he reflects on how the tune from the jukebox follows him. He has an internal pity party before recounting his tale in flashback in the greatest Film Noir tradition.
The song on the jukebox is “I Can’t Believe That You’re in Love with Me.” Al says that it was a very popular tune when he worked at the Breaks of Dawn Club in New York City. Al was the piano player and was in love with singer Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake). However, the work was not making either of them rich. Al wants to be a classical pianist.
One early morning after work, Sue tells Al that she wants to delay their planned marriage until they can both advance their careers. She says she is heading to Hollywood to chase her dreams. Al thinks it’s because Sue doesn’t love him. Al walks away dejected.
Without Sue in the club, Al is lost. One night, he decides to call Sue. She is not in the music business; she works as a hash slinger in a restaurant. He tells her to keep her chin up and that he is heading west to see her. He wants to be married as soon as he arrives.
Al hitches rides across the country and uses what little money he has to feed himself. He is beaten and dirty as the trip continues. He makes it to the desert and doggedly continues on his journey to California. In Arizona, a man in a convertible gives Al a ride.
The driver is a tough-talking non-nonsense guy named Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald). Al still feels sorry for himself as he rides in the breeze. Haskell asks for a box from the glove compartment and takes a pill. PEP Pills
They make general conversation, and Haskell says he is going all the way to LA. Around dark, Al notices three deep claw marks on his hand. Haskell says you can expect something when you give a dame a ride. He says she was a monster.
Haskell goes for the box again and takes another pill. He tells a story of another scar on his arm that he got in a pretend sword fight with another kid. He says that after he was cut, he slashed out and blinded the kid in one eye. He ran away and hadn’t been home for 15 years.
Haskell stops at a café and buys Al a meal. Haskell says he is a bookie and that he has an important horse race in California that he needs to attend. Al drove the rest of the night while Haskell slept in the passenger seat. Al imagines Sue singing and being a star.
When it starts raining, Al tries to wake Haskell, but he can’t. When Al opens the door, Haskell falls out of the door, hitting his head on a rock. However, he was already dead, having died during the night in the desert, just like Grandma in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). However, Haskell died from the pep pills he was taking on the trip. Other names for the pills are uppers and speed.
Al is shown in the original diner, where he tells his story in flashback. Al makes it clear that he did not kill Haskell.
Al thinks that if he runs, they will think he is guilty. If he stays, they will not believe him. So, Al hides the body off the road. He rationalizes taking Haskell’s ID, clothes, and money. As he is putting the roof up, a motorcycle officer stops to warn Al not to leave his car parked halfway in the road. The cop leaves without issue.
In the morning, Al arrives at the California state line inspection station. He gives them the stolen ID and is passed through the checkpoint. Al checks into a roadside motel for some much-needed rest. However, he is tortured by dreams of his actions. The next day he is woken by the maid. Al plans to ditch the car in San Bernardino and then head on to see Sue. There is $700 in the wallet. He finds a letter written by Haskell, who planned to swindle his father out of money so he could start a new bookie bank.
Al stops to add water to the radiator and sees a woman hitchhiking. She looks rough with wind-blown hair, dirty clothes, and a frightening scowl on her face. He calls her over for a ride, and she reluctantly accepts. The woman is Vera (Ann Savage). Al thinks she looked like she had been thrown off a freight train. He also thinks she is pretty in a plain way. Her answers are short and snippy. Vera falls asleep. Al feels sympathy for the hard life that Vera may have had.
Vera wakes from her nap and blurts out, “Where did you leave his body?” She continues that this is not Al’s car, that he is not fooling anyone, and that he is not Haskell. She continues that she rode with Haskell from Shreveport, Louisiana. Al realizes that Vera is the one who put the scratches on Haskell’s hand. He feels like the dead Haskell is in the car, laughing at him.
Al is shown in the original diner, the flashback location, thinking how unlucky it was for him to pick up Vera. If Haskell had passed him by on the road and he had left Vera standing by the road, he wouldn’t be in this fix.
He tells Vera the true story, but she is hard. She says she is not friends with the cops. But she takes Haskell’s money and says she has more use for him. Vera thinks there is more money because Haskell said he was going to bet 3k on a horse in California.
Vera is chewing on Al, with her eyes wide, demanding that she is in charge and he better not give her any trouble.
Vera tells Al that he would be stupid to dump the car, as the police would investigate an abandoned car. Vera makes Al stop so she can get a bottle. She wants to sell the car in San Bernardino. They make it to Hollywood and check into an apartment as a married couple. She won’t let Al out of sight. She takes the bedroom and leaves Al with a Murphy bed. Vera has a bath and comes out a little calmer. She might be coming on to him, but it’s a generally hostile interaction.
They polish off the bottle, and Vera is acting almost normal. She has the key and has the door locked. She touches his leg, but Al walks away. She gets mad because Al is pretty down. By 11 p.m., the two are pretty tired of being together. Vera has a bad cough, and they discuss that it might be consumption/tuberculosis. She makes another play for him before she goes to bed. Al rebuffs her, and Vera gets mad again.
With Vera out of the room, Al calls Sue. However, he doesn’t say anything when she answers.
In the morning, Al, from the current time, does a voice-over saying that if this were fiction, he would fall in love with Vera, or she would make a great sacrifice for him before she died.
By noon, Vera is dressed and looking pretty reasonable. They head to a used car dealership. Vera wants a fur coat after the sale, but Al just wants to get away from her. The dealer lowballs the offer, and Vera gets aggressive. Al finally accepts the dealer’s low price. Al goes inside to sign the papers, and Vera cleans that glove box. She finds something to steal. Suddenly, Vera comes in and says they are not selling the car.
She has Al go to a drive-in diner. She explains that he is not off the hook yet. Vera has a newspaper that says that Charles J. Haskell Sr. is dying, and efforts are being made to find his son, Charles J. Haskell Jr.
Al wants nothing to do with the scheme. Vera is convinced that Al can pass as Jr. Charles J. Haskell Sr. has a 15-million-dollar fortune, and Vera wants it. She says they will wait until Sr. dies and then split the money.
Back at the apartment, the two play cards, but the tension is thick. Al says he will rat her out if they get caught in the fraud. Vera says she is already dying, and an execution would just speed things up. Vera threatens to call the cops on Al. He bluffs her, saying he will take her down with him.
She calls information for the police station number. Al breaks first and stops her from calling. As the night continued, the fighting increased. Al makes logical arguments for not going forward with the fraud. Vera is drunk, and Al roughs her up. First, she is pitiful but quickly goes back to being mean.
Vera locks herself in the bedroom with the phone. This was the time when phones came with long cords, so you could use them in different parts of the house. Al tugs on the cord that is still in his room, trying to stop Vera from calling. Eventually, he breaks into the bedroom and finds Vera dead. The cord was wrapped around her neck. When he pulled the cord, he accidentally strangled her.
Al begins to talk in the current time. He says that with one killing, they might believe him. But with two killings, he would have no chance. Al knows it is useless to clean up because too many people had seen them together.
He decides to make a run for it.
Al is shown back in the diner where he began telling the story. He says that when he got to Bakersfield, it was reported that Vera had been murdered and the police were looking for Haskell. Al goes back on the road to continue moving. Soon, a highway patrol car picks him up. Al blames fate for his arrest as he caught a ride with Haskell and gave a ride to Vera.
Conclusion – Detour (1945)
This movie, from a poverty row studio, was really put together on a shoestring. The 1941 Lincoln Continental V-12 convertible that Haskell drove belonged to director Ulmer. The director had Al play classical tunes by Chopin and Brahms so they wouldn’t have to pay licensing fees.
The sweater that Vera was wearing when she first appeared belonged to Ulmer’s wife. They made it fit Ann Savage by cinching it up with pins. When they were getting ready to film Vera’s hitchhiking scene, a car stopped and tried to give Savage a ride. I guess the pins worked.
This film was shot on a quick 28-day schedule, not 7 days as sometimes rumored. A lot of the film was shot in the hotel room and in a car with rear projection on a sound stage.
The murder of Vera by Al at the end of the film was not in the original script. Director Ulmer added it just before filming began. Also, Al’s arrest at the end of the film was forced in by Joseph Breen of the Production Code Administration, because murderers could not be seen to get away with their crimes.
I don’t think I can really convey how mean Ann Savage made Vera. She was a master Femme Fatale using the talents she had. Based on the strength of this role, I am moving Ann Savage as Vera to number three on my Great Femme Fatales List. Check it out.
World-Famous Short Summary – If you see Vera coming, ya better get to runnin’.
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037638/
[2] Detour | Rotten Tomatoes
[3] Detour movie review & film summary (1945) | Roger Ebert
[4] Detour movie review & film summary (1945) | Roger Ebert
