Product: Detour [VHS] (1945)
Rating: 3.0
Don't read another review
The first thing I have to say is the most important. If you are going to buy this film, don't read any of the other reviews on this site. They give away far too much. They give away everything.The film is about a man who hitchhikes across country to be with his sweetheart, only to run into trouble along the way. He's not a bad guy. But you couldn't convince a judge and jury of that.I'm not interested in recommending it as an example of film noir of the 1940s. This isn't a classroom. I give it a lukewarm three star rating. The film did hold my interest but it fell far short of greatness. The most memorable character in it is the witch of a hitchhiker.The main character is a bland monotone of a man. His sweetheart has an annoying personality but is a terrific singer. The witch-hiker is even more annoying, which is really going some. She's so nasty that she becomes memorable.One problem I have with the story is that at several turns of the plot I found myself thinking "Oh no, don't do that!", and sure enough he does it, and it lands him in trouble. In other words, the leading male character is a moron, causing his own problems.Why doesn't this fool simply report what happened to the police from the start? He wouldn't have gotten in trouble. And why does this total moron pick up a hitchhiker at a time when secrecy was his only safe option?