Product: Detour [VHS] (1945)
Rating: 4.0
Influential Low-Budget Noir
"Detour" may not have the budget but it does have all of the elements down of classic noir. The shadowy black-and-white cinematography, the hard-luck anti-hero, the dangerous femme-fatale, the weary voice-over narration. The script's twists and turns compensate for the film's low overhead. What I found interesting is director Edgar G. Ulmer's casting of Ann Savage as the venomous Vera. Savage is not what you would call pretty in any conventional sense but she is perfect for this part. The glare in Savage's eyes and her consumptive cough suggest that her character's walk on the wild side aged her beyond her 24 years. Anybody interested in the genesis of forties noir should check out "Detour" as one of the defining film's of the genre.