Product: Detour [VHS] (1945)
Rating: 4.0
Which Is It?
`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