Product: Detour [VHS] (1945)
Rating: 5.0
The ultimate in film Noir
Filmed in 1945 on what looks like a $39 budget does not at all detract from this great slice of cinematic excellence.A great film is a great film regardless of production values.This is a tale of a man caught in the tangled web of fate and his doomed attempt to get himself out.Tom Neal's character hitchikes his way from New York to Los Angeles to be with his girlfriend.His fateful ride comes courtesy of a man who proceeds to die on him in the car.Figuring the police will pin the death on his all too easy to railroad drifter self,he decides to ditch the body and ride on into Los Angeles in the dead man's car.At a gas station he picks up a hitchiking woman who turns out to be his worst nightmare.The hellish Fury of a woman(Ann Savage) strait out of Greek mythology turns out to be a previous hitchiker of the man who keeled over.She recognizes the car and proceeds to threaten blackmail.But she doesn't seem as interested in blackmail as she is torturing the poor man unlucky enough to have met her.Neal's character eventually manages to get away from the beast but the end of his troubles are only beginning as the film comes to a close.Without a doubt one of the most bleak,raw films ever made is made palatable by its short running time,about 65 minutes.This is a film everyone should see at least once.The fact that it doesn't seem so much a movie as it is a private peek into the dirty underbelly of twisted,wasted,insane and hopeless lives makes it a refreshing change of pace from the glamorized grit that usually passes for Hollywood "realism".