Product: Detour [VHS] (1945)
Rating: 5.0
Detour (1945) is great Film Noir
Detour is the first poverty row film chosen for conservation by the Library of Congress. The cast is largely unknown and the studio PRC Pictures specialised in extremely low budget movies. Detour, their biggest success was shot in 6 days by cult director Edgar Ulmer.The star of the picture, Tom Neal was a Harvard Law Graduate in real life. He was known for his difficult temperament which limited the roles he was offered by the major studios. In 1951 he beat up Franchot Tone over a girl giving him a broken nose and cheekbone. In 1965 he was hauled up for the murder of his wife and eventually found guilty of "involuntary manslaughter". Charming leadman huhn? The femme fatale, played by Ann Savage is supposed to be 24 in the movie. She looks much older but really was 24 when Detour was made. She made a total of 5 films with Neal - who regularly used to hit on her.The lighting in the film is superb and it is quite taut at only 67 minutes. All the successful noir films from that period were being made by the big studios and involved talents like Billy Wilder, John Huston, Jacques Tourneur etc. This film contributed greatly to the genre with its success because it was a good entry to the genre with a Grade B budget. This encouraged a whole spate of other low-budget noirs although none of them were as good. Edmund MacDonald gives a fairly good performance. The only disappointing thing was the ending. The censor board wanted the criminal to be brought to justice instead of getting away with it.