Product: Detour [VHS] (1945)
Rating: 2.0
A Detour to Nowhere
Touted as a defining example of Film Noir, it fails to deliver the goods. Sure, it has the lighting, the hard boiled dialogue, and the mood, but it ends up being more comedy than suspense.For starters, voice-over is overused throughout the film to explain or justify behavior that is just plain irrational. Take Haskel's death and Robert's entry into his "Detour." Robert's explains why he "had" to swap bodies, rob a dead man, and flee. Anybody with an ounce of sense and the thoughts explored in the voice over would have called the police--and been released and on their way.Adding to the implausibility, Roberts ends up picking up Vera, the "dame" who had earlier ridden--and fought--with Haskel. This is interesting as a plot device and might have worked if it had been handled with a delicate touch. Had Vera played a little cat-and-mouse with this information it might have been pulled off. But she doesn't. She drops the bomb in Robert's lap with the subtlety of a chainsaw, and the improbability sinks a film already built on unstable ground.Finally, taking the improbability over-the-top is Vera's "accidental" death, supporsedly at Robert's hands. What did he kill her with--a dirty look? Too much voice over? She runs into a bedroom of her own volition and then she's dead? What the...? Huh?There are plenty of better Noirs than this. Leave this one by the side of the road.