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     Detour
1945  NR  DRAMA  1h 8min
CAST— Tom Neal, Ann Savage
MUSIC— Leo Erdody  DIRECTOR— Edgar G. Ulmer  BASED ON— Detour: An Extraordinary Tale (novel), by Martin Goldsmith

     Ridiculous and rather pointless excursion into film noir that leaves the viewer with zero satisfaction. Musician Tom Neal just wants a quiet life with his girl, but she heads for LA to make a name for herself. Neal soon heads west, as well, forsaking his job amid the glitz and glamour of Miami for the prospect of glitz and glamour in LA. As he hitches his way west he’s eventually picked up by a seemingly kindhearted stranger… who inexplicably dies, leaving Neal looking every bit the murderer, especially when Neal hides the body, keeps the dead guy’s possessions and continues on his merry way. But fear and paranoia soon settle on Neal, which is compounded by his picking up a hitchhiker (Ann Savage). You see, she had a past connection with the dead guy, who’d been into blackmail, by the by. Now Savage is blackmailing Neal so that they can claim the dead guy’s ill gotten gains. Or something. Never really makes a ton of sense but still worth a viewing, if only for Savage’s dialed-to-eleven performance as the cynical, outspoken hitcher. Deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.
OUR RATING— * ½