Detour
About Detour
In a Reno diner, pianist Al Roberts hears "I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me" and remembers New York. His singer, Sue Harvey, left their cheap club for Hollywood. Broke, he hitchhikes after her. In Arizona, bookie Charles Haskell Jr. picks him up, then dies when Al opens the car door in a rainstorm and Haskell hits his head. Al takes the clothes, the money, and the convertible. Hitchhiker Vera knows the car. Haskell had picked her up in Louisiana and tried to force her. She blackmails Al. In Hollywood she reads that Haskell's rich father is dying and orders Al to inherit. He refuses. She locks herself in the bedroom with the phone. He pulls the cord to stop the call and strangles her with it. He walks out of the Reno diner. A police car takes him.
Cast & crew
More about Detour
Edgar G. Ulmer directed for Producers Releasing Corporation. Leon Fromkess produced. Martin Goldsmith adapted his 1939 novel, with Martin Mooney uncredited on the script. Benjamin H. Kline photographed it. George McGuire edited. Leo Erdody wrote the music. A Boston opening was 15 November 1945, with a limited release on 30 November. It runs 68 minutes. A shooting script is dated 14–29 June 1945 and marked 14 camera days. Ann Savage said the work ran four six-day weeks plus four days in the desert at Lancaster. Ulmer later said six days. A repeated cost of $20,000 was revised by Noah Isenberg to $100,000.
Themes
Background
PRC released it in November 1945, a Poverty Row noir built on a hitchhike, a dead bookie, and a woman who already knows the car.
Making
Ulmer made it at PRC with Neal and Savage. The desert driving was shot at Lancaster. The death in the bedroom is a telephone cord yanked through a locked door.
Look
Benjamin H. Kline shot the diner, the night rain, and the desert road, with extra days at Lancaster.
Music
Leo Erdody wrote the score. The song that starts the flashback is "I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me."
Preservation
The film is in the public domain. The Academy Film Archive completed a restoration in 2018, shown in 4K at the TCM Festival. The National Film Registry listed it in 1992.
Notes
- Tom Neal plays Al and speaks the narration. Ann Savage plays Vera. Claudia Drake plays Sue Harvey. Edmund MacDonald plays Charles Haskell Jr.
- The jukebox song is "I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me," from 1926.
- Vera got out of Haskell's car in Arizona after he tried to force himself on her, which is how she knows Al is not Haskell.
- The Academy Film Archive restored the film in 2018. The 4K print premiered at the TCM Festival in Los Angeles that April.
- The National Film Registry selected it in 1992.
- Haskell ends up wanted for the murder of the woman the papers call his wife, who is Vera.
Scenes
- Haskell falls out of the car in the rain and strikes his head.
- Vera tells Al she rode in that same car with Haskell.
- The telephone cord is around Vera's neck when Al breaks the door.
- He steps out of the Reno diner and a police car stops for him.
Influenced by
- Martin Goldsmith's novel Detour (1939)
Also available
- Internet Archive (Detour)
- Wikimedia Commons (Detour (1945) by Edgar G. Ulmer.webm)