Top Ten Collaborators - Detour
One of my favorite film noir classics which I owe a copy of, this short (67 mins) movies carries a big punch. It has memorialized Tom Neal and Ann Savage as a classic film noir couple. Here are the top 10 collaborators who created this classic.
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- Martin Goldsmith was born on 6 November 1913 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Narrow Margin (1952), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Detour (1945). He died on 24 May 1994 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.wrote the original story and screenplay
- Director
- Writer
- Art Department
Edgar G. Ulmer was born on 17 September 1904 in Olmütz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Olomouc, Czech Republic]. He was a director and writer, known for The Naked Dawn (1955), The Black Cat (1934) and Isle of Forgotten Sins (1943). He was married to Shirley Ulmer and Joan Warner. He died on 30 September 1972 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.director behind this classic film noir- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Benjamin H. Kline was born on 11 July 1894 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Guard That Girl (1935), The Party's Over (1934) and Troopers Three (1930). He was married to Annette Halprin. He died on 7 January 1974 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Composer, songwriter, author, conductor and violinist, educated at the Royal HS of Music in Berlin (with Max Bruch) and a violin student of Joachim and Wirth. He joined ASCAP in 1942, and his popular-song compositions include "Random Thoughts", "Only a Song", "Never to Know", "Come Along", "A Little Song", and "Senorita Chula".man behind the music- Actress
- Soundtrack
For one tough cookie who achieved major cult stardom with her hard-bitten blonde looks and "Perfect Vixen" tag, Ann Savage in real life was a lovely, spirited, gentle-looking lady. She may have peaked only briefly in 1940s Hollywood low-budgeters, but she made the most of it during that fairly short tenure. Out of the dozens of movies under her belt, one film part shot her to femme fatale infamy and, to this day, remains her biggest claim to fame. It took only four (some accounts say six) days to shoot, but Detour (1945) stands out as one of the best examples of surreal film noir, and the unforgettable dialogue and riveting teaming of Ann and sulky co-star Tom Neal are the primary reasons for its enduring fame.
An only child, Ann was born Bernice Maxine Lyon in Columbia, South Carolina, on February 19, 1921. Her father was a US Army officer and the family traveled with him to his various duty stations, including Dallas and New Orleans, until settling in Jacksonville, Florida. He died when she was only four years old. Ann's mother, a jewelry buyer, took the two of them to Los Angeles before Ann was 10 years old. Appearing in local theater productions, the young girl trained at Max Reinhardt's acting school. The school's manager happened to be Bert D'Armand, who later became her agent. They married in 1945.
She changed her name to "Ann Savage" before even stepping onto a sound stage and it was a workshop production of "Golden Boy" that led to her initially signing up at Columbia Pictures. The first glimpse of Ann came as an extra in MGM's The Great Waltz (1938) and she gradually earned on-camera experience in unbilled parts in such war-era movies as The More the Merrier (1943) and Murder in Times Square (1943). She rose to featured and co-star status in such lightweight Columbia films as Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943), Footlight Glamour (1943) and Saddles and Sagebrush (1943).
Although Ann played devilish dames in The Unwritten Code (1944), Apology for Murder (1945) and The Last Crooked Mile (1946), it was venomous Vera, the blackmailing, tough-talking, cigarette-dangling, good-for-nothing who bullies hapless wanna-be tough-guy musician (Tom Neal) into her schemes in Detour (1945) that truly summed up her "bad girl" charisma. At the inducement of Columbia Pictures honcho Harry Cohn, Savage and Neal made four films together (the last being "Detour"). The other three were Klondike Kate (1943), Two-Man Submarine (1944) and The Unwritten Code (1944) (the two would reunite years later in a 1955 TV episode of the series Gang Busters (1952)).
Ann was one of the more popular WWII pinups. After appearing in a photo layout in "Esquire" magazine in 1944 that was shot by renowned studio photographer George Hurrell Sr., she became a favorite with the troops, making numerous personal appearance tours at various military bases in order to raise war bonds. Freelancing after leaving Columbia, Ann appeared in a host of other second-string pictures, including You Can't Do Without Love (1944), The Spider (1945), The Dark Horse (1946), Renegade Girl (1946), Jungle Flight (1947), Satan's Cradle (1949), Pygmy Island (1950) and Woman They Almost Lynched (1953), which would be her last film for over three decades. While she certainly demonstrated talent and range, she was unable to rise out of the "B" mold. This led her to look at TV for a time in the 1950s as a possible medium, guesting on such shows as The Ford Television Theatre (1952), City Detective (1953), Schlitz Playhouse (1951), Death Valley Days (1952) and Fireside Theatre (1949).
Ann semi-retired in the late 1950s and moved from Hollywood to Manhattan with husband Bert, who by now had traded his agent business for the financing and professional trading world. She occasionally appeared on local TV and in industrial films. The couple traveled extensively until his sudden death in 1969. A grief-stricken Ann returned to Hollywood to be near her mother, sharpened her legal secretarial skills by working as a docket clerk with Bert's attorneys in Los Angeles (Loeb & Loeb) and became an avid speed-rated pilot in her spare hours.
Elsewhere the veteran actress continued to delight her fans with her appearances at "film noir" festivals, nostalgia conventions and special screenings of her work. Refusing to appear in exploitative material, Ann turned down much work. In later years she appeared very sporadically--in the movie Fire with Fire (1986) and an episode of Saved by the Bell (1989). Out of nowhere the resilient octogenarian was cast by Canadian director Guy Maddin, a film noir fan, to play a shrewish mother in the highly acclaimed My Winnipeg (2007), earning "bad girl" raves all over again.
Named an "icon and legend" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005, Ann was applauded for her body of work by "Time" Magazine twice in 2007. She died at a Hollywood nursing home at age 87 on Christmas Day in 2008 from complications of multiple strokes.steal every scene from Tom Neal- Actor
- Soundtrack
Tom Neal is best remembered for his off-screen exploits, which involved scandal, mayhem and a charge of murder. Before his 1938 screen debut in MGM's Out West with the Hardys (1938), Neal had been a member of the boxing team at Northwestern University, had debuted on the Broadway stage in 1935 and had received a law degree from Harvard, also in 1938. Throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s, he appeared mostly as tough guys in Hollywood low-budgeters. In 1951, in a dispute over the on-again / off-again affections and the wavering allegiance of notorious actress / "party girl" Barbara Payton, he mixed it up with Payton's paramour, the aristocratic actor Franchot Tone. The former college boxer Neal inflicted upon Tone a smashed cheekbone, a broken nose and a brain concussion. Hollywood essentially blackballed Neal thereafter, but he would come to find a livelihood in gardening and landscaping. He was brought to trial in 1965 for the murder of his wife Gale, who had been shot to death with a .45-caliber bullet to the back of her head. Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Neal, which at the time meant a trip to the cyanide-gas chamber. The trial jury, however, convicted him only of "involuntary manslaughter", for which he was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
On 7 December 1971 he was released on parole, having served exactly six years to the day. Eight months later, Tom Neal was dead of heart failure.quintessential film noir foil- Edmund MacDonald was born on 7 May 1908 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Detour (1945), Hangmen Also Die! (1943) and Great Guns (1941). He was married to Augusta. He died on 2 September 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA.sets the start of Al Roberts downhill agony
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Claudia Drake was born on 30 January 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Detour (1945), Enemy of Women (1944) and The Face of Marble (1946). She died on 19 October 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Neal's girlfriend who he follows to California- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Don Brodie was born on 29 May 1904 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for A Fig Leaf for Eve (1944), The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950) and Flesh and Fantasy (1943). He was married to Lucille I. Becker. He died on 8 January 2001 in Los Angeles, California, USA.used car salesman who encounters Al and Vera- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Tim Ryan was born on 5 July 1899 in Bayonne, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for From Here to Eternity (1953), The Mystery of the 13th Guest (1943) and Detective Kitty O'Day (1944). He was married to Irene Ryan. He died on 22 October 1956 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.plays diner proprietor