The power of an accidental, unplanned encounter -- it can ruin your life. This gritty film perfectly nails that danger that can destroy any one of us.
Scruffy pianist Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is going nowhere in his career and decides to follow songster girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake) to Hollywood. It seems a simple thing to hitch a ride out West. But this is the universe of film noir, where doom is always lurking and nothing is as it appears...
Roberts gets picked up by a driver (Edmund MacDonald) who croaks on him, but our protagonist dares not call the cops -- "They'd laugh at the truth. I had my head in a noose!" When it looks like Roberts's luck can't get worse, he picks up a hitchhiker of his own, dominatrix Vera (Ann Savage), who quickly catches on and warns him that "there's a cute little gas chamber waiting for you."
The crackling dialogue is one of the strengths of this film. What does Roberts say to himself upon receiving a tip at the piano bar? "A 10-spot. A piece of paper crawling with germs. It couldn't buy anything I wanted." Later, speaking long-distance to his lady love: "I'll be there if I have to travel by pogo stick." Unless fate has another plan for him, natch.
I took a film-history class in which Robert Mitchum's "Out of the Past" was offered up as the archetypal film noir. However, that movie has some confusing plot twists and seems unnecessarily ornate. I think the far more straightforward "Detour" is a better choice for that honor.
Scruffy pianist Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is going nowhere in his career and decides to follow songster girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake) to Hollywood. It seems a simple thing to hitch a ride out West. But this is the universe of film noir, where doom is always lurking and nothing is as it appears...
Roberts gets picked up by a driver (Edmund MacDonald) who croaks on him, but our protagonist dares not call the cops -- "They'd laugh at the truth. I had my head in a noose!" When it looks like Roberts's luck can't get worse, he picks up a hitchhiker of his own, dominatrix Vera (Ann Savage), who quickly catches on and warns him that "there's a cute little gas chamber waiting for you."
The crackling dialogue is one of the strengths of this film. What does Roberts say to himself upon receiving a tip at the piano bar? "A 10-spot. A piece of paper crawling with germs. It couldn't buy anything I wanted." Later, speaking long-distance to his lady love: "I'll be there if I have to travel by pogo stick." Unless fate has another plan for him, natch.
I took a film-history class in which Robert Mitchum's "Out of the Past" was offered up as the archetypal film noir. However, that movie has some confusing plot twists and seems unnecessarily ornate. I think the far more straightforward "Detour" is a better choice for that honor.