Detour (1945)
Detour is a 1945 American film noir directed by Edgar G. Ulmer starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage. The screenplay was adapted by Martin Goldsmith and Martin Mooney (uncredited) from Goldsmith’s 1939 novel of the same title, and released by the Producers Releasing Corporation, one of the so-called Poverty Row film studios in mid-20th-century Hollywood.
Director – Edgar G. Ulmer
Writers – Martin Goldsmith (screenplay), Martin Mooney (uncredited)
Cast –
Tom Neal as Al Roberts
Ann Savage as Vera
Claudia Drake as Sue Harvey
Edmund MacDonald as Charles Haskell Jr.
Tim Ryan as the Nevada Diner Proprietor
Esther Howard as Holly, Diner Waitress
Don Brodie as the Used Car Salesman
Pat Gleason as Joe, truck driver
Watch “Detour” (1945)
Plot
Al Roberts, an unemployed piano player, is hitchhiking. After getting a ride, he arrives at a roadside diner in Reno, Nevada. Another customer in the diner plays a song on the jukebox, one that disturbs Al, for it reminds him of his former life in New York City. He remembers a time there when he was bitter about squandering his musical talent working in a cheap nightclub. After his girlfriend Sue Harvey, the nightclub’s lead singer, quit her job and leaves to seek fame in Hollywood, he became depressed. After some anguish, Al decided to travel to California to see Sue and marry her. With little money, though, he was forced to hitchhike his way across the country.
In Arizona, bookie Charles Haskell Jr. gives Al a ride in his convertible and tells him that he is in luck; he is driving to Los Angeles to place a bet on a horse. During the drive, he has Al pass him pills on several occasions, which he swallows as he drives. That night, Al drives while Haskell sleeps. When a rainstorm forces Al to pull over to put up the convertible’s top, he is unable to rouse Haskell. Al opens the passenger-side door and Haskell tumbles out, falling to the ground and striking his head on a rock. Al then realizes the bookie is dead. It is likely that Haskell died earlier from a heart attack, but Al is certain that if he calls the police, they will arrest him for killing Haskell. Al hides the body in the brush. He takes the dead man’s money, clothes, and identification, and drives away, intent on abandoning the car near Los Angeles.
Al crosses into California and spends a night in a motel. The next day, as he leaves a gas station near Desert Center Airport, he picks up a hitchhiker, who gives her name as Vera. At first, she travels silently with Al, who has identified himself as Haskell, but suddenly challenges his identity and ownership of the car, revealing that she had been picked up by Haskell earlier in Louisiana, but got out in Arizona after he tried to force himself on her. Al tells her how Haskell died, but she blackmails him by threatening to turn him over to the police. She takes the money that Al retrieved from Haskell’s wallet and demands whatever money they get by selling the car.
In Hollywood, they rent an apartment, posing as Mr. and Mrs. Haskell, to provide an address when they sell the car. When they are about to make the sale, Vera learns from a newspaper that Haskell’s wealthy father is near death and a search is underway for his long-estranged son. Vera demands that Al impersonate Haskell and position himself to inherit the estate. Al refuses, arguing that the impersonation would require detailed knowledge he lacks.
Back at the apartment, Vera gets drunk and they begin arguing again. In a drunken rage, she threatens to call the police, running into the bedroom with the telephone and locking the door, then falling on the bed with the telephone cord tangled around her neck. From the other side of door, Al pulls on the cord to try to disconnect the phone. When he breaks down the door, he discovers he has inadvertently strangled Vera. Al gives up the idea of contacting Sue again and returns to hitchhiking. He later finds out that Haskell is wanted in connection to the murder of Vera, “his wife.” Back in the diner in Reno where the film opened, he imagines his inevitable arrest.