Film Forum

(1945, Edgar G. Ulmer) “Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you.” New York to L.A. hitchhiker Tom Neal’s pickup of the aptly-named Ann Savage leads to blackmail and death. Produced by bottom-of-the-barrel studio PRC, Detour was ignored when first released and didn’t even rate a New York Times review until 1992, when Vincent Canby called it “one of the most defining films of the seductive genre called Film Noir.” DCP restoration. Approx. 69 min.

Reviews

“Ulmer provided one of the links between German Expressionism, with its exaggerated lighting, camera angles, and dramaturgy, and American Film Noir.”
– Roger Ebert

“Astonishing… Possibly the bleakest, most doom-laden film noir ever. Ann Savage’s sensational performance, combined with the real-life trajectory of Neal, who ended up going to prison for murdering his wife, have made this a tormented film with the despairing logic of nightmare.”
– Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times