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Detour, 1945
Al (Tom Neal) is a piano player whose girlfriend has left him to go build a career in California. Al decides to make his way west to meet her and try to get her to marry him. Low on funds, he is forced to hitchhike and is picked up by a bookie named Haskell (Edmund MacDonald). When Haskell accidentally dies, Al fears being accused of murder and ends up hiding the body and stealing Haskell's identity. Crossing paths with a woman named Vera (Ann Savage) who quickly susses out his secret and the pair of them end up as reluctant partners in the deception.
I thought that I'd seen this film before, and even have it rated on IMDb. I'm not sure what movie I watched that I thought was Detour, but this was a great film that packed a lot of punch into a brisk 68 minute runtime.
The real punch of this film is in the way that every bit of fortune that shines on Al comes with a terrible price. There's always the other shoe hovering, waiting to drop. Al just happens to look enough like Haskell that he's able to use the other man's driver's license and clothing. But this creates a paper trail and a series of witnesses. Every time Al manages, usually through luck, to get out of one scrape, he finds himself heading straight into another.
There is a great friction between Al and Vera, something that in most films would collapse into a love-hate romance, but the film admirably never goes there. Instead, it lets the characters tear at each other even as they work together. Al still wants to hold to the idea that he is a good person and that he wants to do as little harm as possible. Vera has seen a much nastier roll of the dice. In addition to revealing that Haskell tried to assault her--how she recognizes the car--she is sick, probably dying. She has nothing to lose, and she's willing to drag Al along for the ride as she tries to get what's hers before clocking out.
The whole film moves in a short, steep downward spiral. Depending on how you feel about the characters, you can either read the end as tragic or a relief.
Detour, 1945
Al (Tom Neal) is a piano player whose girlfriend has left him to go build a career in California. Al decides to make his way west to meet her and try to get her to marry him. Low on funds, he is forced to hitchhike and is picked up by a bookie named Haskell (Edmund MacDonald). When Haskell accidentally dies, Al fears being accused of murder and ends up hiding the body and stealing Haskell's identity. Crossing paths with a woman named Vera (Ann Savage) who quickly susses out his secret and the pair of them end up as reluctant partners in the deception.
I thought that I'd seen this film before, and even have it rated on IMDb. I'm not sure what movie I watched that I thought was Detour, but this was a great film that packed a lot of punch into a brisk 68 minute runtime.
The real punch of this film is in the way that every bit of fortune that shines on Al comes with a terrible price. There's always the other shoe hovering, waiting to drop. Al just happens to look enough like Haskell that he's able to use the other man's driver's license and clothing. But this creates a paper trail and a series of witnesses. Every time Al manages, usually through luck, to get out of one scrape, he finds himself heading straight into another.
There is a great friction between Al and Vera, something that in most films would collapse into a love-hate romance, but the film admirably never goes there. Instead, it lets the characters tear at each other even as they work together. Al still wants to hold to the idea that he is a good person and that he wants to do as little harm as possible. Vera has seen a much nastier roll of the dice. In addition to revealing that Haskell tried to assault her--how she recognizes the car--she is sick, probably dying. She has nothing to lose, and she's willing to drag Al along for the ride as she tries to get what's hers before clocking out.
The whole film moves in a short, steep downward spiral. Depending on how you feel about the characters, you can either read the end as tragic or a relief.