Detour (1945)
89%RT Audience Score:
Awards & Nominations: NA
Stylish and gripping, Detour offers further proof that a patsy and a femme fatale often add up to a satisfying story
Detour is a movie that will make you feel like you’re right in the middle of the action, suffering along with the main character. Ann Savage’s performance as the villainous Vera is so venomous, you’ll feel like you need an antidote. Tom Neal also does an excellent job as the petrified pianist, making you root for him even as he stumbles into a series of circumstances that seal his doom. Director Edgar G. Ulmer’s use of light and shadow is harrowingly expressive, and the film’s pacey and stylish B-movie thriller vibe makes it a minor classic. Just don’t watch it if you’re feeling depressed, because it’s a bit of a downer.
Production Company(ies)
Producers Sales Organization R S L Entertainment, Moviecorp V III
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
MPAA / Certificate
TV-MA
Year of Release
1945
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Stereo
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Aspect ratio:16:9 HD
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):
-
Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 30, 1945 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 22, 2002
Genre(s)
Crime/Drama
Keyword(s)
Detour, Crime, Drama, 1h 9m, Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald, directed by Edgar G Ulmer, written by Martin Goldsmith, produced by Leon Fromkess, reviewed by Mildred Martin, Wanda Hale, LA Times Staff, Richard Brody, Dave Kehr, Josh Larsen, Sara Hamilton, Herbert Cohn, Mandel Herbstman, Tony Sloman, starring Tom Neal as Al Roberts, Ann Savage as Vera, Claudia Drake as Sue Harvey, Edmund MacDonald as Charles Haskell Jr, genre, box office performance, budget, MPAA rating
Worldwide gross: NA
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): NA
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Ann Savage – Vera
Claudia Drake – Sue Harvey
Edmund MacDonald – Charles Haskell Jr
Tim Ryan – Nevada Diner Proprietor
Esther Howard – Holly, Diner Waitress
Director(s)
Edgar G. Ulmer
Writer(s)
NA
Producer(s)
Leon Fromkess
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
All Critics (41) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (1)
Tom Neal does extremely well in the long, difficult role of the petrified pianist whose misadventures are told in flashback; while Ann Savage all but blisters the screen with her venoemous, snarling performance as the vicious Vera.
December 29, 2020
Mildred Martin
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
[Detour] is a morbid melodrama, depressing and uninteresting.
December 29, 2020 | Rating: 2/4
Wanda Hale
New York Daily News
TOP CRITIC
One of the most poignant and disturbing stories to reach the screen in any year is this one. You’re not just looking at a picture; you’re right in it and suffering along with the man whose troubles are being told.
December 29, 2020
LA Times Staff
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
The film, told in flashbacks, is held together by a poetically lurid interior monologue and directed, by Edgar G. Ulmer, with harrowingly expressive effects of light and shadow.
November 26, 2018
Richard Brody
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
Uniformly good performances and some equally good direction and dialog keep the meller moving.
October 16, 2007
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
One of the most daring and thoroughly perverse works of art ever to come out of Hollywood.
October 16, 2007
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
…a quick, grimy, and above all else guilty picture.
April 6, 2021 | Rating: 3.5/4
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm
Ann Savage, who plays a no-good, does a beauty of a job… We feel you will have a bond of sympathy for Neal, both in person and story and that always makes for a good show.
December 29, 2020
Sara Hamilton
Photoplay
How fate can play tricks on a man is satisfactorily demonstrated in a melodrama with enough bite to command the attention closely throughout.
December 29, 2020
Film Daily Staff
The Film Daily
It Is a not-too-late-believable story of a piano player who ruined his life by hitch-hiking from New York to Los Angeles to marry his girl — but it is told bluntly and briskly Local Vaudeville by Director Edgar Ulmer.
December 29, 2020
Herbert Cohn
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Venturing far from the familiar melodramatic pattern, director Edgar G. Ulmer has turned out an adroit, albeit unpretentious production about a man who stumbles into a series of circumstances which seal his doom.
December 29, 2020
Mandel Herbstman
Motion Picture Herald (Exhibitors Herald)
A remarkably pacey and stylish B-movie thriller that’s now rightly recognised as a minor classic.
December 29, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Tony Sloman
Radio Times…
Plot
A contemporary father takes his family on a road trip across America, but a set of crazy, unforeseen circumstances causes them to end up on the run from the FBI.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Ann Savage’s performance as the vicious Vera is described as “blistering” and “venomous.”
Edgar-G.-Ulmer.jpg
