Detour (1945)

This early noir beauty was only restored in full a few years ago, being released on blu-ray in 2019. The extremely well cobbled together film is just sixty eight minutes long, but it is wonderful for every minute of its running time. Al Roberts (a terrific Tom Neal) decides to travel to California, following his girlfriend Sue who left for Hollywood. After becoming depressed after Sue's departure, he decides the only way to achieve happiness is to wed her, so he embarks on his journey, hitchhiking across the country with little money to his name. After hitching a lift with Charles Haskell Jr, a bookie who tells him he'll take him to Las Vegas, things start to go badly wrong after Haskell appears to die from a heart attack whilst asleep with Al taking a turn at the wheel. Not trusting that the police wouldn't believe Haskell wasn't murdered, Al takes Haskell's identity after hiding the body, and the next day, picks up another hitch hiker, Vera, introducing himself as Charles Haskell Jr. Problem is, Vera had previously hitched a ride with the real Charles Haskell Jr, back in Arizona......and so the mayhem begins as she blackmails him for her own monetary gain. Detour is a wonderful reminder of the noirs of the thirties and fourties, it has shades of Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, the performances are great and it's a bit of a lost gem. The ending is open to interpretation, and the tale itself itself is wonderful in its bizareness. There's a terrific scene outside a drive in diner, which immediately brought to mind Uma Thurman and John Travolta outside Jack Rabbit Slims just before they enter in Pulp Fiction (1994). It's now available to stream, and if you can take an hour or so out of your day to do so, it will well worth your time. 8.1/10