cinema history class: detour

Session: Horror-Noir—Does It Exist, Week 2
Movie: Detour (1945)
Directed by Edward G. Ulmer

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Hitchhiking across the country to meet up with his girlfriend. But the trip doesn't go as planned. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:

Well, this was definitely a film noir. You had the dramatic use of shadow, the German expressionist-inspired camera angles, the snappy clever dialogue. But was it a horror film? I didn't see the connection. Keith explained afterwards that this crossed the line into horror because Vera, the female lead, rather than being a femme fatale, was an out and out psycho who had grabbed complete control of Al's life. That explanation was good enough for me at the moment, though the more I think about it the less I'm convinced. But, whatever...I enjoyed the movie whether its was a horror film or not.

But Keith is definitely right about Vera being an out and out psycho. And she was brilliantly portrayed by Ann Savage who, Keith explained, established a template of sorts with this character.

This was a short movie, clocking in at just over an hour, but it was well paced and suspenseful. It did keep me guessing. As far as predictions go, I guessed some of what would happen. But my big guess -- that we would find that the actual Charlie Haskell was an imposter -- was never borne out. The guess made perfect sense to me, but since nothing was said of it, I guess I was completely off base.

The only thing I really didn't like was the very ending. I would have preferred to have the voice over trail off as he wandered off. The final touch, in which he gets picked up by the police was a bit of heavy-handed moralism. I should note though, that this was forced on Ulmer because of the Hays code.

Ratigs:

Me: 8.4
Dave: 9.5
Ethan: 8
Joe: 10
Sean: 2 out of 4