Pianist Al Roberts is surprised when his girlfriend, singer Sue, decides to leave New York for Hollywood to try to make it as an actress. After a while, he phones her and says he is going to Hollywood, too, for them to get married. Unemployed, Al hitchhikes along his trip. He is picked up in a car by Haskell, a man who tells him about his feud with his father whom he hasn't seen for 15 years. During a rainy night, while Al was driving, he noticed Haskell died in his sleep. Assuming the police wouldn't believe him, anyway, Al hides the body in the bushes, and takes Haskell's wallet and identity. Al reaches California and picks up hitchhiker Vera, who recognizes the car and figures Al isn't Haskell. Vera uses this knowledge to try to blackmail Al into pretending he is Haskell to get the inheritance of Haskell's dying, rich father, but Al refuses. Al pull the phone cord to try to disconnect the phone when Vera said she will call the police, but later on found out the cord accidentally strangled Vera. Al returns to wondering, until he is picked up by the police.
Included in Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies, independent film noir "Detour" was too good to have been forgotten, since it has more than enough flair and skill to seem fresh at times even today. However, its too short running time of 67 minutes leaves the impression as if someone "stole" the last third of the story, since the ending comes abruptly, just as the plot gained momentum. The director Edward G. Ulmer crafts a fine distillation of film noir elements, slowly but steadily building up an engaging narrative told in flashbacks of the anti-hero Al (very good Tom Neal). The film follows the unemployed Al traveling as a hitchhiker from New York (!) to Los Angeles, to meet his girlfriend Sue again, and his pessimistic narration has some juicy lines and clever observations ("Money. You know what that is, the stuff you never have enough of. Little green things with George Washington's picture that men slave for, commit crimes for, die for. It's the stuff that has caused more trouble in the world than anything else we ever invented, simply because there's too little of it"). The bizarre plot tangle where he is picked up in a car by Haskell, who dies in his sleep, seemingly of a stroke, so Al takes on his identity by default, is the point at which the movie engages the viewers to the fullest, taking them in as accomplices to Al's suspicious conspiracy. Vera, who figures out Al isn't Haskell, also has several great lines here and there: "Shut up! You're making noises like a husband!" Unfortunately, just as their crime collaboration appears to be heading into one direction, it is abruptly cut short to a full stop due to a rather unconvincing murder at the end, whereas, frustratingly, the character of Sue simply "disappears" from the film when she should have appeared in the finale, maybe as a part of this conspiracy to go even further. One simply gets the impression that this finale left out the third act, a climax, which aggravates a bit the high impression established up to it.
Grade:++
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