DETOUR

Cinemavixion Review

Edgar G. Ulmer's "Detour" stands as a chilling testament to the power of low-budget filmmaking, a veritable landmark of poverty row productions that continues to haunt viewers decades after its 1945 release. Anchored by a mesmerizing performance from Tom Neal as Al, a down-on-his-luck pianist whose fateful hitchhiking journey spirals into a vortex of crime and despair, the film masterfully embodies the guilty soul of film noir. Ann Savage delivers an equally unforgettable turn as Vera, the dangerously alluring woman who becomes Al's catalyst for ruin. Cult director Ulmer crafts an atmosphere thick with dread and fatalism, a mood so potent that, as the late Roger Ebert famously noted, "No one who has seen it has easily forgotten it." With its downbeat narrative and relentless sense of impending doom, "Detour" remains a haunting and creepy essential for any aficionado of classic cinema and the darker corners of the human psyche.