Detour

Shot on a minuscule budget for the “Poverty Row” outfit Producers Releasing Corporation and running a mere 68 minutes, Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour (1945), conjures more mood and atmosphere than most big-budget Hollywood films can muster in two hours. On his way to join his girlfriend in Los Angeles, down-and-out piano player Al Roberts (Tom Neal) hitches a ride with con man Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald). When Haskell mysteriously dies, Al assumes his identity, and runs into a new set of troubles when he picks up a hitchhiker (Ann Savage) who uses his lies against him. With limited sets and stock footage, Ulmer created a terse, bitter picture that carries film noir into the realm of existentialism.