{ "id": "ephh8x6y0w", "slug": "detour-1945-film", "title": "Detour (1945 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films", "label": "Film noir and neo-noir films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films.yr-1940-1975", "label": "Released 1940 to 1975", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films.yr-1940-1975" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Detour (1945) is an Edgar G. Ulmer film noir made at Poverty Row studio PRC, starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage. A hitchhiking pianist assumes a dead man's identity; a National Film Registry classic restored in 2018.", "snippet": "Detour (1945) is an Edgar G. Ulmer film noir made at Poverty Row studio PRC, starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage. A hitchhiking pianist assumes a dead man's identity; a National Film Registry classic restored in 2018.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films.yr-1940-1975", "markdown": "# Detour (1945 film)\n\n**Detour** is a 1945 American film noir directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, produced by Leon Fromkess for Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), and starring Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, and Edmund MacDonald. It tells the story of Al Roberts, a New York nightclub pianist who hitchhikes to Los Angeles to rejoin his girlfriend and, after the accidental death of the motorist who picks him up, assumes the dead man's identity and falls into the hands of Vera, a blackmailing drifter.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detour) Made on Poverty Row (Hollywood's low-budget, low-prestige studio cluster) on a tiny budget with no-name actors, it has become one of the most celebrated examples of film noir and was added to the [National Film Registry](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-registry) of the Library of Congress in 1992.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6257-some-detours-to-detour)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | 30 November 1945 (United States); runtime 67–69 minutes, black and white[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756) • [4](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/1906) |\n| Director / producer | Edgar G. Ulmer; produced by Leon Fromkess for PRC Pictures, Inc.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756) |\n| Writer | Martin Goldsmith, screenplay and original story; cinematography by Benjamin H. Kline[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756) |\n| Principal cast | Tom Neal (Al Roberts), Ann Savage (Vera), Claudia Drake (Sue Harvey), Edmund MacDonald (Charles Haskell)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756) |\n| Production circumstances | Reportedly shot in six days; budget figures range from $30,000 in modern accounts to an official production budget under $88,000 in PRC press notes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756) • [5](https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/259-/Detour_press-notes_r2_original.pdf) |\n| Recognition | National Film Registry, 1992; first major restoration premiered in 2018[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6257-some-detours-to-detour) • [4](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/1906) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nAl Roberts (Tom Neal), a pianist in a New York nightclub, sets out to hitchhike to California after his singer girlfriend Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake) leaves for Hollywood. In Arizona he accepts a ride from Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald), a gambler with scratch marks on his hand. Haskell dies in a freak accident during a storm, and Al, convinced no one will believe his account, takes the dead man's car and identity. He then picks up Vera (Ann Savage), a drifter who knew Haskell and recognizes the car, and she uses her knowledge of his secret to draw him into a scheme of her own.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detour) • [6](https://classicnoir.com/films/detour) The story is told in flashback, framed by Al's voice-over narration from a roadside diner.[7](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/detour)\n\n## Production\n\nPRC, the studio behind the film, was known as the \"skid row\" of the Poverty Row studios, and *Detour* was cheap even by B-movie standards.[8](https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/13075/1/184.pdf) The Library of Congress's registry account describes a $30,000 budget that included the rights to Martin Goldsmith's pulp novel, with liabilities such as back-projected locations, a limited cast, six sets, and an abrupt ending.[9](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/detour.pdf) PRC press notes give an official production budget of less than $88,000, rising to just over $117,000 after retakes and added costs.[5](https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/259-/Detour_press-notes_r2_original.pdf)\n\nThe famous six-day shooting schedule is part of the film's legend, but it is disputed. The AFI Catalog records the six days for $30,000 according to modern sources,[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756) while Robert Polito's Criterion essay reports that the production budget specifies eighteen days of photography, fourteen on PRC soundstages and four on location.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6257-some-detours-to-detour) Ulmer himself had trained at UFA in Berlin and worked with [F. W. Murnau](https://www.edgepedia.org/f-w-murnau) at the peak of German expressionist cinema, experience that showed in the film's craft despite its means.[9](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/detour.pdf) • [10](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232573661.pdf) [Goldsmith](https://www.edgepedia.org/goldsmith) wrote both the source novel and the screenplay; the IFFR program notes describe the shoot as bearing Ulmer's distinctive stamp throughout, with forced perspectives and expressionist motifs reinforcing the script's vision of an unpredictable, terrifying world.[11](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/detour)\n\n## Style and the unreliable narrator\n\nThe film's narration is central to its reputation. Al Roberts speaks directly to the audience in a self-pitying voice-over, and the film repeatedly questions his reliability.[10](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232573661.pdf) • [11](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/detour) The critic Andrew Britton, writing in Ian Cameron's *Book of Film Noir*, argued that the narration is not what happened but what Al wants the audience to believe happened, calling it a \"spurious but flattering account\" and reading Al as a sleazy opportunist whose story covers up his own exploitation of others.[10](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232573661.pdf) • [12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-detour-1945)\n\nUlmer converted the production's poverty into style. Rear projection doubles for the open road, a handful of sets stand in for a continent, and thick fog substitutes for New York streets in one early scene.[6](https://classicnoir.com/films/detour) • [12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-detour-1945) In the penultimate scene, in which Vera dies, the camera seems to crawl inside Al's head, zooming in and out on the objects in the room.[11](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/detour) Ann Savage's Vera, a B-movie regular who appeared in 11 films in 1943 alone, plays the role with a bug-eyed, unvarnished hostility that distances her from the typically glamorous femme fatales of the era.[13](https://www.lenfest.arts.columbia.edu/events/2022/spring/kit-noir-film-festival-detour-ruthless)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nContemporary reviews noted the effective atmosphere Ulmer achieved on a limited budget, and modern sources consider the film a major example of film noir.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756) Roger Ebert, adding it to his Great Movies list, wrote that a film \"shot in six days, filled with technical errors and ham-handed narrative, starring a man who can only pout and a woman who can only sneer, should have faded from sight soon after it was released in 1945,\" and instead it became a cult favorite and certified classic.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-detour-1945) • [14](https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2009/11/16/cinebrat-road-to-perdition/) It was admitted to the National Film Registry in 1992, and later filmmakers including [David Lynch](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-lynch), the [Coen brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/coen-brothers), [Guy Maddin](https://www.edgepedia.org/guy-maddin), and Christopher Smith have paid it cinematic homage.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6257-some-detours-to-detour)\n\nFor decades the film circulated in substandard public domain prints. Its first major restoration, carried out by the Academy Film Archive and [The Film Foundation](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-film-foundation) in collaboration with the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Cinémathèque Française, with funding from the George Lucas Family Foundation, premiered theatrically in 2018.[4](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/1906) • [15](https://www.film-foundation.org/contents/reports/2018/2018.pdf)\n\nThe film's afterlife extended to its star. In the late 1950s, Tom Neal was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his wife and spent several years in prison; *Detour* was remade in 1992 by Wade Williams, starring Neal's son, Tom Neal Jr.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Detour (1945), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24756)\n2. [Detour, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detour)\n3. [Robert Polito, \"Some Detours to Detour,\" The Criterion Collection (2019)](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6257-some-detours-to-detour)\n4. [Detour, Janus Films](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/1906)\n5. [Edgar G. Ulmer, Detour press notes, Criterion Collection](https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/259-/Detour_press-notes_r2_original.pdf)\n6. [Detour, Classic Noir](https://classicnoir.com/films/detour)\n7. [Richard Brody, \"Detour,\" The New Yorker (2018)](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/detour)\n8. [Houses of Noir (Producers Releasing Corporation and Detour)](https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/13075/1/184.pdf)\n9. [Detour, National Film Preservation Board, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/detour.pdf)\n10. [Paul A. Cantor, \"Film Noir and the Frankfurt School: America as Wasteland in Edgar Ulmer's Detour\"](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232573661.pdf)\n11. [Detour, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2005](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/detour)\n12. [Roger Ebert, \"Detour (1945),\" Great Movies](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-detour-1945)\n13. [Edgar G. Ulmer Double Bill: Detour and Ruthless, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University](https://www.lenfest.arts.columbia.edu/events/2022/spring/kit-noir-film-festival-detour-ruthless)\n14. [\"Cinebrat: Road to Perdition,\" BOMB Magazine (2009)](https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2009/11/16/cinebrat-road-to-perdition/)\n15. [The Film Foundation, Film Preservation & Restoration report (2018)](https://www.film-foundation.org/contents/reports/2018/2018.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Film noir and neo-noir films › Released 1940 to 1975*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/detour-1945-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/detour-1945-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Detour (1945 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/detour-1945-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Detour (1945 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/detour-1945-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/detour-1945-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/detour-1945-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Detour (1945 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/detour-1945-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Detour is an Edgar G. Ulmer film noir made at Poverty Row studio PRC, starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage." }