When lovestruck NYC musician Alex Roberts decides to hitchhike to Hollywood to join his girl, Sue, some colossal errors in judgment lead to a nightmare of bad Karma. Al gets picked up by Haskell, a bookie heading to L.A., who dies along the way. Fearing he'd be accused of murdering Haskell, Roberts switches identities and continues on. He gives a lift to Vera, a hard-scrabble drifter who recognizes Haskell's car and brow-beats Roberts into selling it for profit once they reach Hollywood. Sue, meanwhile, learns of Al's "death" from the newspaper and shrugs it off as she continues to try to sleep her way to stardom. Once in California, Vera spots a newspaper article concerning Haskell's millionaire father who's terminally ill and desperate to find his long-lost son. Vera realizes she and Roberts can get a lot more than the price of a car if they play their cards right...
This film is more than just a remake of Edgar G. Ulmer's quintessential film noir classic, DETOUR (1945) -it's a loving tribute based on the original photoplay that was pared down due to budgetary constraints. The story is set in 1942, halfway between Martin Goldsmith's 1939 novel (on which the films are based) and the 1945 film, signifying the blending of the two. Tom Neal, Jr., the look-alike son of the original's star, plays Alex Roberts and the director filmed on the same stretch of Arizona highway used the first time around. Williams located the original car and constructed similar constricting sets using the same lighting and lenses in order to recreate a film noir ambiance that plays out like a ghost of the 1945 film. The soundtrack seems to have been recorded in an echo chamber, giving the tale the disembodied feeling of a dream and in an unusual reversal of the norm, the present is shot in black & white while the flashbacks are in lurid Cinecolor. Anyone unfamiliar with the 1945 film may find Wade Williams' DETOUR a self-conscious attempt at period noir but for those who love the original, this film is must-see. It's almost like a museum diorama depicting the Ulmer for a new generation. The stilted acting seems more like an acting-out of the original and to the performers' credit, they don't try to give new interpretations to their roles. Lea Lavish as Vera, though not as predatory as Ann Savage, gives a washed-out approximation of a desperate virago old before her time and Tom Neal, Jr. looks and sounds like his dad. He has the same baby-faced expressions and bitter, self-pitying personality but his voice-over doesn't have the same sweaty urgency that his father's did. There's an extra half-hour to this film that the Ulmer didn't have but the rest is a faithful recreation of film noir paranoia and despair. The added scenes involve Roberts' girlfriend Sue and her attempts at using the casting couch as a road to fame and fortune while she waits tables. This gives Wade Williams' DETOUR a slightly darker aura than the original because it shows Sue considering Roberts a burden; when she learns he's dead she says, "People die all the time". Sue even has some cynical voice-over narration of her own and the whole premise of the film becomes a hopeless amour fou for Al. When the flashbacks begin, Sue is seen singing Irving Berlin's "Careless" which Roberts reprises when she heads for Hollywood. There are some other ironic touches that weren't in the original: Roberts gets fired from his job because he left the piano to phone Sue and while he's hitching West, Sue is planning on using a cowboy star to head back East for an assault on Broadway. Later, when Al & Vera decide not to sell the car and go to a drive-up restaurant, it's the same one where Sue now slings hash. The Breen-mandated police ending of the original is scrapped in favor of Roberts being swallowed up by the darkness. Former Universal singing star Susanna Foster, found living in her car in the 80's, appears briefly as Sue's alcoholic roommate. This was her final film and a fitting end for a 40's film star. Tom Neal, Jr. and Lea Lavish never made another film.
Wade Williams' DETOUR is reely recommended for those intimately familiar with Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 "B" movie classic.
This film is more than just a remake of Edgar G. Ulmer's quintessential film noir classic, DETOUR (1945) -it's a loving tribute based on the original photoplay that was pared down due to budgetary constraints. The story is set in 1942, halfway between Martin Goldsmith's 1939 novel (on which the films are based) and the 1945 film, signifying the blending of the two. Tom Neal, Jr., the look-alike son of the original's star, plays Alex Roberts and the director filmed on the same stretch of Arizona highway used the first time around. Williams located the original car and constructed similar constricting sets using the same lighting and lenses in order to recreate a film noir ambiance that plays out like a ghost of the 1945 film. The soundtrack seems to have been recorded in an echo chamber, giving the tale the disembodied feeling of a dream and in an unusual reversal of the norm, the present is shot in black & white while the flashbacks are in lurid Cinecolor. Anyone unfamiliar with the 1945 film may find Wade Williams' DETOUR a self-conscious attempt at period noir but for those who love the original, this film is must-see. It's almost like a museum diorama depicting the Ulmer for a new generation. The stilted acting seems more like an acting-out of the original and to the performers' credit, they don't try to give new interpretations to their roles. Lea Lavish as Vera, though not as predatory as Ann Savage, gives a washed-out approximation of a desperate virago old before her time and Tom Neal, Jr. looks and sounds like his dad. He has the same baby-faced expressions and bitter, self-pitying personality but his voice-over doesn't have the same sweaty urgency that his father's did. There's an extra half-hour to this film that the Ulmer didn't have but the rest is a faithful recreation of film noir paranoia and despair. The added scenes involve Roberts' girlfriend Sue and her attempts at using the casting couch as a road to fame and fortune while she waits tables. This gives Wade Williams' DETOUR a slightly darker aura than the original because it shows Sue considering Roberts a burden; when she learns he's dead she says, "People die all the time". Sue even has some cynical voice-over narration of her own and the whole premise of the film becomes a hopeless amour fou for Al. When the flashbacks begin, Sue is seen singing Irving Berlin's "Careless" which Roberts reprises when she heads for Hollywood. There are some other ironic touches that weren't in the original: Roberts gets fired from his job because he left the piano to phone Sue and while he's hitching West, Sue is planning on using a cowboy star to head back East for an assault on Broadway. Later, when Al & Vera decide not to sell the car and go to a drive-up restaurant, it's the same one where Sue now slings hash. The Breen-mandated police ending of the original is scrapped in favor of Roberts being swallowed up by the darkness. Former Universal singing star Susanna Foster, found living in her car in the 80's, appears briefly as Sue's alcoholic roommate. This was her final film and a fitting end for a 40's film star. Tom Neal, Jr. and Lea Lavish never made another film.
Wade Williams' DETOUR is reely recommended for those intimately familiar with Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 "B" movie classic.
