Detour

Told in flashbacks, Detour is the tragic tale of Al Roberts (Tom Neal), a New York nightclub pianist who hitch hikes to Hollywood to be with his girl Sue (Claudia Drake) who is has left to become a Hollywood star.

Al gets a lucky ride and the slightly shady Mr Haskell (Edmund MacDonald) is going all the way to LA. Well, Mr Haskell dies mysteriously and Al takes the car and assumes Haskell's identity. Unlucky for Al, a woman, he picks up at a gas station, Vera - played by the ferocious Ann Savage - turns out to have been romantically involved with Mr Haskell. The plot descends into a spiral of blackmail and murder.

Tom Neal is a little hammy in this, but it kind of works, especially when Ann Savage's Vera starts to tear him apart.

The film was made in just six days. An incredible feat when you see it, despite a few loose ends in the story. There is a certain gritty realism in retrospect. Tom Neal was a real rough guy. He served six years for manslaughter after his third wife died after being shot in the head.

This is without a doubt Ann Savage's finest role. She burns through the role like a spitting, hissing caged cat. Savage set a whole new standard of femme fatale in this fim.

The film is out of copyright and available as a reasonable quality download from www.archiveclassicmovies.com