180. Detour (1945)

Directed By Edgar G. Ulmer

Synopsis

A hitch-hiker is trying to get to his girlfriend. On the way he gets picked up by a nice enough guy that happens to die. Hitch-hiker assumes the guise of the dead man so he isn't a suspect of murder, until he takes in another hitch-hiker, a woman, who knows the guy is dead and wants to get in on some inheritance money.

Review

This is a pretty short film as the B movie that it is. It is a little over 1 hour. You probably already know this director, he was the set designer for M and Metropolis which were on the list, as well as Der Golem, an excellent film not on the list, and he directed another film that we've had here, The Black Cat with Karloff and Lugosi, probably my favourite B movie.

This film is a mixed bad really, the acting is not at all impressive, the sets are nearly non-existing, the story is slightly unbelievable and it was all done one a shoestring budget in 6 days. However, almost unexplainably, it is a compelling film, it has some creepy quality to it that makes you enjoy it.

This film immediately made me think of Lynch's Lost Highway, and it wasn't a coincidence, because Highway does take its inspiration from here. The film is actually quite unsettling, even if it is not really a horror story or anything of the kind, it is a succession of shitty events happening to a guy. Still pretty good, but as far from perfect as you could get, there is no polish here, but that's how you'd want it.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

With re-shoots out of the question for such a low budget movie, director Edgar G. Ulmer made the decision to place storytelling conventions above continuity.

Detour's famous example of this is the reversal of the hitchhiking scenes. In order to parallel the westbound New York to Los Angeles travel of the character with right-to-left movement across the screen, many scenes had to be flipped. This caused the cars to appear to be driving on the wrong side of the road, and the hitchhiker to enter the cars on the driver's side.

She knows!: