Movies

The Avocado Movie Club #19: Detour (1945)

Welcome to the Movie Club! This week’s movie is Edgar G. Ulmar’s classic noir flick Detour!

One day we’ll get back to cool international posters. Until then, please enjoy this Italian version of one of its regular posters.

Detour stars Tom Neal as Al Roberts and Ann Savage as Vera, two hitchhikers whose paths tragically cross on one fateful trip to LA. Al is a piano player at a nightclub in New York who decides to sell most of his belongings and hitchhike to LA to be with his girlfriend, but on the way he is picked up by a bookie named Charles Haskell Jr. When Charles accidentally dies during the trip, Al takes his identity as a way to avoid being mistakenly blamed for his death, but once he picks up Vera in turn she quickly pieces together what happened and decides to blackmail him. 

Detour was given a limited release on November 30, 1945, following its premiere two weeks earlier on the 15th. It was an immediate success with critics and currently holds a 98% on RottenTomatoes, although it’s hard to gauge its box office results1. Wikipedia lists $1 million but the listed source doesn’t seem to back that up, while sites like The Numbers say it only grossed around $16,0002. Regardless of what it grossed, Detour’s classic status has been well cemented and it’s even been released on Criterion Collection. 

Trivia34: 

  • A remake was released in 1992 that actually featured Tom Neal’s son, Tom Neal Jr., in the lead role.
  • In order to save money, the negatives were flipped during the hitchhiking scenes, so you can see the characters getting into what appears to be the wrong side of the car at times.
  • Al is seen being picked up by the police at the end solely due to the production code, which mandated that murderers could not get away with their crimes. 

What did you think? Share your thoughts below! 

Up Next: We’re celebrating spring with a pair of directorial debuts! Our next movie will be Martin McDonagh’s first film, In Bruge! Check out the trailer and where it’s playing below:

USA

  • Stream: Peacock
  • Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Fandango at Home, Microsoft Store, Spectrum (Rental only)

Canada

  • Stream: Nada! 
  • Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon, YouTube, Microsoft Store

UK

  • Stream: Nada!
  • Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon, YouTube, Sky Store, Microsoft Store, Rakuten TV
  1. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detour ↩︎
  2. https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Detour-(1945)#tab=summary ↩︎
  3. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104093 ↩︎
  4. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-detour-1945 ↩︎