Die schwarz-weißen Film Noir Genre macht ein riesiges Comeback und Partituren von alten B & W Filme werden jetzt freigegeben Trauben auf DVD 's in. Film noir Filme sind diejenigen, bei denen der Protagonist, und meist alle anderen im Film, sind nicht sehr sympathisch Zeichen. Think Bogie's Sam Spade in der Maltese Falcon. Oder Edmond O'Brien in DOA Sie fehlerhafte Menschen, aber die Handlung ist so packend, folgen wir ihre Heldentaten ohnehin mit mehr als einem moderaten Grad der Besorgnis. (Roger Ebert einmalsaid the difference between a crime movie and film noir is that in a crime movie the bad guys knows that they are bad guys and want to stay that way. While a noir hero thinks he's a good guy who has been ambushed by life.)
Detour, a 1945 movie, staring Tom Neal and Ann Savage, and directed by Edgar J. Ulmer, certainly falls into this category.
Neal was a mainstay in B movies, staring in dozens of them in the 40's and into the early 50's. His career was derailed when Neal, a former boxer, KO'd actor Franchot Tone while they were fighting over a woman, breaking his nose and giving him a brain concussion. From that point on Neal, was reduced to small parts in obscure television shows. Neal was toast in the business for good, when in 1961, he shot his third wife Gale Bennett in the back of the head, killing her instantly. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to ten years in jail. He served six before he was paroled.
Savage, who acts in Detour with a permanent snarl on her face, made over twenty B movies between 1943-46. She was also a popular World War II pinup model and appeared in an Esquire centerfold. Stunningly beautiful, she steals this movie with a mouth dipped in vinegar.
Neal's troubled soul is evident in Detour, who some critics consider the greatest B movie of all time. Some critics even rate it as one the best 100 movies of all time. Detour was shot in six days, using a total of six sets, with a total budget of only $20,000. On the cheap, even for 1945.
Al Roberts (Neal) is a New York City piano player working in a cheap joint, who's in love with a singer named Sue (Claudia Drake), also struggling in the same dead-end dive. Sue decides to leave New York City for Hollywood for bigger things, leaving Roberts behind and not too happy. Lamenting the loss of his true love, Roberts decides to head west himself, but lacking the funds to go in style, he sticks out his thumb and hitchhikes. After making it as far as Arizona, he's picked up in a snazzy convertible by a man named Haskell (Edmund McDonald), who has fresh scratches on his hand and is popping pills like they were candy.
After a while, Roberts takes over the wheel, while Haskell takes a nap in the passengers seat. It starts pouring rain, so Roberts gets out to pull up the top, when he realizes Haskell is dead from an apparent heart attack. Roberts panics and drags Haskell's body onto the side of the road and down a gully. He changes in Haskell Kleidung, nimmt sein Geld, und Angst davor, wegen Mordes beschuldigt, geht er davon aus Haskell Identität.
Wie das Schicksal es wollte, macht Robert ist ein fataler Irrtum, wenn er bald holt eine böse aussehende Anhalter namens Vera (Savage). Es stellt sich heraus Vera hatte früher eine Fahrt mit Haskell spannte und war die Person, die Haskell gab die Kratzer auf der Hand, offenbar weil Haskell Mühe, seine Hände von ihr Drop-Leiche hatte. Vera erkennt sofort, dass Roberts trägtHaskell's clothes and driving Haskell's car. After pretending to sleep for a while, she bolts upright in the front passengers seat and shrieks, "Where did you leave his body? What did you do to the owner of this car? You're not Haskell! What did you do -- kiss him with a wrench?"
Playing the bitch role to the hilt, Vera, sneer in place the entire movie, starts blackmailing Roberts. She demands the money Roberts took off Haskell's body and forces Roberts to sell Haskell's car for $1600, which she immediately pockets too. They rent an apartment in Hollywood and after they polish off a bottle of booze and start on another, Roberts says, "Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you."
Vera reads in the newspaper that Haskell's rich father is dying and Haskell is set to inherit a huge fortune. She decides that Robert must impersonate Haskell so that she can divert that inheritance money to herself. Roberts refuses. The plot reaches a boiling point, then ends predictably in an unpredictable way. In a final bit of bad luck, Roberts is picked up by the police in the film's last shot.
As the film ends, Roberts laments in a voice-over, "Fate, for some mysterious force, can put a finger on me or you. For no good reason at all."
No good reason? How about calling the police next time a guy dies of a heart attack, instead of taking his clothes, his money and his car? Maybe then Roberts could have avoided the fickle finger of faith.
Darn, I Hass Cliquen.
Fans des Film noir werden absolut verehre Umleitung. Neal und Savage geben beide Aufführungen für die Ewigkeit, vor allem Savage, dessen engstirnigen Handlung hinterlässt einen unauslöschlichen Eindruck auf Filmgeschichte. Auch wenn Sie kein Fan des Genres sind, erhalten Sie 65 Minuten von straff gespannt.
Auf einer Reihe von 1-5 Sterne gebe ich Detour eine starke 4 ½ Sterne. Der einzige Grund, es nicht bekommt fünf Sterne, weil der Regisseur Ulmers Geldmangel zwingt ihn zu Szenen, die schießenvisually unappealing and downright depressing, which in this movie, may not have been such a bad thing.
Still, the plot's the thing and Detour definitely delivers on that account.
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