Overview: In flashback, New York nightclub pianist Al Roberts hitchhikes to Hollywood to join his girl Sue. On a rainy night, the sleazy gambler he's riding with mysteriously dies; afraid of the police, Roberts takes the man's identity. It's then that the real trouble starts to begin!

DVD Verdict: In a film that German filmmaker Wim Wenders called Ann Savage's performance as Vera as "30 years ahead of it's time," 'Detour is still as good to watch today, as gripping as it was back then.

'Detour' - the first "B" movie chosen by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry, in 1992 - tells the story of Al Roberts (Tom Neal) who is a depressed NYC piano player whose girlfriend leaves him to try her luck in CA. He follows her by hitchhiking his way there and is picked up by a man who (inexplicably) dies while Al is driving!

Naturally Al does everything wrong ... like dumping the body and then picking up Vera (Ann Savage), a totally amoral woman, as it turns out. Then (yes, then!) things barrel horribly out of control.

You can quibble about plot points (a certain death is highly implausible) but this IS a masterpiece of the genre. It's one of the grimmest film noirs of its time. It was made by a poverty row studio (PRC) on no budget. Actually the lack of budget helps the story for everything appears dark and grim fitting the tone of the story.

Also they had an excellent director (Edgar G. Ulmer) and a great script by Martin Goldsmith. Also Neal was very good as Roberts and Savage is exceptional as Vera (there's a scene where she explodes at Roberts in a car which is truly scary). It's also all wrapped up in a tight economical 69 minutes. This has deservedly been a cult movie for many years.

Indeed, it was shot mostly in just two locations: the hotel room apartment, and the car in front of a rear projection screen on a soundstage at PRC. The actual shooting schedule was 28 days, including a brief location shoot in Lancaster, California for the desert scenes, and backplates for rear projection.

Funnily enough, according to Ann Savage, she and Tom Neal did not get along during filming. Savage stated that Neal embarrassed her on the set by putting his tongue in her ear. She retaliated by slapping his face as hard as she could. After that incident, they did not speak to each other except when filming scenes. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.37:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.