What Is Edgar G. Ulmer’s ‘Detour’ About?
Al refuses, and accidentally strangles Vera with a telephone wire when she drunkenly threatens tocall the police.
“Forget it, Jake.
It’s Chinatown.”
What’s fascinating aboutDetouris how much Al seems to revel in his own misery.
No matter how long the actual filming took, it’s clear this 69-minute feature was made for peanuts.
Most of it takes place in cars with rear projection.
Murnau(Nosferatu,The Last Laugh,Sunrise).
This is evident in movies likeThe Black Cat,starringBela LugosiandBoris Karloff.
ThroughoutDetour,Ulmer gets around the budget restrictions by playing into them.
He was sentenced to 1-to-15 years in prison, andwas released on parolein 1971.
Their coming together would almost be cosmic were the results not so tragic.
But hey, that’s noir for you.
Detouris currently available to stream on Kanopy in the U.S.
WATCH ON KANOPY
