critics consensus

Stylish and gripping, Detour offers further proof that a patsy and a femme fatale often add up to a satisfying story. Read critic reviews

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Detour Photos

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Movie Info

In New York, piano player Al Roberts (Tom Neal) laments when his singer girlfriend, Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake), leaves for Hollywood, Calif. When Al gets some money, he decides to hitchhike to California to join Sue. In Arizona, Al accepts a ride with Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald), but during a storm in a freak accident, Haskell is killed. Frightened, Al assumes Haskell's identity and car, but soon comes upon the mysterious Vera (Ann Savage), who seems to know all about his true identity.

Genre:

crime, drama
Original Language:

English
Director:

Edgar G. Ulmer
Producer:

Leon Fromkess
Release Date (Streaming):

Feb 1, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA):

$12.2K
Runtime:

1h 9m
Production Co:

Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC)

Cast & Crew

Tom Neal
Al Roberts

Ann Savage
Vera

Claudia Drake
Sue Harvey

Edmund MacDonald
Charles Haskell Jr

Tim Ryan
Nevada Diner Proprietor

Esther Howard
Holly, Diner Waitress

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for Detour

All Critics (40) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (1)

Tom Neal does extremely well in the long, difficult role of the petrified pianist whose misadventures are told in flashback; while Ann Savage all but blisters the screen with her venoemous, snarling performance as the vicious Vera.

December 29, 2020 | Full Review…

Mildred Martin
Philadelphia Inquirer
[Detour] is a morbid melodrama, depressing and uninteresting.

December 29, 2020 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…

Wanda Hale
New York Daily News
One of the most poignant and disturbing stories to reach the screen in any year is this one. You're not just looking at a picture; you're right in it and suffering along with the man whose troubles are being told.

December 29, 2020 | Full Review…

LA Times Staff
Los Angeles Times
The film, told in flashbacks, is held together by a poetically lurid interior monologue and directed, by Edgar G. Ulmer, with harrowingly expressive effects of light and shadow.

November 26, 2018 | Full Review…

Richard Brody
New Yorker
Uniformly good performances and some equally good direction and dialog keep the meller moving.

October 16, 2007 | Full Review…

Variety Staff
Variety
One of the most daring and thoroughly perverse works of art ever to come out of Hollywood.

October 16, 2007 | Full Review…

Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Ann Savage, who plays a no-good, does a beauty of a job... We feel you will have a bond of sympathy for Neal, both in person and story and that always makes for a good show.

December 29, 2020 | Full Review…

Sara Hamilton
Photoplay
How fate can play tricks on a man is satisfactorily demonstrated in a melodrama with enough bite to command the attention closely throughout.

December 29, 2020 | Full Review…

Film Daily Staff
The Film Daily
It Is a not-too-late-believable story of a piano player who ruined his life by hitch-hiking from New York to Los Angeles to marry his girl -- but it is told bluntly and briskly Local Vaudeville by Director Edgar Ulmer.

December 29, 2020 | Full Review…

Herbert Cohn
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Venturing far from the familiar melodramatic pattern, director Edgar G. Ulmer has turned out an adroit, albeit unpretentious production about a man who stumbles into a series of circumstances which seal his doom.

December 29, 2020 | Full Review…

Mandel Herbstman
Motion Picture Herald (Exhibitors Herald)
A remarkably pacey and stylish B-movie thriller that's now rightly recognised as a minor classic.

December 29, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Tony Sloman
Radio Times
As effective as Neal's performance is, it's not the one for which Detour is best remembered. His foil is Ann Savage as Vera, living up to her surname as one of the most vicious, despicable femme fatales in noir history.

December 29, 2020 | Full Review…

Stephen Danay
Under the Radar

View All Critic Reviews (40)

Audience Reviews for Detour

Jul 13, 2014

Pleasantly short and well-constructed, Detour may not be the most memorable work of film noir, however it is well-acted and features an intriguing plot. It's fun to watch and follow, especially due to Savage's great performance.

Matthew Samuel M Super Reviewer
Jan 28, 2014

In one strange sequence a piano player, our downtrodden hero, lays down classical chops only the long hairs at Carnegie Hall could appreciate in front of a dive nightclub crowd that's barely awake. Even our hero seems not to care, and there's the charm of this nightmare: when he says or thinks "nobody cares" he's right, like a slow walk to the bathroom to slit your wrists. The dialogue is beautiful, the ending too quick, too pat, but the whole is like a two-year-old's pout dramatised. Visceral stuff.

Kevin M. W Super Reviewer
Jun 12, 2013

Thanks to Edgar G. Ulmer for causing in us suspension of disbelief: unbelievably bad luck had never been so entertaining. Respects go to Ann Savage for being a total menace, like if it was in her nature! 97/100

Edgar C Super Reviewer
Jul 25, 2012

This is such a shame. What makes "Detour" ultimately unimpressive is its second half, which falls apart with the arrival of Ann Savage's character. This is honestly one of the most unlikable performances I think I've ever seen. To be so unnecessarily over the top is just uncalled for. Tom Neal does an excellent job at creating a character that we can sympathize with, but there are times where Savage is so bad that she threatens to lessen the impact of his performance. And it's just a real shame. "Detour" has such a great opening half hour that it seems destined for greatness, but sadly, it just can't keep the momentum going.

Stephen E Super Reviewer