Purely Joyful Movie!

A different way of telling a story

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Tom Neal (Al) walks into a café and is pretty unpleasant to people. We then get a flashback story as to what has just happened before returning to Neal as he walks out to continue his journey.It's a good story as we follow pianist Neal's transformation from horrible man to nice guy. He gets no favours, though. Even his girlfriend singer Claudia Drake (Sue) leaves him to pursue a career. Indeed, she is the catalyst for his downfall and the reason for his fateful journey. She's a good singer and the music pieces in the film are entertaining.Neal gets a lift with Edmund MacDonald (Haskell) and things don't go well. Then, he gives Ann Savage a lift and things take off coz she really is bad news! It's a downbeat film but good entertainment and has all the noir elements present. Savage will make you laugh out loud – she's seriously deranged. Good value on the casting front. You have to hand it to Neal – great way to stop someone making a phone call from an adjoining room.

Watching Detour, it becomes apparent immediately that the movie was made on the cheap. The film relies on extensive rear projection work and shies away from using exteriors. All of this contributes to a certain cramped feel. This modest production is extremely effective nonetheless due to a few factors.First of all, we get a great raw-nerved, vulnerable performance from Tom Neal as our protagonist. This is complemented nicely by a vicious turn from Ann Savage as a hitchhiking femme fatale. Meanwhile, the script contributes several gems of dialogue that allow the two to really stand out. The limitations of the production actually work in the movie's favor. The cramped, constricted environment in which the characters operate becomes a pressure cooker, heightening the sense of dread as emotions boil over. On the negative side, the movie does fall victim to some clunky editing. This, along with a few other minor issues keeps me from rating this more highly.Bottom line: Worth your time for the performances of the two leads, especially if you're a film noir fan.

This is a fantastic Movie. One of the best movies I've ever seen of all time in cinema history.It is tight and carefully controlled all the way through.The pace keeps you on edge at every turn and you cant wait and cant believe what happens next in every scene.Nothing is wasted and every scene is precise with nothing more and nothing less. It is beautifully written, directed and performed. A great classic and one of my favorites of all time.A master class for all filmmakers to aspire to.

A movie with a lot of dark dim lighting portrays the era of despair and struggle. The movie used a lot of think speaking. Using off camera talking so that you could hear what the actors were thinking. His story is told in this manner as he is sitting in a diner.His travels to get to his love he gets a ride by a man that dies while he is driving and he gets out to put the top of his car up due to rain and realizes the car owner is dead. He panics and puts him in the woods and switches into his clothes and takes his identity and leaves. While trying to get the top up an officer comes by.His story continues to be told the narrative aspect of the movie being told is very detailed and breaks in and out between narrative and actual on screen speaking.He himself picks up a hitch hiker who finds out he is not who he says he is and she blackmails him. She tries to get him to come forward as Haskels son that they are searching for. Her having a hold on him via his identity so he tells her he refuses to do what she says so she attempts to call the police. The struggle over the phone from different rooms and he finds that he strangled her with the phone cord not meaning to.A wide range of events unfold for a man that was just trying to get to his true lost love. He eventually gets picked up by the police.