Detour

68 minutes | 30 November 1945 | United States

‘Man is involved in two freakish accidents that make him look like a murderer. Poverty row masterwork that is the most precise elucidation of the noir theme of explicit fatalism.’ – Spencer Selby

Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Producer: Leon Fromkess
Screenplay: Martin Goldsmith
Based On: Martin Goldsmith’s 1939 novel Detour: An Extraordinary Tale
Starring: Tom Neal as Al Roberts, Ann Savage as Vera, Claudia Drake as Sue Harvey, Edmund MacDonald as Charles Haskell Jr.
Narrator: Tom Neal
Music: Leo Erdody
Cinematography: Benjamin H. Kline
Editor: George McGuire
Distributor: Producers Releasing Corporation

Downloads (via Internet Archive): 512KB MPEG4, MPEG2, Torrent

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The Internet Archive, at archive.org, is a prominent source for moving pictures in the public domain or under a Creative Commons licence. This means that they are free to stream, and in many cases to download and utilise creatively. The Internet Archive holds a collection of more than 3,000 feature films, many but not all from the silent era, and from across world cinema.

Each month I will select an available film, typically courtesy of the Internet Archive, and present it here to watch and with links to download wherever possible. The following day I will publish an analysis of the film, based on my own viewing, alongside commentary from pertinent critics. Read Detour analysis at Culturedarm.