Movie for February 2008

Detour
Starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage

This is Noir all the way, baby. There's the cheeky narration filled with the hard-luck story, encounters with shady characters, and the downward spiral so common in Noir. Men wear fedoras. Women are dames. Everyone smokes.
Mystery starts right away as poor Al (Tom Neal) hitches a ride with a hitchhiker "goin' all the way to L.A." The driver has three scratches on his right hand from the wildest of animals...a woman. When she refused his advances, he tossed her out on the road. (Clearly, sexual harrassment was not considered a crime back then.)

The driver buys Al a meal and then falls asleep, never to wake again. And that's just the beginning of poor Al's trouble.

Several times during the movie I found myself saying, "Stop! You idiot! Don't do it!" But Al didn't listen to me, and I had to watch that inevitable downward spiral that is Noir, not liking Al, but unable to look away from his predicament.

A happy ending? No way. But a good film for the genre of Noir. For the true collector, this is a "must have" not a rental. For those sissies out there who aren't real fans...don't even bother watching it. You won't get it and you certainly won't appreciate it.