Film

Detour

Name: Detour
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: 1945
Cast: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald, Tim Ryan

Other titles called Detour: the 2017 film.

Thriller
Drama
Very dark

A pianist hitchhikes west to find his girlfriend and encounters a femme fatale whose blackmail spirals into genuine nightmare. Shot on a shoestring in 1945, it's lean, fevered, and genuinely haunting—a masterclass in how constraint breeds intensity. For anyone who thinks noir requires a big budget or a household name.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like noir built on fatalism and a narrator who keeps explaining his own bad luck, the kind of cheap-studio economy where a few rooms and a car carry the whole mood.

Skip it if you need brisk plotting and a sense of forward motion, since this is talky, cramped and often static, with long stretches that stay in one place.

What it asks of you: Roughly seventy minutes of slow-burning dread that stays hemmed into a few cramped rooms and a car, so it rewards settling in rather than skimming.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

In a Lonely Place1950

Humphrey Bogart as a volatile screenwriter suspected of murder. Like Detour, it's obsessed with how quickly circumstance can trap you, and how your own nature might be your real enemy. Beautifully shot and deeply sad.

But Slower and more introspective than you'd expect from a noir thriller. The pacing rewards patience, but impatience will feel like drag.

Gun Crazy1950

A couple on the run, told with stunning visual style and genuine desperation. It has Detour's sense that fate is a closing trap, but adds romance and violence. Influential, and you'll see why immediately.

But The final act gets brutal. It's not gratuitous, but it doesn't look away, and that will unsettle some viewers.

The Killing1956

Kubrick's racetrack heist told in fractured time. A small group of criminals, a simple plan that goes catastrophically wrong, and the creeping sense that they were doomed before they started. Tense and clever.

But The nonlinear structure works against emotional investment if you're not tracking it closely. Easy to get lost, harder to care.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Detour

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Ace in the Hole1951

Both are about characters whose own appetites doom them faster than any external enemy. Both use desperation as the real villain.

Billy Wilder's cruelest film. A journalist manipulates a mining disaster to resurrect his career. It has Detour's sense that you can trap yourself through your own nature, but it's darker and more savage about human weakness.

But It's bleak in a way that doesn't offer comfort or redemption. Kirk Douglas is repulsive. The audience in 1951 hated it. You might too.

Sweet Smell of Success1957

Manhattan at night, a gossip columnist and a fixer locked in a dance of mutual destruction. The dialogue is extraordinary, and the city itself feels like a character trapping both men. Acid and gorgeous.

But The pacing is unhurried, almost theatrical. Modern audiences find it mannered. The misogyny is also period-authentic and will rankle.

The Asphalt Jungle1950

The blueprint for every heist film after it. A careful plan, a professional crew, and the human weakness that unravels everything. Taut, intelligent, and genuinely suspenseful. Huston directing.

But It's a heist setup more than a payoff. If you're watching for action, you'll be disappointed. It's about waiting and inevitability.

Out of the Past1947

Robert Mitchum trying to escape his past and finding that the past will not let him. Gorgeous cinematography, a femme fatale you'd fall for too, and a sense of doom that feels both inevitable and unfair.

But Plot takes a backseat to mood and atmosphere. If you need clarity and forward momentum, the languorous pacing will test you.

Kiss Me Deadly1955

Mike Hammer in a Los Angeles so seedy and violent it feels like another planet. Robert Aldrich directing, full of kinetic energy and real danger. A man following a thread that pulls the whole world apart.

But Graphic violence for 1955. The ending divides people sharply. It's also mordantly misogynistic, which the film itself seems aware of but doesn't apologize for.

The Killers1946

Two assassins arrive in a small town to kill an ex-boxer. Siodmak directing a story about how one bad decision echoes forever. Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. Expertly constructed.

But The narrative structure jumps around. Some sequences feel padded. It's not as taut as Detour—it's longer and looser without always justifying the space.

The Third Man1949

Both trap their protagonist through information discovered too late. Both are about discovering that someone you trusted was never trustworthy at all.

Post-war Vienna, a dead friend, and a secret that rewrites everything you thought you understood. Carol Reed directing, Orson Welles in shadow, and a zither score that sounds like the city itself. Visually sumptuous and endlessly rewatchable.

But The novella it's based on is better than the film. It's been canonized and loved so thoroughly that freshness is hard to find. It demands patience for atmosphere over plot.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie1976

Both are about ordinary men spiraling into criminal nightmare through one bad choice. Both use repetition and monotony to suggest how quickly life becomes unbearable.

A strip-club owner agrees to kill for gangsters and descends into a nightmare of his own making. Cassavetes directing, Ben Gazzara giving everything. Raw, alive, and genuinely unnerving. Like Detour but modern and feverish.

But The audio is often muddy. The pacing is deliberately slow and repetitive. It looks cheap because it was cheap. The indie aesthetic will exhaust some viewers.