Detour (1945)

I remember the first time that I saw Detour because I couldn’t see it all the way through! The character of Vera is so shrill, so unpleasant, that I had to take a break and start over. But since then, I have come to appreciate Ann Savage’s performance as Vera. Her performance inspired a mix of horror and fascination, which is one of the details that makes Detour so noir.

The film starts with a man, Al Roberts, stopped at night in the Nevada Diner in the middle of the desert. He is returning east and is plagued by memories of a song (a truck driver plays it on the diner’s jukebox) and a woman he loves but now feels he must forget. His memory of the events leading up to his stop in the diner are told in flashbacks. Most of the film is told by Al Roberts in flashback as he sits on a stool at the counter of the Nevada Diner. Before he starts his story, he addresses imaginary people who he doesn’t think will believe the story that he is about to tell. He uses the second-person plural: “I know what you’re gonna hand me even before you open your mouths.” “Your smug faces.” He could he be preparing himself for the day that he has to defend his actions to others, maybe even a judge and jury.

Detour is in the public domain. It’s available on DVD from The Criterion Collection, but you can also see it online. Click here to watch it for free at the Internet Archive.

When Al starts his story, the audience learns that he was, probably still is, in love with Sue Harvey. They had a nightclub act in New York City; she sang and he played piano. He wants to marry her, but she wants to try her luck in California. Al is despondent after she leaves, so he decides to go to California, too. In an effort to save money, he starts to hitchhike across the country. He poses a question, again seeming to address the audience directly: “Ever done any hitchhiking? It’s not much fun, believe me . . . Thumbing rides may save you bus fare, but it’s dangerous. You never know what’s in store for you when you hear the squeal of brakes. If only I had known what I was getting into that day in Arizona.”

Fate, one of the hallmarks of noir, is about to step in and alter Al’s plans. The way that he tells his story (and because this is noir), I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t have mattered whether Al hitchhiked or rode the bus; somehow fate would have found a way to intervene. Fate and Vera, the female hitchhiker that he picks up in Arizona, seem to wrest all control from Al. He makes some bad decisions, but he doesn’t take any responsibility for them.

(This article about Detour contains spoilers.)

Al’s troubles start in Arizona, when he is hitchhiking west to California and he is picked up by a man named Charles Haskell, Jr. Haskell makes Al a bit uncomfortable when he asks him to find his pills in the glove compartment. He makes Al even more uncomfortable when he talks about the ugly scratches on his right hand from a female hitchhiker and then about a scar that he got in a duel when he was a teenager. But he stays with Haskell because he offers to pay for his meal when they stop at a roadside diner.

That night, Al drives so that Haskell can sleep. When it starts to rain, Al tries to wake up Haskell because he wants to put up the top of the convertible. But it seems that Haskell has died in his sleep. After Al pulls over, he checks Haskell’s pulse, but there is none.

Al is worried about what to do next. His voice-over narration tells viewers that he decides to hide Haskell’s body in a ditch off the side of the road, and he eventually talks himself into taking Haskell’s money, driver’s license, and car. Then it isn’t too big a leap to convince himself to exchange clothes with Haskell and assume his identity. Al drives Haskell’s car over the California state line: He is now much closer to meeting his girlfriend Sue again and continuing on with their lives.

But when Al stops at a gas station for water to add to the car’s engine, he spies a female hitchhiker waiting at the side of the road. He offers her a ride. She accepts, although she seems very suspicious of Al. She keeps eyeing him, but his voice-over narration seems oblivious to her. He tells himself that she must be facing difficult times to be hitchhiking to California and he is the one to help her.

Fate may be playing a role in Al Roberts’s story but he makes some bad decisions, too. For instance, Al didn’t have to pull Charles Haskell’s body into the scrub land by the road, take his money, and exchange clothes with him. He could have reported the death to the police. He also didn’t have to pick up Vera, but he convinces himself that he is helping her because he assumes that she is a woman in distress. She is in distress, but she proves that she can certainly take care of herself.

Vera berates Al and threatens to turn him in because she’s sure that he killed Haskell. Al learns that Haskell had given Vera ride and threw her out of the car when she wouldn’t sleep with him. She doesn’t believe Al’s account of events, and she thinks the authorities won’t believe him ether. Al didn’t alert the authorities that Haskell died because he was afraid that they wouldn’t believe him. Now he is afraid that Vera will report him.

I was surprised that Vera doesn’t suspect Al of planning to kill her. She isn’t the typical femme fatale. She is conniving and opportunistic, but he rebuffs all her efforts to seduce him. He’s not interested in her offer of sexual favors or in her grifts. He goes along with her because he is afraid that she will go to the police and tell them what she knows about Charles Haskell’s death. In that sense, she is a femme fatale: he is still under her sway but not for the typical reasons usually associated with film noir.

Vera and fate play an outsize role in Al Roberts’s downfall. Al has already alluded to it, as I mentioned earlier when he says that he wishes he had known what was waiting for him in Arizona. Al addresses fate more directly near the end of the film, not once but twice. He believes that fate has interfered in his life and all his plans with Sue Harvey. He again addresses the audience directly, maintaining that it isn’t so farfetched that the same set of events could have happened to anybody: “That’s life,” he tells us. “Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you.” Later he says, “Fate or some mysterious force can put the finger on you or me. For no good reason at all.”

As I said, the first time I started watching Detour, I had to cut it short because I couldn’t stand listening to Vera berate Al when he picks her up hitchhiking. She barely pauses long enough to take a breath. All her lines are given in rapid-fire succession. I have to admire Ann Savage’s skill at delivering them, but I kept thinking that Al’s biggest mistake was not turning himself in just to get away from her. The second time I watched Detour, I made it all the way through and saw that Vera only got more shrill as the story went on. I almost (almost) found it comical that Al accidently kills Vera by cutting off her air supply. Al and Vera aren’t the most sympathetic characters, but I wanted to see what the heck happened to them.

Vera is an unforgettable character, and Ann Savage gives it all in her performance. She is one of many reasons to see Detour. I watched her with a mix of horror and fascination. Unlike Al Roberts, I could go along for the ride without suffering the consequences of Al’s decisions.

November 15, 1945, release date  •  Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer  •  Screenplay by Martin Goldsmith  •  Based on the novel Detour: An Extraordinary Tale by Martin Goldsmith  •  Music by Leo Erdody  •  Edited by George McGuire  •  Cinematography by Benjamin H. Kline

Tom Neal as Al Roberts  •  Ann Savage as Vera  •  Claudia Drake as Sue Harvey  •  Edmund MacDonald as Charles Haskell, Jr.  •  Tim Ryan as Gus, owner of the Nevada Diner  •  Esther Howard as Hedy, the diner waitress  •  Don Brodie as the used car salesman  •  Pat Gleason as Joe, the truck driver

Distributed by Producers Releasing Corporation, Inc. (PRC)  •  Produced by Producers Releasing Corporation, Inc.

The Las Vegas Story (1952)

The Las Vegas Story was filmed when Howard Hughes was at the helm of RKO Pictures, and he was notorious for meddling in the production of the studio’s films. His meddling became more pronounced if the film’s female lead was an actress that drew his romantic attentions. Rosalind Russell was one of those actresses and so she has a prominent place as the film’s star in the role of Linda Rollins. Because of his interest in aviation, Hughes also okayed an extended chase sequence featuring a helicopter. Even by today’s standards, the chase sequence is a bit of a thrill ride, with the helicopter maneuvering in some pretty tight spaces.

Happy (played by Hoagy Carmichael) narrates the opening of the film. He is also a character from Linda Rollins’s past and has a prominent role in the story, in addition to acting as narrator. The narrative starts with a shot of the desert; a map of Clark County, Nevada; shots of Las Vegas; and shots of The Last Chance club, where Linda used to sing and Happy still plays the piano. He still recalls the romance between Linda and Dave Andrews, and he provides details about how they met and musings about what went wrong in their relationship. He’s just guessing; he doesn’t know the facts. But it sets up expectations for what viewers are about to see.

Once Happy sets up the background and how things stand currently in Las Vegas, the film cuts to a couple on a train: Linda and Lloyd Rollins. Linda eventually left Las Vegas and married someone else, in other words, not Dave Andrews, played by Victor Mature. Lloyd wants to stop in Las Vegas; she doesn’t. He suspects she has a past there, and, of course, she does, although she doesn’t share any details with her husband. Even if viewers hadn’t been told that Linda’s past is troubling her, they could guess because the past and fate intervening in characters’ lives is a feature of film noir, and both are definitely features of The Las Vegas Story. Linda can’t talk her husband out of visiting Las Vegas, but she does give him a warning of sorts when she says to him, “You like running risks, don’t you, Lloyd?” Lloyd has made up his mind, however, and responds, “For a woman like you, a man always runs risks.”

Once the Rollinses have settled into the Fabulous Hotel in Las Vegas, Lloyd encourages Linda to find out what is haunting her from her past. Lloyd takes a magnanimous approach here. He is right when he says that Linda may never feel settled if she doesn’t face what’s troubling her, but it comes as a little bit of a surprise from a man who certainly doesn’t feel the same way about their money and her valuable possessions. All money and expensive jewelry are free for him to gamble away apparently.

(This article about The Las Vegas Story contains spoilers.)

Linda does return to The Last Chance nightclub and sees Happy still playing piano there. She has fond memories, which are shown in flashbacks that fill in a few details. The film cuts back and forth between the past and the present while Linda is standing in the club, reminiscing. In the present, Linda is also looking for Dave Andrews, but he is not in the club. Happy spots her and is thrilled to see her. Mike Fogarty, the former owner of the nightclub, is also happy to see her. Happy gets up from the piano and convinces her to stay for a visit. Linda agrees, and she also agrees to sing briefly with Happy at his piano, like old times.

I found it a bit odd that both Happy and the former manager of The Last Chance nightclub find Linda’s and Dave’s romance so intriguing. I could understand their interest in her as a woman, a singer, a person. But why were they also so interested in seeing that she and Dave reunite? This detail is never explained in the film; viewers just have to accept it as part of the story.

As if on cue, Dave actually shows up and sits at his old table while Linda is singing alongside Happy. Dave is happy to see Linda, but he is also harboring some bitterness. Linda was supposed to show up and say goodbye when he was shipped out to the South Pacific during World War II, but she never did. And she doesn’t give an explanation to him when they talk about it in the present. I side with Dave on this one. I don’t blame him for not accepting her nonresponse when they discuss it after their first meeting in years. Linda could have at least shown up and seen Dave off when he was heading to war and might never return home. Dave does return home to Las Vegas following his military service and is now a detective with the sheriff’s department. When the Rollins’s story takes a dark turn, he is naturally involved in the investigation.

At the Fabulous Hotel, Lloyd Rollins gets a phone call from Boston about someone named Monte, who has committed suicide. The implication is that Lloyd Rollins may be fleeing some financial complications back East and is in trouble. He takes Linda’s very expensive necklace and tries to use it as credit at the hotel. Drucker, the hotel manager, denies his request, but the new manager, Clayton at The Last Chance nightclub, advances $10,000 to Lloyd based on the value of his wife’s necklace. Lloyd promptly loses the money that same night, gambling it all away.

The fact that Linda stops wearing the necklace doesn’t go unnoticed. Tom Hubert (played by Brad Dexter) was hanging around and asking questions before the necklace disappeared. He is a private investigator for the East Coast Indemnity Insurance Company, which insured Linda’s necklace. He and others, including Dave Andrews, saw her wearing it soon after she and Lloyd arrived in Las Vegas. It’s never stated directly, but Hubert probably knew a little bit of Lloyd’s past business dealings and his gambling habits, and that’s probably why he was asking about the necklace in the first place. When Clayton is murdered and the necklace goes missing for good, Lloyd Rollins’s plans to make money in Las Vegas start to unravel and he becomes involved in more than one criminal investigation.

Even though I’m not a big fan of categories, I would say that The Las Vegas Story is just barely a film noir. Arguments against it are its happy ending for everyone but the two murder victims and the emphasis on the musical numbers. Yes, a lot of the film takes place in The Last Chance nightclub, Linda Rollins’s old stomping grounds, and yes, Happy is the piano-player-slash-film-narrator, but the three musical numbers struck me as one or two musical numbers too many—even though they are enjoyable, even though they make sense in a nightclub.

Victor Mature is good as Russell’s old flame Dave Andrews. He portrays the right mix of longing and bitterness over the way that things might have been. But he and Rosalind Russell are outshone by Vincent Price, who is the best reason to see The Las Vegas Story. He may not have top billing or be the male lead, but the film is so much better with him in the role of Lloyd Rollins. He shows just the right amount of oiliness to let the viewers know he’s up to no good, but he manages to fool everyone else at least some of the time. And he has some of the best lines. My favorite is the line he utters during his entrance into The Last Chance nightclub, which he sees for the first time with his wife Linda. As the two of them move past the front doors and walk into the club, he tells Linda, “Hm, I can see from here almost anything could have happened in this place—and probably did.” This just before he’ll add his own chapter to the story of The Last Chance nightclub.

January 30, 1952, release date  •  Directed by Robert Stevenson  •  Screenplay by Paul Jarrico, Earl Felton, Harry Essex  •  Based on a story by Jay Dratler  •  Music by Leigh Harline  •  Edited by Frederic Knudtson, George C. Shrader  •  Cinematography by Harry J. Wild

Jane Russell as Linda Rollins  •  Victor Mature as Dave Andrews  •  Vincent Price as Lloyd Rollins  •  Hoagy Carmichael as Happy  •  Brad Dexter as Tom Hubler, private investigator  •  Gordon Oliver as Mr. Drucker, manager at the Fabulous Hotel  •  Jay C. Flippen as Captain H. A. Harris, Dave’s boss  •  Will Wright as Mike Fogarty  •  Bill Welsh as Mr. Martin  •  Ray Montgomery as the desk clerk  •  Colleen Miller as Mary, the newlywed  •  Chester Marshall as Bill, the newlywed  •  Robert J. Wilke as Clayton, manager of The Last Chance nightclub  •  Paul Frees as the district attorney

Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.  •  Produced by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.