Detour

Detour (1945) is a classic American noir you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage. Shot in six days on a shoestring budget at PRC, one of Hollywood's poverty-row studios.

Pianist Al Roberts is hitchhiking from New York to Los Angeles to find his girlfriend. A ride goes wrong — his benefactor turns up dead, and Al takes the man's car, wallet, and name. The plan is simple. Then Vera gets in the car. She already knows exactly who Al is, and she plans to use it.

Ulmer turned the production's limitations into a style: no glamour, no safety net, just rain-slicked roads, voiceover narration that telegraphs doom from the first line, and Ann Savage delivering one of the most coldly dangerous performances the genre ever produced. Detour was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1992 for its cultural significance — remarkable for something that cost almost nothing to make. Stream Detour online on iFILM.