Detour

Zero Hour Films present
NOIRvember vol. 2
at Pleasant Street Theater

Saturday, Nov. 14  midnight only!
Special Admission $3.00

What can you say about a 69-minute grade-Z production from 1945 starring a catatonic unknown (Tom Neal) and the most metaphysically distressing actress ever to grace an American film (Ann Savage) that takes place mainly in front of a rear projection screen and a progression of minimally rendered motel rooms and roadside diners—except that it's one of the most daring and thoroughly perverse works of art ever to come out of Hollywood? The director was Edgar G. Ulmer, a master of cinematic stylization too long underappreciated.  Al (Tom Neal) a down-and-out piano player, hitchhikes from New York to Los Angeles in order to be with his singer girlfriend (Claudia Drake). Fate has other plans for Al when he steps into the car of a character named Haskel (Edmund MacDonald), who promptly dies in his sleep one night while Al is driving. Afraid the cops will never believe the truth, Al takes Haskell's money, car, and identity, and tries to make it to Los Angeles, only to have fate intervene again when he picks up a mean-spirited female hitchhiker (Ann Savage).

Edgar G. Ulmer.  1945, 69 mins