Last year, between the two of us, we watched an average of 317 movies.
This year our goal is to top that by watching at least one a day.
And as an extra special torture, we've decided to write about all of them.

07 March 2008

Detour, dir. Edgar G. Ulmer (1945)

NIKKI says:
We decided to end Hitchcock week, and head into Noir Night, with Detour. We picked it because the plot sounded too good to resist -- a hitchhiker takes a ride from a guy who dies during their ride. To avoid suspicion of murder, the hitchhiker takes on the driver's identity. He then picks up a hitchhiker who knows his dastardly secret!

Come on, right? Perfect noir set-up. I enjoyed it, though it had its faults. I wondered why he didn't just go to the cops. If the guy died of natural causes or whatever, surely that would be revealed. But then, I'm forced to think back to The Wrong Man, and I'm with Al in this movie -- if ever I ride with a dead man, I might just cover it up, too.

Particularly brilliant in this movie, and something I'd love to see redone in a modern film, is the death scene involving the telephone wire. How great was that? Ulger is definitely a Hitchcock rival as far as tension and horror goes. I enjoyed it, and will watch more like it, for sure. I do think this is ready for a remake, too.

3/5