Detour

press release: USA | 1945 | DCP | 67 min.

Director: Edgar G. Ulmer

Cast: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake

While driving west, an unemployed musician (Neal) becomes the blackmail victim of a vicious hitchhiker (Savage). Shot on the ultra-cheap in less than two weeks, Ulmer’s sleazy mise-en-scene and unmistakably fatalistic attitude make this a definitive example of film noir. Seen only in splicy, scratchy versions for years, this new restoration of Detour by the Academy Film Archive breathes new life into a shadowy, low-budget classic. Preceded by the animated UPA short Rooty Toot Toot (1951, 7 min.)

Special Presentations: Spring 2018 special presentations include stunning new restorations of Edgar G. Ulmer’s poverty row film noir classic Detour; Andrei Tarkovsky’s Soviet masterpiece Andrei Rublev; and Marcel Pagnol’s delightful humanist comedy, The Baker’s Wife. Plus, Wim Wenders Pina in 3D and Professor J.J. Murphy will present a 35mm print of Abel Ferrara’s Madonna vehicle Dangerous Game and discuss its relevance to his new book, Rewriting Indie Cinema.