Vera from DETOUR (1945)

Film noir and its losers...

Image from the seeingthingssecondhand.com blog

Yeah, yeah, I know. Why not Al Roberts, Carol? Isn't he the perfect film noir loser if there ever was one? Yes. Al Roberts is the ultimate film noir loser. Not only is he doomed from the start, but he also delivers the line that best incapsulates the world of film noir. He's perfect for this publication. So why Vera and not Al? Because without her, he may have come out of it almost unscathed.

Written by Martin Goldsmith and adapted from his novel of the same name, Detour (1945, dir. Edgar G. Ulmer) is possibly the best B-noir of them all. Al Roberts (Tom Neal) sits at a cafe in Reno, reminiscing about his past: New York City, years ago. He and his girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake) perform in a nightclub; he plays the piano, she sings. They dream about going to Hollywood, what else? She ends up going without him, and he promises to meet her there. With no money and no way of getting to California, he hitch-hikes. Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald) picks him up. Then dies. Al decides to get rid of his body, assume his identity and then sell the car. Except... somewhere along the way, he picks up a hitchhiker. Vera (Ann Savage) knows what he did: she was herself picked up by Haskell a while back, and Al Roberts is no Charles Haskell...

At just one hour and seven minutes, Detour is the shortest film in this publication, and the one I wish was longer. Its immense sense of doom is almost unreal. There is nothing in Detour to comfort you. It is utterly void of hope. And Al Roberts is a brilliant noir protagonist if there ever was one. All he wanted was to go to California and be with the love of his life. Instead, he finds himself in Reno, with a dead body. This is perhaps the most significant moment in his life. He needs to make a decision. And his decision leads him down the path of destruction. But the thing is, if you can suspend disbelief and concede that is he indeed a reliable narrator, which is up for debate, then you could argue that he really had no choice. He's not a bad person, he just had to make a choice. He didn't bring this on himself, not entirely anyway.

'Fate, or some mysterious force, can put the finger on you on me, for no good reason at all.’ Al Roberts

And then there was Vera. If Haskell's death could have given Al a way out, then meeting Vera sealed his fate. Vera had as rough a childhood as Margot Shelby, and is as selfish as Kathie Moffatt. Only she's not as glamourous as either one of them. She's more like Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage, which I'm convinced is the inspiration for Savage's performance. She's crass, brash and utterly vicious. She wants money, obviously, and she won't be coy about it either. You know what she wants, Al knows what she wants, and that's that. And when she realizes that Al stole Haskell's identity, she's out for blood.

'Shut up! You're a cheap crook and you killed him.' Vera

Vera is a metaphor for Detour itself. Famously one of Poverty Row's biggest hits, Detour had a low budget, and it looked like it. But its stark cinematography and editing style ended up working in its favor. That's just what Detour needed. A rugged, rough look and feel to it, to match its content. And while Al Roberts is the soul of Detour, Vera is the face of it. She's as raw and real as can be. She won't suffer fools, and she won't waste any time getting what she wants. Her confidence is almost intimidating. Except for a few scenes where she seems to realize the potential of her alluring sensuality and clumsily tries to use it to her advantage, she is no seductress, unlike most femmes fatale. She's only interested in herself and her needs. And she needs money and a way out of the hellhole that is her life as soon as possible. So she tries to throw Al under the bus. She actively tries to ruin his life, while trying to make a better life for herself. She is the final nail in Al Roberts' coffin. Perhaps he had it coming, if you don't believe his tale, but if you do, then you're probably rooting for him a little bit. Sue was waiting; Hollywood was waiting. And Vera was waiting by the side of the road.

We bid farewell to Vera and Detour. Our next loser is a weasel who wants what everybody wants. The film is The Maltese Falcon (1941), the actor is Peter Lorre and the loser... is Joel Cairo.

See you on the sunny side of the street.