Detour Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer (1945)
A piano player, Al, sets off hitch hiking his way to However while driving; Al stops to put the top up of the car because it was raining heavily. He discovers that the owner of the car has died in his sleep. Al (stupidly) dumps the body in a gully, takes the stranger's money, clothes, and ID and then drives off in his expensive car, because he knew that he would get done in by the police if he said that the stranger just died in his sleep.
After spending the night in a motel, he picks up hitchhiker, Vera, (a femme fatale), who had earlier ridden with the man who died, and she begins to ask questions and then threatens to turn him in for murdering the stranger unless he gives her all the money.
They then arrive in Hollywood, and they rent an apartment, while trying to sell the car for extra cash, they read a newspaper and found out that the stranger was about to collect a large inheritance of the family. Vera demands that Al impersonate the stranger, but Al balks at this notion. When the two get drunk in the apartment and begin arguing, a snubbed Vera takes Al up on his earlier dare to call the police, whereupon Al accidentally strangles her with a telephone cord while pulling it to stop Vera from calling the police.
Al starts hitchhiking east again, and is waiting for the police to pick him up ad take him in. And it finishes with him getting picked up by the police, but, and now a big but, is that we don't know whether it was a dream, reality, or he was just getting a lift. The voice over at the end questions the audience and leaves it on a cliffhanger.
Detour uses many characteristics of a film nor, flash backs, venetian blind affect, shadowns, femme fatale, everyday guy, and they all work to creat in my personal opinion the best film noir out there. And also because i like the ending of the film.
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