Baby-faced piano-player Al Roberts hitch-hikes from New York to Los Angeles after his starstruck aspiring actress girlfriend Sue, only to be detoured by fate along the way. Pretty soon, he's "tussling with the most danerous animal in the world…woman." It's a tale of double manslaughter, extortion, mistaken identity and the uncontrollability of one's destiny, the former of which, actor Neal would be convicted of sixteen years later, under far less dubious circumstances.

Made on a shoestring budget of $100, 000 on 3 sets with some location shooting in under a month, Edgar G Ulmer's Detour paved the low road for poverty row film noir in America's postwar years. Often heralded for it's gloomy atmospherics and snappy dialogue, this shoddy yet sublime article has endured.