Previously watched film #2:
Detour is a 1945 American poverty row noir film starring Tom Neil, Ann Savage and Claudia Drake and directed by Edgar G. Ulmer.
Really, this is the best example of a poverty row film that I can give. As far as I can tell, it might've been done for as little as $20,000, but man is it a bang for the buck. Poverty row studios were sort of like the indies of today. They shot B pictures on shoestring budgets. Often, these movies gained very little critical attention at the time they came out. However, some of them (like detour) have gained attention since then.
Detour is a short, fundamentally flawed film, but it races forward and explodes on impact. It's well paced and powerful. It's got the typical archetypes of the genre (the vitriol spewing femme fatale, for instance), but they're used in an incredibly interesting fashion.
I would describe all of the performances as passable. Tom Neil plays a quietly depressed man, which he does a good job at. Ann savage seldom looses her crunched up expression of rage and hate and general pissed-off-ness, which is at times a a bit funny but works for the part. Throughout the movie, this is really the only feeling that she expresses. I would have likes to see a bit more range. Claudia Drake's performance is pretty unremarkable, but it's not a travesty or anything. None of the performances are terribly naturalistic, but for this type of movie they don't need to be.
The script is dynamic, hard hitting and incredibly climactic. The dialogue is pretty well written. Most of the supporting characters (ie. everyone but Tom Neil) are a bit one dimensional. Even Tom Neil's character feels like he's really just there to serve the plot. This isn't a movie that you'll want to go to if you're looking for character drama.
The music is pretty unremarkable, but there was a scene where the protagonist l plays a piano that I particularly enjoyed. So much so, in fact, that I sampled it in the short film that I shot this summer.
The dialogue is clear enough, and the sound effects are fine (for a 1945 poverty row noir), but there's a cracking in the background throughout. This is something that you come to expect from films like this, though. Nothing to be dome except for maybe a full restoration.
A full restoration seems pretty unlikely, though, because the film has entered into the public domain. It's an excellent example of B noirs, and I full heartedly recommend it. You can probably find it on YouTube if you look.
I give it a 7/10