Ann Savage, RIP

[GA Russell]

Detour is widely regarded as the best film noir ever, so I really looked forward to seeing it when I picked up the DVD about a year ago. I didn't think it was as good as I had hoped, but it stuck with me, which I guess is the mark of a good picture.

Ann Savage died Christmas Day. Here's some of her lengthy LA Times obit:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,7639041.story

...But Savage was best-known for director Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 B-movie "Detour," in which she played a woman ruthlessly blackmailing a stranger, played by Tom Neal.

"It's actually a showcase role," Adamson said. "Neal and Savage really reversed the traditional male-female roles of the time. She's vicious and predatory . . . and he's very, very passive. It's very unusual for a '40s film to have a woman come on that strong."...

She was eventually under contract at Columbia Pictures and started a career in a series of B movies, but she had little respect for much of the work.

"They were mindless," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1985. "The actresses were just scenery. The stories all revolved around the male actors; they really had the choice roles. All the actresses had to do was to look lovely, since the dialogue was ridiculous."

But "Detour," which she made for Producers Releasing Corp., was something different.

The role, at first, gave her pause. "I had just come off a lot that kept me looking absolutely perfect," she said. "But Vera was not a pretty woman: She was maniacal. Edgar objected to my hair looking so neat and had the hairdresser run cold cream through it to make it streaky and stringy. He even made sure my face stayed dirty . . . and shiny."

After the critical acclaim for "Detour," Savage had dreams of a real career as an actress. But it never happened...

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

studio forgot to renew the copyright years ago so it full into the public doman a while back- you can find it for .99 cents at drugstores as a chineese knockoff

[Jazzmoose]

Detour is widely regarded as the best film noir ever...

Widely? I don't know about that. Detour is like a bloody car wreck; you can't help slowing down to look, but the word 'best' hardly applies. To me, Detour is like a dream that reveals more about the dreamer in the retelling than the dreamer would conciously chose to reveal. However, as film noir it's no where near the level of, say, Out of the Past.

[Bright Moments]

[AllenLowe]

reminds me of the old joke about the aphrodisiac for sale "that made Oscar Wilde and Lucille Ball." Guess we can add: "and Ann Savage."

[Bright Moments]

reminds me of the old joke about the aphrodisiac for sale "that made Oscar Wilde and Lucille Ball." Guess we can add: "and Ann Savage."

and ron moody!

uh oh - i feel a game coming on!

[AllenLowe]

and George - uhh, never mind -

[JSngry]

and George - uhh, never mind -

Blanda?

[AllenLowe]

think El Presidente - it's somewhat imprecise -

[AllenLowe]

how about "Victor Mature" ?

[AllenLowe]

and anybody who says "and Allen Lowe" is gonna get reported to the moderators -

[JSngry]

Louis' Arm Strong!

[JSngry]

Stanley Crouch?

[Bright Moments]

Vida Blue

[BERIGAN]

Loretta Young

Ray Noble

making Doris' Day is a stretch....

[JSngry]

Marvin Gaye?

Stevie Wonder?

Tom Terrific?

[AllenLowe]

"making Doris' Day is a stretch...."

I know what you mean; I tried, but she's too damn tall -

everybody's got the hang of it now -

[medjuck]

Back on topic: This obit doesn't mention that Detour was shot incredibly quickly even for a B movie. IIRC in one week. Maybe it was 2.

[BERIGAN]

Back on topic: This obit doesn't mention that Detour was shot incredibly quickly even for a B movie. IIRC in one week. Maybe it was 2.

I have never seen even an average print of it, does UCLA, anyone have one????

[BruceH]

I've long thought Detour one of the trashiest (and silliest) noirs ever.

It certainly confers a type of immortality on Ann Savage though.

[BruceH]

Detour is widely regarded as the best film noir ever...

Widely? I don't know about that. Detour is like a bloody car wreck; you can't help slowing down to look, but the word 'best' hardly applies. To me, Detour is like a dream that reveals more about the dreamer in the retelling than the dreamer would conciously chose to reveal. However, as film noir it's no where near the level of, say, Out of the Past.

Very true.

At some point along the way Detour, thanks in no small part to its very primitivism, got a reputation as a sort of "ur-Noir." But that sure don't necessarily mean "best."