Editing Detour (1945 film) (section)

==Plot==
Al Roberts, an unemployed piano player, [[hitchhiking|hitches]] a ride, arriving at a roadside diner in [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]], [[Nevada]]. Another customer in the diner plays a song on the [[jukebox]] that disturbs Al, for it reminds him of his former life in [[New York City]].

Al recalls a time there when he was bitter about squandering his musical talent playing in a cheap nightclub. After his girlfriend Sue Harvey, the nightclub's lead singer, quits her job and leaves New York to seek fame in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], Al becomes depressed. After anguishing a while, Al decides to travel to [[California]] to marry Sue. With little money to his name, Al is forced to hitchhike across the country.

[[File:Detour (1945) by Edgar G. Ulmer.webm|thumb|thumbtime=10|right|''Detour'' full film; runtime 01:07:59]]

In [[Arizona]], [[Bookmaker|bookie]] Charles Haskell Jr. gives Al a ride in his convertible and tells him that he is in luck, for he is driving to [[Los Angeles]] to place a bet on a horse. During the drive, he has Al pass him his pills on several occasions, which he swallows as he drives. That night, Al drives while Haskell sleeps. When a rainstorm forces Al to pull over to put up the convertible's top, he is unable to rouse Haskell. Al opens the passenger-side door and Haskell tumbles out, falling to the ground and striking his head on a rock.

Al realizes the bookie is dead. It is likely that Haskell died earlier from a heart attack, but Al is certain that if he calls the police, they will arrest him for killing Haskell, so Al hides the body in the brush. He takes the dead man's money, clothes, and identification, and drives away, intent on abandoning the car near Los Angeles.

Al crosses into California and spends a night in a motel. The next day, as he leaves a gas station near [[Desert Center Airport]], he picks up a hitchhiker, who gives her name as Vera. At first, she travels silently with Al, who has identified himself as Haskell, but suddenly challenges his identity and ownership of the car, revealing that she had been picked up by Haskell earlier in [[Louisiana]], but got out in Arizona after he tried [[Sexual assault|to force himself on her]]. Al tells her how Haskell died, but she [[blackmail]]s him by threatening to turn him over to the police. She takes the cash that Al retrieved from Haskell's wallet and demands whatever money they get by selling the car.

In Hollywood, they rent an apartment, posing as Mr. and Mrs. Haskell, to provide an address when they sell the car. When they are about to make the sale, Vera learns from a local newspaper that Haskell's wealthy father is near death and a search is under way for his long-estranged son. Vera demands that Al impersonate Haskell and position himself to inherit the estate. Al refuses, arguing that the impersonation would require detailed knowledge he lacks.

Back at the apartment, Vera gets drunk and they begin arguing intensely. In a drunken rage, she threatens to call the police and runs into the bedroom with the telephone. She locks the door then falls on the bed and begins to fall asleep, the telephone cord tangled around her neck. From the other side of the door, Al pulls on the cord to try to disconnect the phone. When he breaks down the door, he discovers he has inadvertently strangled Vera.

Al gives up the idea of contacting Sue again and returns to hitchhiking. He later finds out that Haskell is wanted in connection with the murder of "his wife." Back in the diner in Reno where the film opened, he imagines his inevitable arrest.