Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		5.0

Detour Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 15, 2019

Edgar G. Ulmer's "Detour" (1945) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the new restoration of the film; the documentary "Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen"; and restoration program featuring an interview with restorers Mike Pogorzelski and Heather Linville. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The piano player and his girl

I would like to do something that I have not done in the past, which is tell you exactly how to start your experience with the new 4K restoration of Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour. I realize that this is probably not a very polite thing to do, but I am certain that if you do as I recommend below your appreciation of it will be far greater than you initially might have thought possible.

When in a couple of weeks this disc arrives in your home and you load it up in your player, go straight to its ‘Special Features’ section and view the new program with Mike Pogorzelski and Heather Linville, the key people behind the restoration. Why should you do it? Because you will hear directly from the experts that what is on this disc was quite simply unthinkable as recently as a few years ago -- there were no digital tools that would allow the removal of the printed Flemish and French subtitles from the wonderful nitrate print that Cinémathèque royale de Belgique provided and then reconstruct and conform all of the footage that came from the different 16mm and 35mm surviving elements without crucial visual compromises. Also, because you will see visual comparisons that utilize portions of ungraded footage that came from the actual 4K scans and realize how much more had to be done with them later on, as well as visual comparisons between archival footage and new graded footage that was conformed during the reconstruction process. Folks, what Pogorzelski and Linville are confirming here is exactly what so many older film enthusiasts have been writing on different forums and blogs in recent years -- this is a very, very special time to be a film enthusiast and collector, because what you now have the opportunity to see was literally impossible less than a decade ago.

Detour is just over an hour long, but that is enough for it to leave a lasting impression. It is essentially a hellish nightmare that has come alive and the man right in the middle of it describes its different phases.

His name is Al Roberts (Tom Neal) and he is a lonely pianist from New York who is heading to LA to reunite with his beautiful girlfriend (Claudia Drake). Somewhere in Arizona, he is picked up by Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald), a complete stranger, who does not mind having a passenger in his fancy car. They talk, then have lunch in a nearby café, and eventually switch places so that the driver can take a nap.

But when the stranger refuses to wake up, Al begins to follow his instincts and quickly gets himself in a lot of trouble. First, while he attempts to remove the cold body from the car, he drops it and hits the head on a large stone. Then he assumes the dead man’s identity and pockets his money, but at a gas station picks up Vera (Ann Savage), who is also heading to LA, and she stuns him when she announces that she was in a relationship with the previous owner of the car. In Hollywood, the two rent an apartment together and Vera urges Al to consider a con job that will make them rich quick, but when he refuses to remain an impostor, she threatens to call the police. Another odd accident then produces a new body that he has to deal with.

The film was made cheaply and quickly, but it has such wonderful buildup and atmosphere that it actually feels like a lean project that someone had developed for decades. For example, the transformation of Neal’s hitchhiker into a marked man that fate is determined to destroy is perfectly intertwined with a very heavy noirish pessimism that only the genre’s greatest and much more expensive classics are known for. Then there is Savage’s powerhouse performance that basically turns the second half upside down because she becomes the macho character and then doubles-down on the cynicism.

Ulmer and cinematographer Benjamin Kline make the most of the ordinary locations and they end up looking brilliant. A dusty desert road, a gas station in the middle of nowhere, a lonely diner in Nevada. It does not get any better than this. It is classic noir territory.

*The original camera negative for Detour is lost. The new 4K restoration was prepared from multiple surviving elements by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, in association with Cinémathèque royale de Belgique, The Museum of Modern Art, and Cinematheque Francaise. Funding was provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

Detour Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The release is sourced from a brand new 4K restoration which is also a very complex reconstruction that utilizes footage from multiple surviving elements, with the best one being a nitrate print that was provided by Cinémathèque royale de Belgique. I think that the end result is astonishing. I have seen a couple of very poor DVD releases of this classic film and I can assure you that the new Blu-ray release basically offers an entirely new viewing experience. Indeed, the improvements in terms of depth, clarity, and fluidity are so drastic that it is absolutely pointless to do any direct comparisons with previous releases. There are a few minor density fluctuations where different elements were used, but there are of the type that you would see on conventional restoration projects of older films. I viewed the restoration program in which Mike Pogorzelski and Heather Linville explain some of the complex challenges that the restoration team was presented with and when later on I viewed the film I just could not spot any anomalies at all. (The diner sequence looks terrific now). I would like to specifically comment on the grading because it was another area where a lot of adjustments were needed, and as you could probably tell from the screencaptures that we have included with our review the overall balance is wonderful. Image stability is great. Debris, scratches, damage marks, stains, cuts, and warps have been completely removed. This really is a dream presentation that will make plenty of folks ecstatic. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Detour Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio was fully restored by Audio Mechanics and I think that the lossless track sounds great. I turned up the volume quite a bit and the sound is very clean and free of distortions or other similar age-related imperfections. Overall balance and the range of dynamics are also very pleasing.

Detour Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Restoration Trailer - original trailer for the new 4K restoration of Detour. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p).

• Restoring Detour - in this outstanding new program, restorers Mike Pogorzelski and Heather Linville discuss some of the complex challenges that they were presented with over the years while trying to reconstruct and restore Detour. The program was produced in 2018. (11 min, 1080p).

• Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen - this archival documentary focuses on the life and legacy of director Edgar G. Ulmer. Included in it are clips from interviews with Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Peter Bogdanovich, Wim Wenders, John Landis, Ann Savage, and film historians Michael Omasta and Christian Cargnelli, amongst others. The documentary was produced in 2004. In English and German, with English subtitles where necessary. (66 min, 1080i).

• Noah Isenberg - in this new video interview, Noah Isenberg, author of the British Film Institute's monograph on Detour and Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins, discusses Detour and the life and career of its creator. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in New York in November 2018. In English, not subtitled. (22 min, 1080p).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by poet Robert Polito, as well as technical credits.

Detour Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This upcoming release of the new 4K restoration of Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour will end up being one of the high-definition format's biggest jewels. The restoration was such a complex project it seems like even some of the experts that were directly involved with it weren't entirely convinced that the end result could be as good as it is now. Kudos to Mike Pogorzelski and Heather Linville for their incredible work and passion as well as everyone else that contributed to make this project such an incredible success. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.