Detour (1945) is high noir, low budget and endlessly fascinating.  Like many of Edgar G. Ulmer’s films it was shot in 6 days;  ‘Just visualise it,’ said Ulmer, ‘eighty set-ups a day.’  It’s hard to visualise, but it sure is heroic.  Normally, this approach would produce a clunky and directionless mess, but occasionally as here, it can still produce a gem.  It's what they used to call a 'poverty row quicky', for the high-speed and low-expense of its production, and there is something about this format that really lets the subversive implications of noir rise to the surface.

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