Shot in six days ?

Not only it had a small budget, was filmed in "six days", but also is in good quality. This movie is one of the best.

I've seen films made 20, even 50 years later and the quality isn't as good as Detour.

Detour RULES!!!

I'd never have known it was shot so fast and on so low a budget just from watching it. The only thing that made me suspect anything was the short running time and that was the only disapointing part, I wanted more. Absoloutly superb both as part of Noir and just as a damn good film.

Imagine asking a film maker to make a movie in six days in 2006. They'd laugh in your face.

There is some debate about that. It has a reported shooting schedule of 28 days, but many say that it was completed in 14 days. I recently watched the Ulmer documentary in which they were tracking down the truth of this. It was said, if I recall correctly, that they would say they needed the full 28 days because upcoming projects might depend on more time. If they said they wrapped in half the time or less, they might be expected to work at that breakneck pace on other films. This bought them more time. I seem to recall that they questioned the six-day rumor.

I'd like to see the documentary again since it was later in the evening, when I might not have been as focused. (That bad ol' fibrofog...)

I first saw "Detour" very late at night on a local PBS station, a very grainy copy. I was captivated and wondered if I'd ever see it again. That must have been in the Nineties or at least before I was on the Net. I had to rely on my library of film books to learn more about the tragic Tom Neal. It's as if it was Neal on the screen not acting but AS the character. There was so much darkness in his life. I would love to see the color remake of "Detour" just to see Tom Neal, Jr., in the role his father played.

Tonight, TCM led off its road pictures theme with "Detour". Hooray!



(W)hat are we without our dreams?
Making sure our fantasies
Do not overpower our realities. ~ RC

Ann Savage claimed it was shot in six days. Notation on a copy of the script says fourteen. Maybe she meant her scenes took six days. She was only in about two thirds of the movie.