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No producer or director of the 40s and 50s set out to make a film noir. They were simply trying to put together a film that would entertain and turn a profit, dammit! During the 40s and early 50s, TV was a non-entity or a new, expensive element in entertainment --- there was no competition for the 25 cents someone spent every week going to the movies. Consequently, the output of Hollywood was prodigious and many films noir, if not viewed through a modern lens, were simply “B” pictures, inexpensive work that was part of a double bill. The genre film noir encompasses many forms of 40s and 50s stories on its shadowed and fatalistic way… Melodramas. Crimers. Caper films. Heist movies. Police procedurals. Bad girl stories. Gangster films. Detective tales. Many of these films were inexpensive and thus, not worthy of notice or subtle categorization. They were “B”s. But some of the original and most impactful of the film noir genre were low-cost films imbued with the imagination, technical aptitude, and drive of their creators to transcend the double bill. They’re a credit to the people who worked to put forward the best story possible, regardless of the constraints of budget. Unsung heroes. 

So, we’re going to warm up the new season with a few of the under-funded “B” pictures that stood noir up on its legs and paved the way for more sumptuous, but no more impactful productions. We’re going to start with an orphan of Poverty Row filmmaking, from the fabulous Producers Releasing Corporation, fresh from the war, 1945’s Detour, directed by Edgar Ulmer and with a twosome at the top of the cast who made your hair curl with fatalism and dread. Noir enough for you? The tale begins in 1939 during the heyday of pulp magazines and their oeuvre, with a novel by Martin Goldsmith, titled Detour: An Extraordinary Tale. Indeed… 

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