Detour

At a Reno, Nevada diner along a desolate highway, the depressed and ill-tempered Al Roberts (Tom Neal) ruminates in voice over about his life and what has led him to this place in time. In frequent voice-over narration, Al wanted to be a classical pianist, but he eked out a living playing at a half-empty New York City night spot called the Breaks of Dawn Club. What made it tolerable was the he loved the club's singer Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake). She had decided to put off their impeding wedding until they had both realized their professional ambitions. So, she left him to travel out to Hollywood, California to become a star. When Al next spoke to her by phone, she was slinging hash in Los Angeles. They decided that waiting for success was not secondary to their being together, and agrees to marry as soon as Al hitched out to California. It was not easy for Al to get rides, and he quickly ran out of money. In Arizona, Al accepts a ride from Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald), a tough-talking man who said he would drive Al all the way to L.A. Haskell even bought Al a meal at a local roadside diner. As they drove along, Haskell told Al that the fresh scratches on his hand were from a female hitchhiker he had tossed out of his car. During a storm, Al drove the car while Haskell slept. When Al finds himself dozing off, he tried to awaken Haskell only to discover that he was dead, possibly from taking too many "uppers" pills while driving. Afraid that he would be falsely arrested for murder, Al dumped Haskell along the side of the road and took his wallet, clothes, and car and drove off. At a gas station somewhere in California, Al picks up Vera (Ann Savage), who blurts out, "Where did you leave his body?" It turns out that Vera had accepted a ride from Haskell earlier and she is the one who has given him the scratches on his hand. Threatening to summon the police, Vera forces Al to pose as Haskell in order to collect an inheritance from the man's millionaire father. Al and Vera arrive in Los Angeles and then drove from there to San Bernardino where they checked into a hotel as husband and wife. Vera does not let Al out of her sight, which was doubly bad for him because she was awful company. She drank and traded insults with him. That night, Al and Vera argued viciously. She got drunk and kept threatening to call the police on him. When he saw she was serious about doing so, Al knocked her down. Vera took the phone into the bedroom and locked the door. In the living room, Al tried rip the cord out of the wall. But the wire had gotten tangled around Vera's neck as he pulled on the wire and she was strangled to death, When he saw what had happened, he knew he would be arrested. In the final scene, Al finished his narration as he walks out of the diner. Vera's body has been discovered. Al wonders what life would be like if Haskell had just passed by. A police car arrives and the policeman arrests him. Al Roberts knows that fate has played a cruel trick on him.