Noirvember Fatale Attractions: Ann Savage in Detour (1946) 💋

Welcome to FATALE ATTRACTIONS, where the lipstick’s red, the motives are darker, and love always comes with a warning label! 

For this Noir-vember, I step into the shadows with the femmes who made film noir dangerous and unforgettable.

 

 

 

Ann Savage from Detour (1946)

 

 

 

Ann Savage in Detour (1946) isn’t just your average femme fatale, she’s the car crash itself. Vera hits the screen like a whirlwind wrapped in lipstick, all fury, no compassion. In one unforgettable moment, she takes control of both the car and the man behind the wheel, turning fate into her own chaotic joyride.

 

 

 

Across from her is Tom Neal as Al Roberts, a down-on-his-luck pianist hitchhiking his way west with more regrets than gas in the tank. After a series of grim coincidences, he finds himself behind the wheel of a dead man’s car, and when he picks up Vera, a stranger who somehow knows too much, he has no choice but to let her stay. She’s got blackmail in her eyes and his number from the moment she slides into the passenger seat.

 

 

 

 

What draws him in? The same thing that ruins him: that toxic mix of guilt, desperation, and a woman who already knows he’s doomed.

At just over an hour long, Detour hits like a punch and lingers like smoke. Edgar G. Ulmer’s low-budget masterpiece takes us down a road where fate shows no mercy, just like Vera. Despite its tiny $20,000 budget, the film became a box-office success, boasting one of the highest profit margins in noir history. In 1992, it earned a new kind of immortality as the first true “B-movie” selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

 

 

"Shut up - you're makin' noises like a husband."

 

Vera isn’t your typical femme fatale; she’s raw, vicious, and painfully real. A woman so damaged she’s dangerous. When she crashes into Al Roberts’ life, it’s not romance, it’s an explosion. He’s drawn to her because she radiates truth: she’s mean, she’s trapped, and she’ll do anything to survive. Vera doesn’t seduce; she dominates. And by the time you realize it, you’re already too late.

 

 

 

The tension between Ann Savage and Tom Neal on set was real; the two actors famously disliked each other. Their animosity bleeds through the screen, making every insult, glare, and argument feel authentic. Their clashing energies turned a shoestring noir into one of the most volatile love-hate stories ever filmed.

Savage doesn’t charm with gentleness; she entices with survival. And in the unforgiving world of Detour, that’s the most dangerous allure of all.

Fade to black… until the next Fatale Attraction.