I watched Detour last night.  I last saw it about ten years ago.  Well worth seeing again.  The film is about an hour long but packs a wallop.  The story is told in flashback format.  Tom Neal plays Al Roberts, a struggling piano player who is in love with barroom singer Sue Harvey.  For reasons that are unclear, probably because she wants to ditch our poor friend Al, Sue heads to LA sans Al, to start over and make it big.  Al, smitten about her, decides to hitchhike from New York to LA to re-unite with her.  Or so he hopes.  In true noir fashion the fun, or trouble, begins.  Al hitches a ride somewhere in Arizona with a fast talking con man who is on his way to LA.  Al drives for a bit as our hustler falls asleep.  A long sleep it is as he has a heart attach and dies.  Poor Al panics and thinking the cops will never believe the truth, steals the con man's identity and money and drives his car to California.  Al is beset with uncertainty and confusion. He stops for gas and sees a hitchhiker, Ann Savage, and offers her a ride. His moral uncertainty is now replaced with fear.  Savage plays the femme fatale to perfection.  Slowly, Al gets deeper and deeper into her web of deceit and blackmail.  It does not end well for Savage but our  noirish hero ends up broken spiritually and financially.  The film touches all the noir bases:  a decent man who is morally conflicted, an evil woman who pushes him in the wrong direction, and an ending that is anything but happy.