ABSTRACT
Detour has long inspired independent filmmakers looking to make lasting cinema with almost no money. You can literally see Detour’s low budget in the barren sets and locations, limited set-ups, and the absence of stars – characteristic features of B-film production in the 1930s and 1940s. But the filmmakers clearly spent creative resources on many subtleties and flourishes in the storytelling, finding imaginative solutions to their financial problems. We can see in Detour’s aesthetic properties traces of the B-movie system that produced it. Budget constraints determined the film’s style, forcing unorthodox solutions to economic challenges. Poverty Row filmmakers sought creative ways to tell stories with little time for production and little money for sets, locations, and actors. Unlike their studio counterparts, they worked under loose supervision, targeted smaller audiences, and rejected glamor. In this environment, Detour is not so much an outlier as an exemplar of what could be achieved within the low-budget independent filmmaking apparatus of the studio era. Detour takes some characteristic traits of the B-film style of the period – a meandering plot, unusual characters, and a minimalist visual style – and transforms them into aesthetic virtues unavailable within the stylish style of a studio production.
