Fri 5 Dec 2014
DETOUR TO DANGER. Planet Pictures, 1946. Britt Wood, John Day, Nancy Brinckman, Eddie Kane, Fred Kelsey, Si Jenks, Eddie Parker, Ashley Cowan, Bud Wolfe, Ken Terrell. Screenwriter: Alan James. Producer-directors: Harvey Parry & Richard Talmadge.
I’m not going to kid you. This is one really bad movie, put together by a group of amateurs, I’d bet you think by looking at the credits, but you’d be wrong. Not about this being a bad movie, since it is, but the men behind it, from the producers-directors on down, all had lengthy careers in the movies. Almost all of them have long lists of movies they were involved with in some way or another, some of them up to 300 entries long, perhaps more, going back to the silent days.
Mostly in bit roles, to be sure, or as stunt men. The leading man, John Day (John Daheim) and both directors did stunt work in loads of movies. They must have decided to put up the financing together to form Planet Pictures, which made only one other movie, Jeep Herders, also in 1946, and while they also probably went broke very quickly, they must have had a lot of fun doing so.
The plot is nothing, and it’s poorly told. A gang of payroll robbers are forced to land their getaway plane near a summer resort spot somewhere near Big Bear Lake in southern California, where they mingle with the guests until two fishing buddies, Speedy (Britt Wood, and the funny one) and Steve (John Day, the husky clean-cut one) save the day.
While the crime solving is inept, the romance is even worse. Things are livened up a little when a runaway excursion wagon filled with screaming girls is saved by the two heroes in their beat-up old jalopy, and a fight scene that lasts the final five minutes, much of it taking place in an another runaway truck careening its way down a narrow mountain road.
What’s remarkable is that this movie was filmed in color. What’s even more remarkable that this movie still exists today, but only Alpha Video would believe it was worth releasing on DVD.
December 6th, 2014 at 2:48 pm
One of the most valuable contributions that you make, Steve, is to warn us about stuff on which not to waste our time. I don’t know that there would be anything about this one that might have attracted me anyway. Some movies that were worth watching are now lost. This one seems to fit into its own category. I’m glad for the description though. Is there anything redeeming about this film?
December 6th, 2014 at 4:01 pm
I’d call this one a Grade D film, because it was not made by amateurs. There are films made that are simply awful, starting mostly in the 1950s, and mostly of the utterly inept Sci-Fi or Horror Schlock variety. Except as a small piece of movie-making history, I don’t know if there is any other redeeming value to this film. As for me, I was attracted by the title. It sounds like a crime or mystery movie, which in truth it was, and sometimes that’s all it takes for me to pull the trigger when I see it in Alpha’s catalog, especially when there a sale on and I buy enough to qualify for free shipping.
December 6th, 2014 at 3:37 pm
I used to buy stuff from Alpha Video because they didn’t always offer grade Z films.
December 6th, 2014 at 4:09 pm
Sounds like you’re the sort of customer Alpha depends on to stay in business. I bought a batch of episodes of the Mr & Mrs North TV series because there were some that weren’t available from Critics Choice, or was it the other way around? Of course, I ended up with a number of duplicates. Later I realized the Critics Choice prints were superior.
December 6th, 2014 at 4:40 pm
I looked this up on IMDB and I see it got only a 3.1 rating from 12 viewers. Only one comment which also slams the movie but points out it may have been made by some stuntmen.
December 6th, 2014 at 5:47 pm
3.1 sounds about right. It actually went down a little after I put my two cents (or two stars) in.
December 6th, 2014 at 6:17 pm
No one mentioned the most interesting aspect here, the co director credit by Richard Talmadge who was more than a stunt man and at one time well known.
At least they could have gotten some stunt men who could actually act like Jock Mahoney, Dave Sharpe, Tom Steele, and Rod Cameron.
Alpha carries things I want to see and don’t want to spend much seeing. If I like it enough I will seek a better print, if not, I saw it and didn’t pay much for it.
But as far as quality I know that if I am getting it on the cheap I’ll be lucky if it is half decent. Hazards of the game.
As for the North’s most copies seem to have multiple duplicates. YouTube is the only place I found any I didn’t have on VHS or DVD.
December 6th, 2014 at 7:22 pm
Yes, I discovered YouTube was a good source for episodes of the Norths that I didn’t already have. I keep planning on going through the entire series that way some time. Don’t ask why. Considering what a large role the cats played in the books the TV series barely mentions them, just in that animated closing on some episodes. I think the radio show didn’t do much with the cats either. I noticed that some of the DVDs of the TV episodes carry the wrong list of cast members.
December 6th, 2014 at 11:42 pm
Randy
I was a fan of the series as a kid (childhood crush on Britton), then grew up and read the books and always thought they were better than given credit for. Pam’s a good detective, she just does it differently than anyone else. The good thing is despite the restraints of early television you don’t have to watch them for nostalgia alone.
As for the cats, I can understand on television as cats are notoriously hard to work with, but why they left them off radio I can’t imagine.
December 7th, 2014 at 1:15 pm
David, I imagined the uncertainty of a cat’s performing for the camera was the reason for not including them even though they were such a strong part of the books. I have friends who like cats and began reading the books for that reason. (I am tempted to quote W. C. Fields on the reasons he wouldn’t appear with animals or children, but I’d be afraid I would get it wrong.)