Coffee and Noir: DETOUR
every instance of coffee in noir: 011
You learn a lot about a noir character by their coffee: sugar? cream? more whiskey than caffeine?
I’m cataloging every noir scene where coffee plays a role — rote and ritual, soul-dark or cream and sugar, served from dingy diners to shiny penthouses.
DETOUR is a scrappy film which makes the most of a couple low-rent sets; an empty cabaret, flophouse rooms, cars against dark skies, diners on lonely roads.
In on such diner sits our anti-hero Al Roberts, nursing the dregs of a cup of coffee, too poor to buy food but needing a warm place to despair.
(later this month I break down the practical lighting+camera move on Shot Zero)
A guy drops a nickle in the jukebox and the story begins, the whole thing in flashback as Roberts nurses the dregs of coffee.
Amongst the murder and doomed romance are small details, such as the guy who picked Roberts up on the road buying dinner and coffee, because Roberts doesn’t have even the dime.
Then the story comes full circle: the jukebox song ends, the lights come up, Roberts mentions Sue, and there is his still-cold ceramic cup.