Women in Detour

This week I was instructed to watch the 1945 film noir classic, Detour.  Although there's really only 4 prominent characters in this movie, this film has a different outlook on women than what is common in the 1940's.  All of the female roles in this movie (Vera and Sue) seemed to be rather in control of their destiny and very motivated to get what they wanted out of life.  Although Vera definitely had malicious intentions, she was very cunning up until the very moment of her death.  I feel as though this movie is an early representative of feminism in that the 40's were not a time where women were usually out doing whatever they fancied.  The fact that Sue left Al in New York to pursue her dreams in Hollywood, definitely puts her in a place of power over the male protagonist.  Vera also asserted her dominance over Al throughout most of the entire movie by threatening to turn him into the police if he didn't do exactly what she instructed him to do.  And although it eventually leads to her drunken demise, Vera was very clearly in a place of superiority over the other characters.  I'm not sure how common this portrayal of women is in other film noir movies, but Detour definitely puts the female in charge of basically every event that happens.