* * * SPOILER ALERT * * *

Sad-sack man-child Tom Neal’s character schtick wears thin on his canary girlfriend when she deserts him for greener pastures. She indeed finds those pastures, fame, and fortune whilst  waiting tables in a L.A. hash joint. Al just doesn’t get it when she ghosts him, so, with lips and fingers moving,  he heads off in search, penniless and with a suitcase he can’t manage to keep closed with rope. It’s no wonder she departed.

Unable to keep out of the rain, poor miserable Al kills his benefactor. That move sort of copies Tom’s actual life, when he’s jailed for shooting wife number whatever in the back of the head in what any male in America calls “A good man with a gun”.

But I digress.

This dog doesn’t start moving until Vera arrives, a delicious-looking bit of road candy who hitch-hikes a ride with a depressed , sad-faced Al in his stolen car, looking for a pick-me-up. Vera, who can actually act, is able to read the room, or, in this case, the car, and takes charge of Al. She leads the desperate sad-sack on an never-ending adventure that even I can appreciate. I could probably act it better than Al, too. That’s saying something, considering the closest I ever got to Hollywood was riding through on the 101.

This thing is quite enjoyable once Vera arrives on-scene. Still, I wanted to punch Al in the face more than a few times.