Split Second (1953)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Reading the plot description, this one sounds like an updated version of "Petrified Forest". the opening two minutes looks like it was filmed near the mountains and deserts of palm springs. and everyone is so forthcoming with the exact location, time, and details of the atom bomb test. ah the good ol days. The first of only SIX films that Powell directed himself. Simple enough plot... gang holds group hostage, although this film has the added suspense of an impending bomb test right where they are hiding out. Lots of banter about not being heroes... a bit of "Key Largo" thrown in. It's not bad, but you'd think he wouldn't want to hang out in a location with all the feds (and a bomb test) nearby. Intentionally or not, Dottie (Jan Sterling) looks and sounds like Lana Turner, another Dick Powell connection... kind of. They starred together in "Postman". Eh. Not great. Never really gets going. 900 votes on Turner Classic, so they must not show this one very much.

Two escaped convicts and an accomplice take hostages in a Nevada ghost town where an atomic bomb test is set for the next day. Nice little thriller. The 'criminals taking hostages' plot has been done before and since but the atomic testing site is a nice touch. Stephen McNally makes a vicious baddie but Alexis Smith's character turns out to be the most vile person in the film. Keith Andes is good. He sounds like Peter Graves. Pretty Jan Sterling is a tough blonde. She and Andes have nice chemistry. Paul Kelly plays one of the convicts. That wasn't an acting stretch for real-life ex-con Kelly. Arthur Hunnicutt is fun as a grizzled old prospector. Robert Paige, Richard Egan, and Frank DeKova round out the cast. Everybody does a good job. Dick Powell's directorial debut. Yes, that Dick Powell. Impressive climax is a nice payoff.

Just off the top of my head, I can think of three Humphrey Bogart films that are highly reminiscent of "Split Second"--"The Petrified Forest", "The Desperate Hours" and "Key Largo". Yet, despite this being a very familiar sort of film, there is enough going for it to make it well worth your while.The film begins with a jailbreak. The nation's most wanted man has escaped and he and two other crooks are hiding in the desert--near the nuclear testing grounds in Nevada. Along the way, they take several prisoners and plan on hiding out in the test area until just before the explosion. However, naturally, things don't go quite as planned.As I said above, the idea of a bunch of crooks terrorizing a group of hostages is certainly not new. However, three main things make this worth while. First, the nuclear angle is new--and REALLY pays off great at the end of the film. In fact, the ending is great. Second, Steven McNally is a familiar face as a noir heavy--and here he is at his snarling best. Third, despite McNally's great performance, I really loved the character played by Alexis Smith--there is nothing like it and you just have to see what I mean. So what you have is a very taut film packed with nice performances and a knock-out ending. I might rate it higher, but as I said it's a bit familiar and the middle portion is a bit talky. Still....see this film.

An atomic age "Petrified Forest", this film is intense enough to make you sweat bullets. The storyline basically follow that of "PF" in that a gang of killers hold an assorted group of people hostage but with the added twist that audiences in the 50's loved....the "A" bomb.Stephen McNally, a journeyman actor, does a serviceable job as the lead baddie, as does the veteran Paul Kelly ( a bad boy in real life). The statuesque Alexis Smith is wonderfully slutty as the cheating wife who gets her comeuppance when she joins McNally in their final desperate flight to escape the atomic test site in which they have mistakenly become trapped. Others in the group hide in a cave and survive....well, at least in this film. Since they emerge about an hour later into what we know would be a highly radioactive environment, their chances are pretty slim but this was the 50's and what did we know? Also on the scene were two forgettable "leading men" of the time, George Nader and Keith Andes and the always dependable Jan Sterling.Although misconceptions about the terrible after effects of atomic explosions abound in this film, put that aside and be enthralled by a taut thriller that could only have been made in the 1950s.