Excellent, Without a doubt!!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Blistering performances.

"Split Second" is a punchy, powerful and hardboiled hostage drama that belies its B-movie status by being well-directed, well-written and perfectly paced. The constant danger that the hostages are in contributes to the threatening atmosphere of the piece and it becomes even more tense as the deadline for the detonation of an atomic bomb approaches. Nicholas Musuraca's exceptional black and white photography is very effective and the whole drama comes to a really shocking and spectacular climax.Newspaperman Larry Fleming (Keith Andes) is at an Army camp in the Nevada desert preparing to report on an atomic bomb test when he's suddenly reassigned to another story. Two guards had been killed when a couple of convicts, Sam Hurley (Stephen McNally) and Bart Moore (Paul Kelly) had broken out of Carson City prison. On his journey to Carson City, Larry stops at a diner where he meets blonde nightclub singer Dottie Vale (Jan Sterling) who's on her way to Reno. He agrees to give her a lift and shortly after beginning their journey, the couple are waved down by Sam Hurley who holds them at gunpoint and demands that he and the people with him be taken to the desert ghost town called "Lost Hope City" where he plans to hide out for a short period before going on to meet another gang member and share out $500,000 in stolen cash.Before he'd confronted Larry, Sam and seriously-injured Bart had met up with fellow gang-member Dummy (Frank de Kova) and after killing the proprietor of a filling station, hijacked the car in which doctor's wife Kay Garven (Alexis Smith) and her boyfriend Arthur Ashton (Robert Paige) were travelling. Their journey, however, had come to an unexpected end when they ran out of gas. When the group arrive at their destination, the hostages are confined to one of the buildings to await the arrival of Dr Neal Garven (Richard Egan) who Larry had earlier phoned to come and attend to Bart.The ghost town is located close to the nuclear test area and the group are aware that the bomb is due to be detonated at 6.00am on the following day. A talkative local prospector called Asa Tremaine (Arthur Hunnicutt) arrives unexpectedly and is also held hostage by Sam and Dummy. Sam then kills one of his captives before the arrival of Dr Garven who, after operating on Bart, says that it won't be safe to move him for at least another day. The tension builds as it's discovered that the fuel tank in Larry's car is leaking and the sound of a siren warns that the time for the bomb to be exploded has been brought forward by an hour.Stephen McNally is convincingly dominant as decorated war veteran Sam whose attitude to killing was, no doubt, influenced by his wartime experiences and the other members of the cast also do well with Alexis Smith and Jan Sterling providing the best performances. Alexis Smith, as the unfaithful wife of Dr Garven exemplifies most strongly, the overriding air of desperation that prevails amongst the entire group during the tense hostage situation. She's sophisticated and snooty and regards Dottie as her inferior. This is remarkable as Kay has no integrity or decency and will do absolutely anything to save her own skin (including giving herself to the killer who's holding her captive). Dottie, on the other hand, shows considerably more character when she's propositioned by Sam. Richard Egan, as the doctor, is quietly courageous as he puts himself in great danger to help a patient and to try to save Kay's life, even though he doesn't want her back.

The genre of film-noir can be divided into three eras - generally speaking: the classic era (1940-1945), the postwar era (1945-1953) and the Cold War era (1953-1958-60?). Film-noir was always a genre about fear, moral complexity and desperation. When the WWII film-noir exuded postwar disillusions; the concrete war was over but it was still going on on social level: in our minds and in the society. What genre would fit more perfectly to the ages of paranoia and fear than the genre of them, film-noir. To my mind Split Second is the first Cold War film-noir - a statement which one could argue about because in the same year 1953 Samuel Fuller made a film-noir about paranoia and the fear of communism Pickup on South Street (1953).Dick Powell was the star of the Hollywood musicals in 1930's. In 1940's he tried to change his image from a singing dancer to the new bad boy of Hollywood. In 1944 Edward Dmytryk directed Murder, My Sweet based on a novel by Raymond Chandler and casted Dick Powell to play Philip Marlowe - the greatest private eye of film-noir, but the performance by Powell is often left in the shadows of Humphrey Bogart's Philip Marlowe interpretation in The Big Sleep (1946). After the war Dick Powell had some experience from film-noir and he chose to try directing as well. Split Second was his debut of the six films he directed and I think he succeed quite well in it.1950's was the age when the government of the United States made a lot of nuclear weapon experiments: in the deserts of US and in the famous Bikini island. This offered a chance to make a thriller around these kind of events and Split Second represents the attempt of transforming film-noir from its usual big city milieus to a deserted town in Nevada under the fear of the war. Three men have just escaped from prison, unaware of the nuclear experiments of the government. Soon the group of three takes a few hostages in result of getting a doctor because one of the escapees is injured. As time goes on in the deserted town the hostages start to lose their morality and the time before the explosion is running out.The aesthetics of film-noir were often related to big cities like New York or Los Angeles and exotic milieus were always part of the genre but usually they meant bars in Chinatown, motels of Arabia or the cold streets of Shanghai. In 1950's many tried to transform film-noir to new milieus: to snowy conditions (On Dangerous Ground), to the narrow halls of a train (The Narrow Margin) and to the back seats of a car (The Hitch-Hiker). To me Split Second represents the attempt of transforming film-noir to deserted towns, which The Hitch-Hiker (1953) did as well, but Split Second also tried to bring film-noir to the Atomic Age.There's no question whether this is a high quality noir or a B-class film. The latter can be seen in its conventional direction, low budget and it has got a great number of unknown actors. But the way I see it Split Second is alongside with all the b-class Mitchum films one of the bests. It's a great example of Cold War films and how the Atomic Age affected cinema. It's an entertaining thriller but also a fine survey of the disappearance of morality.

As the credits rolled across the opening scene, I lost interest in the words as I tried to figure out what I was looking at: a high angle shot of a shimmering expanse that looked like slick, crazy paving, and with muted, keyed lighting spilling down the screen centre, almost like a searchlight. I blinked more than once, trying to focus properly, and then saw the two, long, moving shadows that eventually resolved to the silhouettes of two men running towards me, on what now showed itself to be the cracked and parched desert earth. As they disappeared off camera, I knew those men were running for their lives...From that superb opener, the rest of this story unfolds with relentless fury as the two – escapees from a penitentiary – join a third, with an escape car, and set off to retrieve a cache of cash from a secret location. The convicts are Sam Hurley (Stephen McNally, in one his best roles), Bart Moore (Paul Kelly) with a bullet in his stomach, acquired in the break-out, and Dummy (Frank De Kova) who only says what he wants with a gun.The three stop for gas where Hurley quickly displays his psychopathology when he casually kills the attendant who resists; Hurley's action is almost like swatting a fly. They wait then for their next victim – because the cops are looking for three escaped cons, and they want to cover their tracks.A large limo pulls in for gas, and the cons force their way into the car where Kay Garven (Alexis Smith) and Arthur Ashton (Robert Paige) are in the throes of a love affair that, from the intro between the two a few scenes earlier, appears to be going sour. So, the whole party continues under Hurley's surly orders and direction. That is, until they run out of gas – something Kay forgot to tell Hurley, much to his displeasure. So, they sit at the road side, and wait for another useful victim...And that soon arrives in the form of Larry Fleming (Keith Andes), a well known news reporter and Dottie Vale (Jan Sterling), an attractive blonde down on her luck and just hitching a ride with Larry. So, when they stop to help Kay who was acting as bait, Hurley once again steps in to step on Larry's plans this time. Good job Larry had a much bigger car – a station wagon that can accommodate all seven of them.Hurley then tells Larry to drive to a ghost town in the desert where he will link up with another con with another vehicle, due late that night. But first, he has to get Bart fixed up, get that bullet out with the help of Dr Garven (Richard Egan), Kay's estranged husband. Hurley calls the doctor on a phone and tells him he'll kill Kay if he fails to come and fix Bart...The last piece of the setup falls into place when Larry tells Hurley that the ghost town is only a mile from ground zero: a nuclear test is due for detonation at 6 the next morning. Hurley doesn't care: he's got plenty of time, he thinks. Unknown to all of them, however, that time is changed to 5 a.m. to take advantage of the good weather.With that all in place, the action is then contained on a single stage for the next hour, as the clock ticks down to zero hour and as Hurley waits to get Bart fixed. Later, old Asa Tremaine (Arthur Hunnicutt) turns up to provide pivotal support for the other hostages, and almost steals the show, for my money.Director Powell – one of my favorite film-noir actors – does an excellent job as a first-timer behind the camera: well done interlaced editing as the separate stories are shown and eventually come together at the ghost town; appropriate black and white photography; and a well constructed claustrophobic mise-en-scene in the ramshackle bar in the ghost town – reminiscent of that rundown hotel in Key Largo (1948) as the hurricane approaches. Add to that the standard footage showing the preparations to detonate an atom bomb, and the viewer is set for a taut nail-biter.McNally surpasses all in this film and delivers some of the best lines, along with Jan Sterling. Paul Kelly is very effective as Hurley's older friend – but one who begins to question Hurley's judgment. And Frank De Kova is chillingly dangerous, at all times. Alexis Smith is the quintessential, low-life femme fatale, who makes the fatal error of hitching a ride with Hurley. Keith Andes is credible but somewhat wooden, to be kind, but does show the spunk of heroes when danger beckons. Arthur Hunnicutt is, as usual, the consummate old-timer of the desert – and has the means to save the hostages from nuclear annihilation. Lucky for them.There're a number of themes, of course: greed, loyalty, and courage being the obvious ones. It's the interaction between Hurley and Bart Moore, however, that's fascinating: Hurley, a psychologically damaged WW2 veteran who can't stop killing but who recognizes something he needs in Bart's presence, almost like a brother. Or, was it just the money? It's a B movie, for sure, but it's one of the best I've seen. Recommended for all film noir fans.

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.