Dick Powell's directorial debut is a tense little thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat.
Sam Hurley (Stephen McNally) is a prison escapee, who, along with a couple of his mates (including Paul Kelly as a wounded prisoner) manage to capture a few people and hold them hostage in an abandoned ghost town. Unfortunately the ghost town has been targeted as a nuclear testing site with an explosion due for 6 Am the following morning.
Alexis Smith (she kept getting better with each movie) plays Kay Garven who is on her way to Reno with boyfriend in tow (Robert Paige from Deanna Durbin's film "Can't Help Singing"). She is going to divorce her husband (Richard Egan). They are accosted at a service station by McNally and his gang and are forced to drive to the ghost town. Unfortunately they run out of petrol. As Smith says "Did you think I was stopping at the gas station to buy perfume. I had been planning to buy petrol!!!".
So they are forced to way-lay another car. Larry Fleming (Keith Andes) is a reporter going to Canon City to cover the prison breakout and Dotti (Jan Sterling) was stranded at the petrol station and was offered a lift.
When they arrive at the ghost town the film turns into a tense psychological thriller as people's true characters are revealed. Alexis Smith is great as Kay Garven a completely self centred woman who will stop at nothing to save herself.
Stephen McNally did play good guys but he was at his best playing pretty despicable characters ie., "Johnny Belinda". Jan Sterling plays Dotti, the obligatory tough girl with a heart of gold.
They know that the explosion is due for 6 AM the following morning ...what they don't know is that it has been put forward an hour.
Richard Egan plays Dr. Neal Garven, who makes a trip by plane and car to save the wounded escapee's life. That part is completely unbelievable - how would he have found his way out to that ghost town at 2 in the morning and how would he have got through the barricades??? The ending is exciting and laughable at the same time - completely in keeping with the times when nuclear fallout was not considered life threatening.
Sam Hurley (Stephen McNally) is a prison escapee, who, along with a couple of his mates (including Paul Kelly as a wounded prisoner) manage to capture a few people and hold them hostage in an abandoned ghost town. Unfortunately the ghost town has been targeted as a nuclear testing site with an explosion due for 6 Am the following morning.
Alexis Smith (she kept getting better with each movie) plays Kay Garven who is on her way to Reno with boyfriend in tow (Robert Paige from Deanna Durbin's film "Can't Help Singing"). She is going to divorce her husband (Richard Egan). They are accosted at a service station by McNally and his gang and are forced to drive to the ghost town. Unfortunately they run out of petrol. As Smith says "Did you think I was stopping at the gas station to buy perfume. I had been planning to buy petrol!!!".
So they are forced to way-lay another car. Larry Fleming (Keith Andes) is a reporter going to Canon City to cover the prison breakout and Dotti (Jan Sterling) was stranded at the petrol station and was offered a lift.
When they arrive at the ghost town the film turns into a tense psychological thriller as people's true characters are revealed. Alexis Smith is great as Kay Garven a completely self centred woman who will stop at nothing to save herself.
Stephen McNally did play good guys but he was at his best playing pretty despicable characters ie., "Johnny Belinda". Jan Sterling plays Dotti, the obligatory tough girl with a heart of gold.
They know that the explosion is due for 6 AM the following morning ...what they don't know is that it has been put forward an hour.
Richard Egan plays Dr. Neal Garven, who makes a trip by plane and car to save the wounded escapee's life. That part is completely unbelievable - how would he have found his way out to that ghost town at 2 in the morning and how would he have got through the barricades??? The ending is exciting and laughable at the same time - completely in keeping with the times when nuclear fallout was not considered life threatening.