A reasonably good noir thriller is probably the best description that can be afforded SPLIT SECOND. An above average noir it was produced by Edmund Grainger in 1953 for the home of the great noirs RKO. Excitingly written by William Bowers and Irving Wallace it was crisply photographed in black & white by the great Nicholas Museraca and surprisingly directed in a good workmanlike fashion by Dick Powell. With no "A" list stars to speak of the picture is more than effectively played by a well chosen cast headed by Stephen McNally, Paul Kelly and Alexis Smith.
Two escaped convicts (McNally & Kelly) hijack a car with two occupants (Alexis Smith & Robert Paige), waylay another carrying two more people (Jan Sterling & Keith Andes) and along with an old prospector (Arthur Hunnicutt) hold them all hostage in a ghost town in the Nevada desert. The town has been earmarked and cleared by the military for the testing of an Atomic bomb in a few hours time. This the captors learn from the radio and are confident of leaving on time. In the meantime Kelly is badly wounded from a gunshot he received in his prison escape bid and must have a doctor. McNally finds out that Smith's estranged husband (Richard Egan) is a physician and inveigles him by phone to come to the hideout or his wife will be killed. Things for the hostages don't go too well with poor attempts at escape and the savagely violent and somewhat psychotic McNally beating Andes to a pulp and shooting dead Smith's lover (Paige). Suddenly the radio announces that the bomb test time has been moved up and will now go off an hour earlier. It becomes a race against time now to get off the site. Leaving the hostages to their fate in the town a scurrying McNally, his fellow fugitive and a fearful Smith, who pleads to go with them, take off in the car but drive onto the actual bomb site itself instead of going in the opposite direction. The picture ends with the massive A bomb explosion, McNally and company perishing in the car and the hostages all surviving after taking refuge in a cave.
The cast do an admirable job with a nicely written screenplay. McNally is particularly good applying himself assiduously to playing what he always played best that of the sneering, unscrupulous and mean spirited villain. Paul Kelly - who never gave a bad performance - is also good as McNally's softer hearted partner in crime. But something of a revelation is Alexis Smith! Smith an actress who for years was buried in inane glamour roles at Warner Brothers brings much to the table here in SPLIT SECOND. Her panic driven character, continuously on the verge of cracking up, is an incisive and inspired piece of acting. Who would have thought she had it in her? It is the best thing she ever did!
With brilliant cinematography, good performances, an exciting screenplay all wrapped in a fine dramatic and atmospheric score by RKO's resident composer Roy Webb SPLIT SECOND comes across as a fairly rewarding visual experience.
Two escaped convicts (McNally & Kelly) hijack a car with two occupants (Alexis Smith & Robert Paige), waylay another carrying two more people (Jan Sterling & Keith Andes) and along with an old prospector (Arthur Hunnicutt) hold them all hostage in a ghost town in the Nevada desert. The town has been earmarked and cleared by the military for the testing of an Atomic bomb in a few hours time. This the captors learn from the radio and are confident of leaving on time. In the meantime Kelly is badly wounded from a gunshot he received in his prison escape bid and must have a doctor. McNally finds out that Smith's estranged husband (Richard Egan) is a physician and inveigles him by phone to come to the hideout or his wife will be killed. Things for the hostages don't go too well with poor attempts at escape and the savagely violent and somewhat psychotic McNally beating Andes to a pulp and shooting dead Smith's lover (Paige). Suddenly the radio announces that the bomb test time has been moved up and will now go off an hour earlier. It becomes a race against time now to get off the site. Leaving the hostages to their fate in the town a scurrying McNally, his fellow fugitive and a fearful Smith, who pleads to go with them, take off in the car but drive onto the actual bomb site itself instead of going in the opposite direction. The picture ends with the massive A bomb explosion, McNally and company perishing in the car and the hostages all surviving after taking refuge in a cave.
The cast do an admirable job with a nicely written screenplay. McNally is particularly good applying himself assiduously to playing what he always played best that of the sneering, unscrupulous and mean spirited villain. Paul Kelly - who never gave a bad performance - is also good as McNally's softer hearted partner in crime. But something of a revelation is Alexis Smith! Smith an actress who for years was buried in inane glamour roles at Warner Brothers brings much to the table here in SPLIT SECOND. Her panic driven character, continuously on the verge of cracking up, is an incisive and inspired piece of acting. Who would have thought she had it in her? It is the best thing she ever did!
With brilliant cinematography, good performances, an exciting screenplay all wrapped in a fine dramatic and atmospheric score by RKO's resident composer Roy Webb SPLIT SECOND comes across as a fairly rewarding visual experience.