Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Nayan Gough 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.

ksf-2 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.

blanche-2 Dick Powell directed "Split Second," a B movie starring Stephen McNally, Jan Sterling, Alexis Smith, Richard Egan, and Keith Andes, about prisoners and their hostages at an atomic test site. McNally, meaner than dirt, escapes from prison with two cronies, one of whom has been badly wounded. At a gas station, they carjack Alexis Smith and her boyfriend. Before long, they have four hostages: Keith Andes, who plays a reporter, and Jan Sterling, who hitched a ride with him. They all wind up on an atomic bomb test site, and there's a test set for the next day. Since Smith's husband is a doctor, McNally calls him and threatens him with Smith's life so he will come and save the wounded escapee.Seen with modern eyes, the friendship between McNally and his injured pal is something to behold. McNally is a cruel tough guy who becomes gentle when speaking to his friend, and he's determined not to leave him behind. Hmm...Smith plays a desperate, selfish society woman who will do anything - underline anything - to get McNally to take her along when he leaves, and in fact, they have a protracted time together in another room. She's a real piece of work. Richard Egan is her husband, who arrives to help the wounded prisoner.Keith Andes was a handsome man whose major career was in television, and his beautiful singing voice and masculine presence brought him Broadway success as well, particularly costarring with Lucille Ball in "Wildcat." He does a good job here, as does Jan Sterling - they are two people caught in bad circumstances who happen to fall in love along the way. McNally is as nasty as they come - another fine performance of a low-life.Dick Powell's direction has a sure hand, and the tension mounts as the film continues. A very good B movie, but not really noir as has been suggested.

krorie The success of this film is due largely to Dick Powell's analogy that international violence is caused by many of the same forces that trigger personal violence. Some might say the nation is the individual writ large. His pairing a detonation of an atomic bomb in preparation for a possible conflagration that would eliminate the human race with the escape from prison of a perverted hostile trio of killers hiding out in a deserted western town is indeed inspired. Add to this a clever, telling script written largely by Irving Wallace, who knew how to make today's headlines into entertaining stories, and the result is a near classic film for its genre.Some of the best lines are given to Jan Sterling in the role of a good-hearted showgirl, Dottie Vale, who has been ridden around the block a few times. At one point in carefree desperation, she states, "looks like we're caught between the devil and the bright red bomb." The ambiance of nonchalance permeates the entire picture and helps to lessen the tension caused by the split second count down to Armageddon for the trapped hostages. Even more humor is introduced with the character of Asa Tremaine, a desert rat who attempts to tell tale tales not unlike those of Gabby Hayes. Played by Arkansas native Arthur Hunnicutt (He's buried at Greenwood, Arkansas), Asa plays a pivotal role near the conclusion of the film. The rest of the cast is effective, particularly Stephen McNally who portrays the coldblooded killer with no morals, Sam Hurley.The story involves an assortment of personalities who unwittingly end up kidnapped by three escaped killers, one of them mute. The root of the plot centers on the interaction among the characters when their lives are stripped bare with doomsday at 6:00 am the next morning. They hold up in an abandoned town waiting for a doctor who happens to be the husband of a two-timer who is traveling with her boyfriend, now held captive by the killers. There is much edge-of-the-seat suspense as the clock clicks away the minutes.

Bucs1960 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.