Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

evanston_dad With Donald Trump threatening to initiate nuclear Armageddon, movies from that previous era of nuclear obsession and fear of annihilation, otherwise known as the 1950s, have taken on a renewed urgency. In "Split Second," a film dripping with figurative and literal anxiety about a doomsday clock ticking down to "0," a group of hostages holed up in a deserted mining town figure out how to make their escape before a nuclear test in the desert blows them all to smithereens. They're being held captive by an escaped con, played in a sweaty performance by Stephen McNally. The hostages are played by the likes of studly men Keith Andes and Richard Egan, hotsy totsy Jan Sterling and Alexis Smith, and comic relief Arthur Hunnicutt. Sterling gets all of the film's best lines, which is as it should be given her droll way with a one-liner. The TCM set up for the film stated that since none of the actors were big-time stars, there was built in suspense because any of them could be killed off. That's not entirely true, as the film pretty neatly divides the cast into good guys and bad guys, and the good guys survive while the bad guys get burnt to a crisp. But it is a pretty suspenseful movie anyway.The ending is meant to be a happy one for the survivors, but of course knowing what we know now, all of them would be poisoned to death by nuclear fall out. It's hard to believe there was a time when our government regularly detonated nuclear bombs in the middle of the desert, and hotels in Las Vegas would advertise roof-top bars that would allow customers to watch the explosions. "Split Second" manages to be both cautionary and hopelessly naive at the same time, but I promise you'll get some bang for your buck.Grade: B+

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.

bkoganbing Dick Powell who was looking for a career behind the camera on the big screen and small got his first directorial assignment in this RKO B picture Split Second with a B picture cast. Altogether fitting and proper that it would be RKO since that studio gave him the part in Murder My Sweet that got him out of musicals once and for all.Reporter Keith Andes is set to cover an atomic test in Nevada when he's reassigned to cover the break of a notorious criminal Stephen McNally from prison. McNally who's hidden away the loot from an armored car job escapes prison with Paul Kelly with deaf mute Frank DeKova meeting them with a vehicle. Circumstances force McNally and his crowd into a ghost town with a bunch of hostages that include Andes, Alexis Smith who is running away with Robert Paige, Jan Sterling who's been around the block a few times and Arthur Hunnicutt an old prospector. Later on Smith's husband Richard Egan joins them. He's a doctor summoned by Smith to tend a bullet wound that Kelly took in the prison break.Richard Egan's character is the central weakness of this otherwise good and suspenseful film. Not Egan's fault but he's given a character way too noble to be real.Powell took easily to the director's job and got good performances out of his ensemble. Best in the cast is McNally as tough and brutal professional criminal with only one weak spot, his concern for Kelly whom he looks up to as some kind of mentor. Also given good meaty parts are the women, Alexis Smith who is the unfaithful wife who after McNally kills Paige is quite ready to take up with him and Sterling who McNally would really like to take up with. Had Egan's character been better drawn Split Second would rate as a top noir classic. As it is it ain't half bad.

mrb1980 Most movies about villains holding hostages are like "Dial 1119", in which the police surround the subject building and try to negotiate with the kidnappers. Here, there are no police officers even close to the hostage scene--but everybody's in the blast zone of a planned nuclear test! Ultra-bad guy and prison escapee Sam Hurley (Stephen McNally, who played about the best bad guy in movie history), his accomplice Bart Moore (Paul Kelly) and mute henchman Dummy (Frank DeKova) kidnap several innocent people and hole up in a desert ghost town. Moore is wounded, so physician Neal Garven (Richard Egan) is summoned to tend to Bart. Grizzled prospector Asa Tremaine (Arthur Hunnicutt--who else?) blunders into the situation. All are held hostage while Garven operates on Moore...all the time, everyone knows that a nuclear test is scheduled in just a few short hours.Dummy is overcome and beaten up, just as Hurley, Kelly, and their moll take off in a car, trying to outrun the blast. Well, they don't make it...and end up satisfyingly incinerated by the blast. Tremaine leads the former hostages to an abandoned mine, where the group rides out the bomb detonation.I've always liked any movie that stars Richard Egan (although he plays a supporting character here), and Arthur Hunnicutt is worth the price of admission in his signature role as an old miner. Look fast for Nelson Leigh as a scientist in a control room. Dick Powell directs with a sure hand in his directing debut, and confines most of the story to one claustrophobic room in the abandoned town. Catch this film if you get a chance--the plot is familiar, but the cast and story twist concerning the nuclear test makes it all worthwhile.