Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Pretty Good

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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+

A journalist (Keith Andes) is moved assignment from covering an A-bomb testing to report on a story about 2 escaped prisoners (Stephen McNally & Paul Kelly). On his way out of the testing range, he picks up a female drifter (Jan Sterling) and is then hi-jacked by the escaped convicts and their getaway driver (Frank DeKova), along with a married lady (Alexis Smith) and her lover (Robert Paige) who the convicts have previously hi-jacked at a petrol station. The group, under the lead of McNally, head into an abandoned town which is due to be destroyed by the bomb (6.00am is detonation time). Kelly is injured and needs a doctor, so Smith's husband (Richard Egan) is summoned under threat. He joins the group that night along with a lone drifter (Arthur Hunnicutt) who is wandering around.The film then follows the alliances, rivalries and love interests that are formed within the group as we wait for the doctor to fix Kelly and we count down the hours before the explosion. Will the convicts, under the ruthless leadership of McNally, kill everyone? Does McNally intend to save anyone by driving them out with him?......and then.......the authorities bring forward the detonation time to 5.00am and the 5 minute warning siren suddenly sets off...........There are a couple of moments when credulity is stretched, eg, the ease with which everyone remains unnoticed within the forbidden zone despite coming across a road block, and Egan's arrival at night. We have been shown the thoroughness with which the military has evacuated the area and set up blocks preventing people from entering the area at the beginning of the film.....maybe the American military are a bit dumb..........but who cares.Its a film about the tense situation that a group of strangers find themselves in and its well acted.

Escaped convicts take a group of hostages into a ghost town in the Nevada desert that will be ground zero for a nuclear bomb test early the next morning. Stephen McNalley's ruthless criminal hits some unexpected high points during the long night, gunning one man down, and later tossing a Bible he was reading from on the floor, but perhaps the film's best part is that played by Alexis Smith as an unhappy wife who's abandoned her doctor husband. Even though the film is full of bad lines, director Dick Powell has still managed to make it interesting, and ultimately exciting, with an absolutely terrific ending as the anticipated nuclear experiment takes place with everyone running for their lives.

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.