Split Second (1953)
Directed by Dick Powell

Film Review

Having successfully negotiated one career move on screen, from crooning juvenile to cynical hard man, Dick Powell made the transition from actor to director with equal aplomb via this unbearably tense suspense thriller. Whilst the hostage scenario is hardly original (Archie Mayo is credited with its inception in The Petrified Forest (1936)) and the characters are readily identified as 1940s film noir archetypes, Split Second offers an enjoyable take on a well-worn concept, whilst capitalising on public anxieties over nuclear weapons at the start of the Cold War.  Powell's inexperience as a film director barely registers for a second and, with the support of an admirable cast and committed technical crew, he turns out a film that is pacey, attention grabbing and surprisingly grown-up in places.

The odd menagerie of characters that end up together in a simmering cauldron of tension and primal anxieties is what make Split Second a particularly gripping film of its kind.  With Stephen McNally revelling in the role of the vicious psychotic thug Hurley, spitting barbed one-liners with as much glee as he pumps bullets into anyone who dares to provoke him, you'd have thought the rest of the cast would have had difficulty getting a look in.  Not so.  A well-honed screenplay and ensemble of talented performers allow each of the other characters to come to the fore and leave a lasting impression, the most memorable being Alexis Smith's 'bad girl' Kay, a pathetic caricature of the worst kind of femme fatale who either has a sick fetish about vicious hoods with guns or an extremely well developed instinct for self-preservation (we can never be sure which). Star-in-the-making Richard Egan comes into his own late in the film as the no-nonsense doctor afflicted with an inexplicable devotion to a woman who can hardly wait to ditch him so that she can run off with a murdering psychopath.  All human nature is on display here - crude, ugly and, at times, quite frightening.

The film's other great asset is Nicholas Musuraca's stylish noir photography, which brings a stifling claustrophobic feel to the central portion of the drama.  One of the most talented cinematographers working in Hollywood at the time, Musuraca had already proven his credentials on  the Val Lewton horror film Cat People (1942) and several superlatives examples of classic film noir, including Robert Siodmak's The Spiral Staircase (1945) and John Brahm's The Locket (1946).  Split Second provides Musuraca with yet another Heaven-sent opportunity to show how moody lighting can elevate a fairly lacklustre B-thriller to the level of an enthralling psychological drama that burrows deep and mercilessly into the subconscious of the viewer.

Of course, with a dirty great bomb ticking away soundlessly in the background, the film had to end with a bang, and even here it doesn't disappoint.  The effects may be modest by today's standards but skilful use of matte and model shots provides a convincing disaster denouement in which, predictably, the nastier elements of the dramatis personae receive their just desserts.  It is hard not to wince at the tragic irony that Powell would himself die (at the age of 58) from a cancel illness brought on by an atom bomb test very similar to the one depicted in the film, whilst he was shooting the 1956 film The Conqueror.  The film's final sequence provides a chilling moment of reflection that, with a pointed poetry, evokes the despair and pessimism that was widely felt in the early 1950s about the Atomic Age and what it would mean for the future of mankind.  Split Second delivers much more than it promises.

Film Synopsis

Convicted murderer Sam Hurley escapes from prison with his partner Bart Moore and immediately sets about recovering his ill-gotten gains from his last criminal exploit.  With the police hot on his trail, Hurley decides to lie low in a desert ghost town, unaware that an atom bomb is scheduled to be detonated in the area in a few hours' time.  To aid his escape, the crook takes several people hostage and threatens to murder anyone who tries to make a bid for freedom. It so happens that one of the hostages, Kay Garven, has a husband who is a doctor, which is the very man Hurley needs to take a bullet out of his friend Moore.  Hurley lures Kay's husband to the hideout, threatening to kill his wife if he fails to show up, not knowing that Kay no longer has any claim over her husband's affections...