Mon 15 Mar 2010
A Movie Review by David L. Vineyard: SPLIT SECOND (1953).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Suspense & espionage films[7] Comments
SPLIT SECOND. RKO Radio Pictures, 1953. Stephen McNally, Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling, Keith Andes, Arthur Hunnicutt, Paul Kelly, RIchard Egan, Robert Paige, Frank DeKova. Screenplay: William Bowers & Irving Wallace, based on a story by Chester Erskine & Irving Wallace. Director: Dick Powell.
Stephen McNally: “I don’t think very much of anything.”
This terrific little minor “A” film with top “B” values features a number of popular themes from the early fifties, including the brutal superman with fascist tendencies and philosophy, the small group of diverse people under incredible tension, and the terrifying threat of atomic annihilation that seemed to hang over us all.
The latter is especially potent for those of us young enough to remember “Duck and Cover” exercises in grade school. It was always hard to adjust back to Dick and Jane after contemplating that nuclear blast.
So when ever this one shows up on television drag out the VCR or DVR and get your finger ready on the record button. It’s a tautly directed effort from actor Dick Powell (his first), whose career as a director varies from wartime drama like The Enemy Below and The Hunters to the musical remake of It Happened One Night as You Can’t Run Away From It and the infamous The Conqueror (with John Wayne as Genghis Khan — “I will have this Tartar woman.”).
Story and screenplay are co-written by bestselling novelist Irving Wallace (The Chapman Report, The Prize, The Three Sirens …)
Stephen McNally is Sam Hurley, an escaped convict and one of the nastiest pieces of business since Bogart’s Duke Mantee set the standard for this sort of thing way back in The Petrified Forest. McNally is a brutal monster, not smart, but clever and ruthless. It’s his idea to hide out in New Hope City, Nevada, an abandoned mining town, a place literally no one will look because it is destined to be the site of a nuclear test the next morning.
Trapped with him is the usual assortment of the good, the weak, and the simply human: Andes, Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling, doctor Richard Egan, prospector Arthur Hunnicutt. Stir well, and let simmer in an isolated place while the police close in and the clock ticks down and you have just about a perfect recipe for this kind of film.
Combining with the first class performance by McNally as the convict is Alexis Smith as a sexy high class dame who represents everything he resents and can never have or be, and watch as the people involved either find unexpected strength or crumble under the pressure as the bomb literally ticks down, and the deadline to get out grows narrower and narrower. Paul Kelly is good as McNally’s only tenuous tie to decent human feelings.
This one ratchets up the tension with real skill. It can be as uncomfortable as the desert sand under the skin and as raw as the endless hot wind on the nerves. At times it becomes almost unbearable.
Okay, admittedly the security around the nuclear test site is a little lax, and you have to wonder what kind of a hold even the brutal McNally could have over his men that they would go along with this insanity, but give the film its few minor logic problems (Egan’s doctor pretty much just drives into town without even pretending to sneak), and this film builds to a great deal of very real tension.
For some reason Split Second has always reminded me of another taut little suspenser set in the desert, Inferno, though there is really little similarity between the films. Maybe it’s because both films build to a point where your participation in the suspense is almost visceral.
McNally was one of the few actors who seemed as at home as the hero as the villain, which may be why his bad guy roles have a resonance that many actors don’t or can’t bring. We always knew he could play as stalwart and straight as he did brutal and sociopathic, which gave his charming monsters an added dimension missing in some other actors (in this he always reminded me of Robert Ryan, star of the above mentioned Inferno).
Alexis Smith made a career of playing smart sexy women who had brains as well as nerves, and Jan Sterling was one of the great ‘dame’ players always giving her roles an added edge of humanity, that culminated in an Oscar nomination for her aging bad girl with one last chance in The High and the Mighty (ironically another film about a small group of people under pressure). It’s no accident that she and Smith both get top billing over the films ‘hero’ Keith Andes.
I won’t give away the ending, save to point out it’s fairly clever and just within the bounds of possibility if not probability. See this one and enjoy it. It’s a little film that will stick to your ribs a lot longer than some of the bigger more celebrated films of that era.
But don’t watch it if you are already tense or if your blood pressure is high. This one could put it through the roof.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
I’ll second David’s enthusiastic recommendation. Coincidentally Marcia and I just watched it again three nights ago, for maybe the fourth time, and it’s still as gripping and suspenseful as it was on the first viewing many years ago. Loren Estleman is a big fan of the film as well; he and I once had a lengthy discussion about its merits.
March 16th, 2010 at 5:21 am
I last saw this film a few years ago and decided to watch it again last night after reading the above review and comment. One of the great pleasures in building up your own personal library of movies is that you can simply watch just about any film on the spur of the moment. I’m still on what is turning out to be a lifetime project of watching a film noir or crime movie at midnight just about every night.
This is a great movie even with the faults as outlined in the review. Is it possible to imagine greater suspense than not only being held captive by a crazed killer, but facing an A-bomb explosion at 6:00 am the next morning? Then things get even worse!
I remember the insane “duck and cover” nonsense of the 1950’s also. Even as a kid, I realized such an explosion would kill everything in the NYC/Philly area. For most of my life I expected nuclear disaster to occur and it had a big impact and influence on how I viewed life and world events.
March 16th, 2010 at 9:13 am
Walker
I’m not sure anyone who didn’t grow up in the fifties and early sixties quite understands how much we were effected by that constant presence of apocalypse from the time we were born.
In many ways it was the key factor of our childhood, a sort of fatalistic acceptance that the horizon was apt to light up and obliterate everything on any given day. Even fairly small I had to wonder how that tiny desk was going to protect me from a tornado (growing up in North Texas we spent almost as much time ducking real tornado’s as imaginary a-bombs) much less a nuclear blast.
Films such as this, THE 49TH MAN, all those post apocalyptic sci fi films, even comedies like THE ATOMIC KID were a constant reminder that our world was living on the literal razor’s edge.
On top of everything else my parents were big Billy Graham fans, and while he wasn’t as apocalyptic as many evangelists he was bad enough for an eight year old’s over active imagination. I still have a strong distaste for organized religion and evangelists in particular because of it.
Luckily for me, when I was about eight we moved next door to a complete nut. Sweet guy, but totally subsumed by everything from UFO’s to the coming nuclear war — and the post war Soviet/Chinese invasion of course. Watching him pretty much cured me of my nightmares. I didn’t stop worrying, but became a fatalist about the whole thing since even at that age I could see how pointless living a life like his would be. At least his bomb shelter made a good place to go during a tornado warning.
I suppose for most of us the key event was the Cuban Missile Crisis. At that point all the fears came to a head, and for a while it seemed as if the end was not only near, but inevitable.
On the far side of that I think we all just said “what the hell,” and went on with our lives. They always say we Baby Boomers were spoiled by the prosperity of the post war era, I think the bigger truth is the constant threat of annihilation simply made us fatalistic, hedonistic, and took away our trust in the existence of a future. we wanted everything now because we didn’t believe in a tomorrow.
But because of it all films like SPLIT SECOND have a resonance for us that I have to wonder if younger viewers respond to. Maybe the post 9/11 generation will be able to understand, with duct tape and anthrax replacing duck and cover and the Bomb.
March 16th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Great review, David, of an excellent, high-tension film.
March 16th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
I forgot to mention that McNally and Egan also teamed up in another taut crime drama, VIOLENT SATURDAY.
April 3rd, 2010 at 3:30 pm
[…] Street (1950), Union Station (1950), Appointment with Danger (1951), Split Second (1953, reviewed here), The Human Jungle (1954), Female on the Beach (1955), and two episodes of The Name of the […]
December 12th, 2020 at 2:40 pm
I slapped my balls after watching Sam Hurley throw barbs like missiles at anyone who challenged him. Dude made out with any gal who was in his sights….just stuck his tongue in their mouth and all the gals seemed receptive, guess it was the threat of never escaping Hurley and the bomb. Really enjoyed this flick, next time I see it I’m gonna record it!