Même les assassins tremblent

The genre of film-noir can be divided into three eras - generally speaking: the classic era (1940-1945), the postwar era (1945-1953) and the Cold War era (1953-1958-60?). Film-noir was always a genre about fear, moral complexity and desperation. When the WWII film-noir exuded postwar disillusions; the concrete war was over but it was still going on on social level: in our minds and in the society. What genre would fit more perfectly to the ages of paranoia and fear than the genre of them, film-noir. To my mind Split Second is the first Cold War film-noir - a statement which one could argue about because in the same year 1953 Samuel Fuller made a film-noir about paranoia and the fear of communism Pickup on South Street (1953).

Dick Powell was the star of the Hollywood musicals in 1930's. In 1940's he tried to change his image from a singing dancer to the new bad boy of Hollywood. In 1944 Edward Dmytryk directed Murder, My Sweet based on a novel by Raymond Chandler and casted Dick Powell to play Philip Marlowe - the greatest private eye of film-noir, but the performance by Powell is often left in the shadows of Humphrey Bogart's Philip Marlowe interpretation in The Big Sleep (1946). After the war Dick Powell had some experience from film-noir and he chose to try directing as well. Split Second was his debut of the six films he directed and I think he succeed quite well in it.

1950's was the age when the government of the United States made a lot of nuclear weapon experiments: in the deserts of US and in the famous Bikini island. This offered a chance to make a thriller around these kind of events and Split Second represents the attempt of transforming film-noir from its usual big city milieus to a deserted town in Nevada under the fear of the war. Three men have just escaped from prison, unaware of the nuclear experiments of the government. Soon the group of three takes a few hostages in result of getting a doctor because one of the escapees is injured. As time goes on in the deserted town the hostages start to lose their morality and the time before the explosion is running out.

The aesthetics of film-noir were often related to big cities like New York or Los Angeles and exotic milieus were always part of the genre but usually they meant bars in Chinatown, motels of Arabia or the cold streets of Shanghai. In 1950's many tried to transform film-noir to new milieus: to snowy conditions (On Dangerous Ground), to the narrow halls of a train (The Narrow Margin) and to the back seats of a car (The Hitch-Hiker). To me Split Second represents the attempt of transforming film-noir to deserted towns, which The Hitch-Hiker (1953) did as well, but Split Second also tried to bring film-noir to the Atomic Age.

There's no question whether this is a high quality noir or a B-class film. The latter can be seen in its conventional direction, low budget and it has got a great number of unknown actors. But the way I see it Split Second is alongside with all the b-class Mitchum films one of the bests. It's a great example of Cold War films and how the Atomic Age affected cinema. It's an entertaining thriller but also a fine survey of the disappearance of morality.

Split Second is directed by Dick Powell and written by William Bowers, Irving Wallace and Chester Erskine. It stars Stephen McNally, Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling, Keith Andes, Arthur Hunnicutt, Richard Egan, Paul Kelly, Robert Paige and Frank DeKova. Music is by Roy Webb and cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca.

Escaped convict Sam Hurley (McNally) is on the run with his wounded pal Bart Moore (Kelly) and henchman accomplice Dummy (DeKova). Carjacking two lots of hostages, Hurley takes them to a ghost town on an Atom Bomb test sight figuring it's the perfect place to hole up. But with Moore in need of medical help, the test bomb set to go off in the morning and tempers frayed within the group, something is going to have to give...

A taut and sweaty noir, Split Second taps into the 50s fear of the bomb and explodes the character dynamics Petrified Forest style. The premise is simple, once the character introductions are out the way, we wind our way to a bleak ghost town and stay in the company of a disparate group of people for the remainder of the film. As the clock ticks down, with the bomb set to be detonated on the town at 06.00, the various characters introduce their respective traits into the story. The tension mounts and the over-spills are often nervy, sleazy and poignant.

The makers don't soft soap the situations, but they do dangle shards of sympathy. As is the case with Hurley, who is a cold blooded killer, we know and witness this, but his back story is that of a war hero, he also has a deep affection for his injured older pal, somewhere along the line a good man lost his balance. Dottie Vale (Sterling) is a dancer, street wise and aware of how to play the situation, but sadness resides behind her waspish tongue. Kay Garven (Smith) is a lost cause, she will do anything and trample on anyone to save herself. One of the best sequences in the film finds Garven throwing herself at Hurley, the rest goes on behind closed doors, but we know what happens and it adds spice to what follows in the final third.

Not all of the characters work for dramatic impact, such as Hunnicutt's talkative miner who wanders in to the plot at the mid-point (it's amazing how easy everyone finds it to get into this supposedly secure military site!), but the dynamics work wonderfully well. Weaklings, heroes in waiting, the forlorn, the foolish or the borderline psychotic, they all make for a potent and spicy psychological stew. The suspense angle of the impending bomb detonation is water tight, as is the ebbing away of Bart Moore, directer Powell never resorts to cheap tactics or clichés to keep the noose tight, and we are constantly wondering just who, if anyone? Will survive the ordeal.

Once daylight disappears and we leave the scorching Mojave vistas behind, night time envelopes the ghost town and ace cinematographer Musuraca brings his atmospheric magic. Webb scores it with dramatic verve and the RKO effects team (headed by Harold Wellman) do sterling work to pull it all together without cheap and tacky baggage. Powell gets great performances out of McNally, Kelly, Sterling, Egan and Smith, while his ability to not let the logic holes dominate the narrative belies the fact that this was his first directing assignment.

From the ominous opening shot of two men fleeing over sun-baked mud flats, to the thrilling and darkly tinged denouement, Split Second is a coiled spring waiting to explode. 8/10

This film does not receive the notice it deserves; it is discovered by those who are intrigued by its gimmick--the action takes place in a ghost town scheduled to be destroyed by am atom bomb very soon, and then appreciated for its many good B/W dramatic scenes and other qualities. Dick Powell directed this taut thriller with his usual combination of good work with actors and very competent camera work. There are two plots going on here, very well interwoven by my standards; the normals in the film, led by a reporter beautifully played by Keith Andes, are those trapped in the doomed desert town; the other are those who are holding them there, a gang of criminals led by nice-guy and talented actor Stephen McNally as Sam Hurelyy-- an escaped criminal whose brutality becomes a metaphor for the violence of an Age that needs to resort to atom bomb tests. Others in the stellar cast include Jan Sterling, Robert Paige,,Alexis Smith, Richard Egan, Arthur Hunnicutt, Paul Sewart and Frank de Kova. What sets this film apart I suggest is the brutality theme which is deftly made to affect to every member of the cast. McNally as Sam Hurley equates life with getting to do whatever he wants to do to anyone by force. Andes is his chief antagonist, not a great pugilist but a brave fighter for another way of thinking about life--get on with your own priorities and leave others alone; this is by the way the real definition of heroism-- being a man who can do something well. Alexis Smith plays a woman who to save her life ignores what Hurley is, and the fact that is is planning to leave the others behind when he uses their car to drive away--with the atom bomb taking care of the evidence. The characters here are all unusually well-developed, from hoofer Sterling who distrusts everyone until Andes takes a beating from McNally protecting her, to Paige who underestimates Hurley to Hunnicutt who has run away from people to Egan who comes to save the wife who has been cheating on him, a woman who can't take responsibility, to Stewart who has to act against Hurley, his partner. It's difficult to recommend too highly such an extraordinary blend of noir brinksmanship, excellent dialogue and memorable confrontations. This drama only needed one change, to be made from the point of view of the reporter not the gang leader, to be a great film. It would lose a lot in color since it's superb black-and-white noir drama, from an age of much-better acting, writing and directing.

A cultish favourite that is often listed for festivals of noir cinema, this work is less noirish than it is a clear example from the Theatre of Paranoia, as Dick Powell's directorial debut melds nuclear explosion fears with a harrowing hostage taking by two escaped convicts fleeing from a Nevada prison. The escapees, Sam (Stephen McNally) and Bart (Paul Kelly) helped by mute accomplice Dummy (Frank DeKova), take refuge in an abandoned mining town, Yucca Flats, along with six prisoners they acquire during their flight, despite their awareness that the desert ghost town is within a nuclear test site where, in 12 hours, a combined military force is going to explode a tower bomb armed with high grade scissile plutonium. Sam believes that he and his two cohorts will be able to evade a protective army encirclement and escape prior to the blast, but the uncertain fate of their hapless hostages becomes the oarlock for the film's atmosphere of foreboding, with one of the captives, played by Keith Andes, being a Las Vegas newspaper reporter who has full knowledge of the detonation schedule, having attended planning meetings during which the event's timetable has been established. For Powell's initial effort as a director of features, he selects a restricted environment, essentially one large room, as setting for his limited cast of featured players, with the bomb becoming an additional sinister character. Following initial lead-in scenes, including interlaced footage of actual soldiers and military technicians, a stage mise-en-scène is established to advance an atmosphere of suspense. Unfortunately, Powell's inexperience with ensemble work is in evidence here, as the players generally simply take turns with their readings, although a good deal of the dialogue is trenchant. The villainous trio is the most interesting of the cast, with Kelly taking the acting palm for his strong yet low-keyed turn as one who was severely wounded during the prison break, and Richard Egan is convincing as a physician gulled into performing surgery upon Bart, while on the distaff side talented Jan Sterling handily outperforms the histrionic Alexis Smith. Shot in California's Mojave Desert, this work benefits from R.K.O.s master cinematographer with black and white stock, Nick Musuraca, and there is an appropriately dramatic score from Roy Webb. A nearly fatal flaw is the artless attitude toward the dangerous effects of atomic radiation, although it must be conceded that applicable information available to the general public was scanty at the time of the film's production.

As the credits rolled across the opening scene, I lost interest in the words as I tried to figure out what I was looking at: a high angle shot of a shimmering expanse that looked like slick, crazy paving, and with muted, keyed lighting spilling down the screen centre, almost like a searchlight. I blinked more than once, trying to focus properly, and then saw the two, long, moving shadows that eventually resolved to the silhouettes of two men running towards me, on what now showed itself to be the cracked and parched desert earth. As they disappeared off camera, I knew those men were running for their lives...

From that superb opener, the rest of this story unfolds with relentless fury as the two – escapees from a penitentiary – join a third, with an escape car, and set off to retrieve a cache of cash from a secret location. The convicts are Sam Hurley (Stephen McNally, in one his best roles), Bart Moore (Paul Kelly) with a bullet in his stomach, acquired in the break-out, and Dummy (Frank De Kova) who only says what he wants with a gun.

The three stop for gas where Hurley quickly displays his psychopathology when he casually kills the attendant who resists; Hurley's action is almost like swatting a fly. They wait then for their next victim – because the cops are looking for three escaped cons, and they want to cover their tracks.

A large limo pulls in for gas, and the cons force their way into the car where Kay Garven (Alexis Smith) and Arthur Ashton (Robert Paige) are in the throes of a love affair that, from the intro between the two a few scenes earlier, appears to be going sour. So, the whole party continues under Hurley's surly orders and direction. That is, until they run out of gas – something Kay forgot to tell Hurley, much to his displeasure. So, they sit at the road side, and wait for another useful victim...

And that soon arrives in the form of Larry Fleming (Keith Andes), a well known news reporter and Dottie Vale (Jan Sterling), an attractive blonde down on her luck and just hitching a ride with Larry. So, when they stop to help Kay who was acting as bait, Hurley once again steps in to step on Larry's plans this time. Good job Larry had a much bigger car – a station wagon that can accommodate all seven of them.

Hurley then tells Larry to drive to a ghost town in the desert where he will link up with another con with another vehicle, due late that night. But first, he has to get Bart fixed up, get that bullet out with the help of Dr Garven (Richard Egan), Kay's estranged husband. Hurley calls the doctor on a phone and tells him he'll kill Kay if he fails to come and fix Bart...

The last piece of the setup falls into place when Larry tells Hurley that the ghost town is only a mile from ground zero: a nuclear test is due for detonation at 6 the next morning. Hurley doesn't care: he's got plenty of time, he thinks. Unknown to all of them, however, that time is changed to 5 a.m. to take advantage of the good weather.

With that all in place, the action is then contained on a single stage for the next hour, as the clock ticks down to zero hour and as Hurley waits to get Bart fixed. Later, old Asa Tremaine (Arthur Hunnicutt) turns up to provide pivotal support for the other hostages, and almost steals the show, for my money.

Director Powell – one of my favorite film-noir actors – does an excellent job as a first-timer behind the camera: well done interlaced editing as the separate stories are shown and eventually come together at the ghost town; appropriate black and white photography; and a well constructed claustrophobic mise-en-scene in the ramshackle bar in the ghost town – reminiscent of that rundown hotel in Key Largo (1948) as the hurricane approaches. Add to that the standard footage showing the preparations to detonate an atom bomb, and the viewer is set for a taut nail-biter.

McNally surpasses all in this film and delivers some of the best lines, along with Jan Sterling. Paul Kelly is very effective as Hurley's older friend – but one who begins to question Hurley's judgment. And Frank De Kova is chillingly dangerous, at all times. Alexis Smith is the quintessential, low-life femme fatale, who makes the fatal error of hitching a ride with Hurley. Keith Andes is credible but somewhat wooden, to be kind, but does show the spunk of heroes when danger beckons. Arthur Hunnicutt is, as usual, the consummate old-timer of the desert – and has the means to save the hostages from nuclear annihilation. Lucky for them.

There're a number of themes, of course: greed, loyalty, and courage being the obvious ones. It's the interaction between Hurley and Bart Moore, however, that's fascinating: Hurley, a psychologically damaged WW2 veteran who can't stop killing but who recognizes something he needs in Bart's presence, almost like a brother. Or, was it just the money?

It's a B movie, for sure, but it's one of the best I've seen. Recommended for all film noir fans.