Split Second (1953)

Split Second (1953) is a nuclear threat hostage film noir — a nuclear noir if you will — that pits some habitual noir lowlife against the atom bomb.

The story follows two convicts, Sam Hurley (Stephen McNally) and Bart (Paul Kelly), who escape from prison with Bart having been shot. They're picked up by their getaway driver Dummy (Frank De Kova) and then hit a gas station, where the foul-tempered Sam kills the attendant (John Cliff).

The men then hijack a car driven by Kay (Alexis Smith) and her boyfriend (Robert Paige) and set off into a nuclear testing ground where they pick up another two cast members, an attractive drifter called Dottie (Jan Sterling), who is travelling with a journalist called Larry (Keith Andes).

This crooks on the run in the desert set up is familiar from noir and proto-noir, from movies such as Heat Lightning (1934) and The Petrified Forest (1936) — both of which it feels a little like at times.

But the key feature and all out winning element that gives Split Second its kick has to be the proximity of the nuclear bomb test and the countdown towards it. Whether or not you enjoy the preceding build up and action around the hostage and hideout situation in Split Second (1953), the conclusion, after the planned atom bomb explosion is moved forward by an hour and the sirens sound — all of this is stunning.

Stephen McNally in nuclear noir Split Second (1953)

It's one of those rare moments in which film noir tilts towards science fiction. The manic behaviour of the fleeing criminals when faced with the live nuclear threat is awesome with prodigious fear and all out sweat-gushing terror as the final trio flee in their car, trying to escape the impending blast.

On top of that there is the blast itself which is such a rare and profound expression of all things deeply counter to the hopeful suburban normality of the 1950s that it's almost a movie in itself, as the scene switches from the cooped-up noir of the hostage situation to the world-ending philosophical height of nothing ness that results only from the atom bomb going off in your face.

The most people that were ever squeezed in a film noir getaway car was seven — in
Split Second (1953)
L TO R: Jan Sterling, Frank de Kova, Robert Paige, Keith Andes, Paul Kelly, Alexis Smith and Stephen McNally

Few if any films of the 1950s in fact probably depicted the atomic bomb as well as this, and the raggedly little ghost town and escaping vehicle that are caught in its wake are captured well enough to bring the fears of such a device nearer to reality than ever before. Certainly film noir was barely ever this serious — or real.

Yet it's film noir, and characterful as such when required, and most characterful of all is likely Alexis Smith's character who is delightfully unlikeable and most tellingly has a drive to survive that is almost shocking, right up until the selfish conclusion. This is in contrast to her super-altruistic husband played by Richard Egan, who travels to join the hostages and help her, even though they are completely estranged.

Stephen McNally in nuclear noir Split Second (1953)

Alexis Smith in nuclear noir Split Second (1953)

She also takes up an unpleasant rivalry with Dottie, Jan Sterling's character, but it is clear throughout she is a summation of middle-class selfishness, so much so that she'll align with any old killer to save herself, displaying such a lack of morality.

Lest it be forgotten or ignored, by the early 1950s some of the profounder and maybe quieter elements of film noir, some of the classic style motifs and techniques that made noir noir, these had been side-lined. The result was that even now, looking back on a film like Split Second, we have no hesitation in calling it a film noir, when in fact some vital ingredients may be lacking.

Keith Andes and Arthur Hunnicutt in Split Second (1953)

One such common but vital ingredient in 1940s classic film noir has to be the element of the fantastic which places a true film noir picture within a bubble of escape within which it works on its own logic.

The characters of the 1950s do not have the exaggerate grotesqueries of the characters of the 1940s, and nor do they dwell within their own minor fantasies, preferring as here to work in the real world, or as close a version to the real world as the moviemakers can create. It's a this point in history that the very term film noir starts to become something of a catch-all, or a byword for what may be nothing more than a criminal or caper picture.

Jan Sterling and Alexis Smith in nuclear noir Split Second (1953)

In Split Second there is none of the excess of high period film noir. By which we can see illustrated as good as earnest attempts come, to envisage what a hijack and hostage situation might be like. There is little in the way of back story as far as the criminals and their hostages are concerned, more likely a weakness of the producing team rather than the format. On top of that, dialogue is fairly normal insofar as it reflects the producers' aspirations towards making real life characters, and not a milieu of madness.

Richard Egan and Arthur Hunnicutt in Split Second (1953)

The differentiating factor in Split Second (1953) is however without doubt the advent of the nuclear bomb. Everything around the bomb and its blast, as well as the science of testing and the military seriousness of it all drives Split Second onwards and makes its efforts worthwhile.

As a variety of him invasion film noir, Split Second follows its type closely. It could be a type of home invasion noir insofar as the criminals do invade a home and take hostages, except that the home is abandoned, and only becomes a home by dint of their using it as a hideout.

Keith Andes and Jan Sterling in Split Second (1953)

En route to the hideout, Split Second (1953) does achieve one significant film noir achievement, which may e the most amount of people in a car for the vehicle shot so well known across those decades of Golden Age cinema. This crowded car shot is almost comic, and probably would be were it for the fact that because of the nuclear threat and the seriousness of 1950s dialogue, there is no comic relief in Split Second at all.

Split Second (1953)