IMDb RATING
6.8/10
2.1K
YOUR RATING
Two escaped killers take hostages and hide in a Nevada mining ghost town, knowing that an atom bomb is scheduled to be tested there the next morning.Two escaped killers take hostages and hide in a Nevada mining ghost town, knowing that an atom bomb is scheduled to be tested there the next morning.Two escaped killers take hostages and hide in a Nevada mining ghost town, knowing that an atom bomb is scheduled to be tested there the next morning.
Frank DeKova
- Dummy
- (as Frank de Kova)
Fred Aldrich
- Hunter - Driver of Car
- (uncredited)
Benny Burt
- Hunter
- (uncredited)
John Cliff
- Gas Station Attendant
- (uncredited)
Dick Crockett
- Air Force Helicopter Pilot
- (uncredited)
John Diggs
- Colonel at Control Station
- (uncredited)
William Forrest
- Colonel Wright
- (uncredited)
Fred Graham
- A.F. Captain in Helicopter
- (uncredited)
Karen Hale
- Nurse
- (uncredited)
Clark Howat
- Lieutenant at Control Station
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe escaped convict Bart Moore is played by Paul Kelly, who himself spent 25 months during the late 1920s in California's San Quentin State Prison. He was convicted of manslaughter for the beating death of actor Ray Raymond, the first husband of actress Dorothy Mackaye, who was having an affair with Kelly and would later marry him. Kelly's next film was Duffy of San Quentin (1954), where he plays the title role - the warden of the prison where he himself did time.
- GoofsHurley tells Garven his wife is driving a Chrysler, but the car front shows it clearly to be a Cadillac with distinctive V-shaped symbol.
- Quotes
Larry Fleming: [referring to Dottie's mother] Six husbands, and you're still working on your first.
Dorothy 'Dottie' Vail: Mother used up all the men we knew.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Noir Alley: Split Second (2017)
Featured review
The Intensity Never Flags
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.
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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