Atomic Drama

SPLIT SECOND-1953-Escaped killer Sam Hurly (Stephen McNally) holds a bunch of people hostage in a ghost town where the next day there is going to be an A-bomb test. Hostages include a reporter (Keith Andes), a dancer (Jan Sterling), a married woman (Alexis Smith) in Reno for a divorce and her boyfriend (Robert Paige). Hurly keeps them in line with the help of his mean, silent henchman Dummy (Frank DeKova). Somehow he blackmails the divorce woman's doctor/husband (Richard Egan) to come and tend his wounded partner (Paul Kelly). An old prospector (Arthur Hunnicutt) shows up midway through too. There's a lot of talk, soul searching and a fist fight during an operation. It ends with a mushroom cloud (but the good guys survive). 

Slightly far-fetched, SPLIT SECOND was the first directorial effort from actor Dick Powell who three years later would make the notoriously bad THE CONQUEROR which had some atomic bomb issues itself they say...

Thanks for reading!