ThrillerCrime

Panic in the Streets

- THE SCREEN'S GREATEST EXCITEMENT OF THE YEAR!

A medical examiner discovers that an innocent shooting victim in a robbery died of bubonic plague. With only 48 hours to find the killer, who is now a ticking time bomb threatening the entire city, a grisly manhunt through the seamy underworld of the New Orleans Waterfront is underway.

Release Date : 1950-07-27

Language :MandarinGreekEnglish

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : 20th Century Fox

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Lt. Cmdr. Clinton 'Clint' Reed M.D.

Original Name : Richard Widmark

Gender : Male

Character Name : Capt. Tom Warren

Original Name : Paul Douglas

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nancy Reed

Original Name : Barbara Bel Geddes

Gender : Female

Character Name : Blackie

Original Name : Jack Palance

Gender : Male

Character Name : Raymond Fitch

Original Name : Zero Mostel

Gender : Male

Character Name : Neff - Newspaper Reporter

Original Name : Dan Riss

Gender : Male

Character Name : Vince Poldi - Younger Brother

Original Name : Tommy Cook

Gender : Male

Character Name : Charlie - Sailor (uncredited)

Original Name : Wilson Bourg Jr.

Gender : Male

Character Name : Dr. Mackey - Board of Health (uncredited)

Original Name : Beverly C. Brown

Gender : Male

Character Name : Kochak - Murder Victim (uncredited)

Original Name : Lewis Charles

Gender : Male

Character Name : Officer Scott - Police Lab (uncredited)

Original Name : Herman Cottman

Gender : Male

Character Name : Fruit Salesman (uncredited)

Original Name : John David

Gender : Male

Character Name : Cortelyou (uncredited)

Original Name : William A. Dean

Gender : Male

Character Name : Coast Guard Lieutenant (uncredited)

Original Name : Robert Dorsen

Gender : Male

Character Name : Kleber - Medical Examiner Technician (uncredited)

Original Name : George Ehmig

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mayor Murray (uncredited)

Original Name : H. Waller Fowler Jr.

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lt. Paul Gafney M.D. - Public Health Service (uncredited)

Original Name : Paul Hostetler

Gender : Male

Character Name : Cleaver - Mortuary Assistant (uncredited)

Original Name : Elia Kazan

Gender : Male

Character Name : Jordan (uncredited)

Original Name : Edward Kennedy

Gender : Male

Character Name : Angie Fitch - Raymond's Wife (uncredited)

Original Name : Mary Liswood

Gender : Male

Character Name : Anson (uncredited)

Original Name : Henry Mamet

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bosun on Nile Queen (uncredited)

Original Name : Tiger Joe Marsh

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mrs. Dubin (uncredited)

Original Name : Ruth Moore Mathews

Gender : Male

Character Name : Capt. Beauclyde - Master of Nile Queen (uncredited)

Original Name : Emile Meyer

Gender : Male

Character Name : John Mefaris - Restaurant Owner (uncredited)

Original Name : Alex Minotis

Gender : Male

Character Name : Wynant (uncredited)

Original Name : Rex Moad

Gender : Male

Character Name : Dubin (uncredited)

Original Name : Ray Müller

Gender : Male

Character Name : Jeanette - Charlie's Girlfriend (uncredited)

Original Name : Lenka Peterson

Gender : Female

Character Name : Ben (uncredited)

Original Name : Waldo Pitkin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Tommy Reed (uncredited)

Original Name : Tommy Rettig

Gender : Male

Character Name : Redfield (uncredited)

Original Name : Stanley J. Reyes

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lee (uncredited)

Original Name : John Schilleci

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mrs. Rita Mefaris (uncredited)

Original Name : Aline Stevens

Gender : Male

Character Name : Al (uncredited)

Original Name : Al Theriot

Gender : Male

Character Name : Poldi - Blackie's Flunky (uncredited)

Original Name : Guy Thomajan

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lascar Boy on Nile Queen (uncredited)

Original Name : Arthur Tong

Gender : Male

Character Name : Cook on Nile Queen (uncredited)

Original Name : H.T. Tsiang

Gender : Male

Character Name : Johnston (uncredited)

Original Name : Irvine Vidacovich

Gender : Male

Character Name : Hotel Proprietor (uncredited)

Original Name : Juan Villasana

Gender : Male

Character Name : Pat - Newspaper Peddler (uncredited)

Original Name : Pat Walshe

Gender : Male

Character Name : Commissioner Dan Quinn (uncredited)

Original Name : Val Winter

Gender : Male

Character Name : Sgt. Phelps (uncredited)

Original Name : Leo Zinser

Gender : Male

Reviews

John Chard

@John Chard

2024-05-16

Sweaty clock ticker from Elia Kazan. A doctor and a policeman in New Orleans have only 48 hours to locate a killer infected with pneumonic plague. An effective and class, little thriller directed by Elia Kazan that blends documentary realism with a race against time pulpy heartbeat. Set and filmed in and around New Orleans, Panic In The Streets is taken from the story Quarantine, Some Like 'em Cold by Edna and Edward Anhalt who won an Oscar for original story. It also boasts a fine ensemble cast that deliver top rate performances for their director. In turn, Richard Widmark (bringing the method a year before Marlon did for Kazan in A Streetcar Named Desire), Paul Douglas, Jack Palance (as Walter Jack Palance) & the wonderfully named Zero Mostel, all get sweatily moody as the pursuers chase the pursued to halt the onset of a potential Black Death epidemic. Where the film scores its main suspense points is with Kazan's astute ability to cut back and forth between the protagonists without altering the flow and mood of the piece. From Widmark's Public Health doctor, with hypodermic needle in hand, running around trying to locate the bad guys so he can do good - to the bad guys themselves who are bemused as to why there is such a wide scale hunt for them. The tension is stacked up to fever breaking point, to which thankfully the final thirty minutes becomes a cracking piece of cinema, with Palance excelling as a nasty villain that ironically puts one in mind of Widmark's own Tommy Udo from Kiss Of Death three years previously. It's an imaginative and intelligently written story, one that cunningly links rats and criminals to being carriers of disease. A blight on society as it were. It's noirish elements, such as paranoia, blend nicely with its basic procedural thriller being. While some memorable scenes are suitably cloaked by the stifling atmosphere that Kazan has created. Although some of the early character psychologizing threatens to steer the film down some over talky based alleyways, this definitely is a film worth staying with to the end. Not essential film-noir in my personal book, and maybe not even essential Kazan? but certainly a highly recommended film that begs to be discovered by a new generation of film lovers and reappraised by the old guard who may have missed it back in the day. 7.5/10

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2022-12-27

As of March 2020, a rather apposite story of a New Orleans murderer who has a deadly plague. It falls to Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas to track down this walking petrie dish before his contagion spreads through the whole of the country. What follows is quite a quickly paced thriller with Barbara Bel Geddes as Widmark's rather pretty, but soporific gal and Jack Palance, menacing and thoughtless, portraying "Blackie" who, with Zero Mostel, is trying to help his toxic pal escape the clutches of his pursuers. The problem is that the cast are pretty wooden and don't gel especially well; it's a super story but told in an act-by-numbers style. It suffers from a mediocre, interfering score from Alfred Newman used way too much by Elia Kazan and the result is a pale imitation of what could have been.