Panic in the Streets (1950)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Panic in the Streets (1950) – E. Kazan

Richard Widmark is the Public Health Service doctor who discovers a case of Pneumonic Plague (cousin of the Bubonic variety but sounding a lot like Coronavirus – it’s transmitted through the air) in a murder victim in New Orleans. The next step is contact tracing – which is hard because the body has not been identified (and is immediately cremated). Widmark contacts the Mayor who orders the police (led by Paul Douglas) to start a search.  Of course, WE know that the victim was an illegal immigrant who arrived by ship, because we see him lose a poker game, flee and get killed by Blackie (Jack Palance in his frightening debut) and his simpering flunky (Zero Mostel).  To avoid panic (and those contagious fleeing to other parts of the USA), Widmark advises the city to keep the presence of the virus under wraps.  The result, as directed by Elia Kazan, is one pulse-pounding night as the heroes desperately track the killers before it’s too late. Any similarities to present day events stop short because they have a vaccine for the plague in this movie and simply give everyone exposed a quick hypodermic.  Also, they manage to avoid hundreds of thousands of deaths – a consequence mentioned explicitly.  But otherwise, yeah, it’s pretty scary.