Panic in the Streets

This is a film noir about an outbreak of pneumonic plague in New Orleans.  Directed by Elia Kazan, it stars Richard Widmark as the doctor and Paul Douglas as the police captain; these two spend the movie trying to find everyone who was exposed to the disease in time to inoculate them.  Barbara Bel Geddes (Dallas), plays the doctor's wife, and a young Jack Palance (as Walter Jack Palance) plays "bad" guy trying to elude police because he (bullied?  killed?  I can't even remember, it was so boring) Patient Zero.

My thoughts:

• This movie is ridiculously low-action for a movie called Panic in the Streets (which has a poster depicting people running for their lives in horror).  Let's call a spade a spade: there can't be a panic if the Department of Public Health refuses to let anyone know (or the press reveal) that there is an epidemic.  Secondly, worst thing about Jack Palance's "Blackie" is how very bizarre Palance looked as a young man.  He definitely peaked in his later years, in my opinion.  
• And while I'm on the subject of Blackie: watching his stooge and him evade the police was like watching my dog avoid letting me near him to give him a treat: a lot of drama for absolutely NOTHING because all they wanted to do was give him a shot to keep him from dying.  Nobody, but NOBODY, cared about his relationship to Patient Zero.
• The impact of this movie is certainly lessened by my having seen movies like Outbreak and Contagion.  Maybe it was terrifying in its day, but it really doesn't pack a punch in the 21st century.

I don't really recommend it.  

Availability: DVD

Released: 1950

Added to my queue: 9/5/2007

Reason added to my queue: Who knows