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Panic in the Streets

Directed by Elia Kazan Produced by Sol C. Siegel Written by Richard Murphy (adaptation) Daniel Fuchs (original story) Edna Anhalt Edward Anhalt Starring Richard Widmark Paul Douglas Barbara Bel Geddes Walter Jack Palance Zero Mostel Dan Riss Tommy Cook Alexis Minotis Music by Alfred Newman (song) Billie Holiday Cinematography Joseph MacDonald Distributed by 20th Century Fox Release date(s) June 12, 1950 (U.S. release) Running time 96 min. Language English All Movie Guide profile IMDb profile

Panic in the Streets is a black and white, 96-minute film directed by Elia Kazan and released in 1950 by 20th Century Fox. It is film noir semidocumentary shot exclusively on location in New Orleans, Louisiana and featuring numerous New Orleans citizens in speaking and non-speaking roles.

The film tells the story of Clinton Reed, an officer of the U.S. Public Health Service (played by Richard Widmark) and a police captain (Paul Douglas) who have only a day or two in which to prevent an epidemic of pneumonic plague after Reed determines a waterfront homicide victim is an index case. Co-stars include Barbara Bel Geddes (as Reed's wife Nancy), Walter Jack Palance (in his film debut) and Zero Mostel — the latter two play associates of the victim who had prompted the investigation. The film was also the debut of Tommy Rettig, who played the Reeds' son.

The film won an Academy Award for Writing (Motion Picture Story) in 1950. The script (adapted by writer Daniel Fuchs) was based on stories by Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt.

Plot

Plot and/or ending details follow.

After brawling over a card game in the wharf area of New Orleans, a man named Kochak, suffering visibly from a flu-like illness, is killed by gangster Blackie and his two flunkies, Kochak's cousin Poldi and a man named Fitch. They leave the body on the docks, and later when the dead man, who carries no identification, is brought to the morgue, the coroner grows suspicious about the virus present in his blood and calls his superior, Dr. Clinton Reed, a uniformed doctor working for the U.S. Public Health Service. Reed is enjoying a rare day off with his wife Nancy and their son Tommy, but decides to inspect the body. After careful examination, he determines that Kochak had "pneumonic plague," the pulmonary version of bubonic plague. Reed springs into action, insisting that everyone who came into contact with the body be inoculated. He also orders that the dead man's identity be determined, as well as his comings and goings during the previous few days. Reed meets with people from the mayor's office, the police commissioner and other city officials, but they are skeptical of his claims. Eventually, however, his impassioned pleas convince them that they have forty-eight hours to save New Orleans from the plague. Reed must also convince police captain Warren and the others that the press must not be notified, because report of a plague would spread mass panic.

Warren and his men begin to interview Slavic immigrants, as it has been determined that the body may be of Armenian, Czech or mixed blood. Burdened by the knowledge that the massive investigation has little chance of success, Reed accuses Warren of not taking the threat seriously enough. In turn, Warren admits that he thinks Reed is ambitious and trying to use the situation to further his career. Reed, angry, decides to take matters into his own hands and, acting on a hunch that the man may have entered the city's port illegally, goes to the National Maritime Union hiring hall and passes out copies of the dead man's picture. Although the workers tell Reed that seamen never talk, he goes to a café next door hoping that someone will meet him with a tip. Eventually a young woman shows up and takes Reed to see her friend Charlie, who reluctantly admits that he worked aboard the ship, the Nile Queen , upon which the already ill man was smuggled.

Meanwhile, Fitch, who was questioned by Warren but claimed to know nothing, goes to Blackie and warns him about the investigation. Blackie plans to get out of town, but begins to suspect that his sidekick Poldi received expensive smuggled goods from Kochak, explaining the police's intense investigation of the man's murder. Reed and Warren, who is now convinced of Reed's integrity, go to the Nile Queen and convince the crew to talk by telling them that they will die if the sick man was indeed on their ship. After carrying up a sick cook from the hold, the seamen then permit Reed and Warren to inoculate and question them, revealing in the process that Kochak boarded at Oran and was fond of shish-kebob. With this lead, Reed and Warren canvas the city's Greek restaurants, and just after they leave one such establishment, Blackie arrives to meet Poldi, who is very ill. A short time later, Reed receives word that a woman, Rita, has died of the fever and realizes that she was the wife of the Greek restaurant proprietor who had earlier lied about having served Kochak.

Reed returns to headquarters to discover that a reporter is threatening to break the story that a virus is endangering the city. Reed is impressed when the deeply committed yet unorthodox Warren throws the reporter into jail to keep him quiet. Late in the evening, a beleaguered Reed returns home for a few hours of sleep, and his wife announces that she is pregnant. She then tries to restore her husband's flagging self-confidence. A few hours later, Reed and Warren learn that the mayor is angry about their treatment of the reporter. The reporter, who has been released, announces that the story will appear in the morning paper in four hours, giving Reed and Warren little time to find their man. Meanwhile, Blackie goes to Poldi's room and tries to force him to reveal information about some smuggled goods, but the dying Poldi is delirious and only rants nonsensically. Blackie then brings in his own doctor and tells Poldi's grandmother that they will take care of him. Just then, Reed, having been tipped off by the Greek restaurant owner, arrives, and Blackie and Fitch, who are carrying Poldi down the stairs, pitch the man over the side and flee. Reed chases the two to the docks, where he tries to explain to them about the plague. The men run desperately through depots, docks and a warehouse, and at one point, Warren shoots and injures Blackie, preventing him from shooting Reed. Blackie accidentally shoots Fitch and then tries to struggle onto a ship but, exhausted, falls into the water. His work finally done, Reed heads for home, and on the way, Warren offers to give him some of the smuggled perfume that Poldi had indeed received from Kochak. As the radio announces the resolution of the crisis, a proud Nancy greets her husband.

Commentary

The August 1950 New York Times review of the film summarizes the film as follows[1]:

Although it is excitingly presented, Panic in the Streets misses the mark as superior melodrama because it is not without obvious, sometimes annoying exaggeration that demands more indulgence than some spectators may be willing to contribute. However, there is an electric quality to the climax staged in a warehouse on the New Orleans waterfront that should compensate for minor annoyances which come to the surface spasmodically in Panic in the Streets.

A review from a New Orleans weekly published after the film's DVD release[2] notes the following:

The film noir elements come from the movie's use of post-war German Expressionist and Italian Neo-Realist techniques. Kazan admired how the Expressionists used chiaroscuro lighting to heighten emotion, and he related to the Neo-Realists' verité portrayals of those living on the margin of society. Panic offered him a chance to explore these styles further by experimenting with cinematography and casting real people. After working with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood — Dorothy McGuire, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Dana Andrews, Gregory Peck and Ethel Barrymore — Kazan wanted to go in the opposite direction. To suit the needs of this picture and his new approach, he recruited not only lesser stars, but also some of his rougher cronies from the New York stage scene, and on top of that several New Orleanians with varied levels of acting experience.

Trivia

This was one of the last films Mostel and Bel Geddes were in before being placed on the Hollywood blacklist. Kazan later testified against Mostel in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

The working titles of the film were "Port of Entry" and "Outbreak", and the original story by Edna and Edward Anhalt was titled "Quarantine." The screen story was partially based on a short story by Edward Anhalt, titled "Some Like It Cold," which was published under his pseudonym, Andrew Holt, in a Dime Detective Magazine issue.

In his autobiography, director Elia Kazan writes that Twentieth Century-Fox's sales department, which was worried about the film's potential for "popular appeal," ultimately chose the title "Panic in the Streets."

The film was shot on location in and around New Orleans, and featured many local residents in small roles and as extras. Production notes for the film claim that only twelve of the 112 actors with speaking parts were brought in from Hollywood and New York.

H. Walter Fowler, Jr., who plays Mayor Murray, was actually a New Orleans stockbroker, and Emile Meyer, who plays Captain Beauclyde, was in real life, a cab driver.

A February 1949 New York Herald Tribune news item, stated that Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell were originally cast in the film.

Many critics hailed the debut performance by Palance, including the Los Angeles Times reviewer, who described the actor as a "hulking giant with a catlike grace and a caressing voice."

In March of 1951, the Lux Radio Theatre broadcasted a version of the story with Widmark and Douglas reprising their roles, and Joyce MacKenzie in the original Bel Geddes role.