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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0024543148586
Format: Closed-captioned, Black & White, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 15, 2005
Running Time: 96 minutes
Sales Rank: 29461
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: June 12, 1950
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Editorial Review:
Description:
One night in the New Orleans slums, vicious hoodlum Blackie and his friends kill an illegal immigrant who won too much in a card game. When Dr. Clint Reed confirms the dead man had pneumonic plague he must find and inoculate the killers and their associates. Can a doctor turn detective? He has 48 hours to try ...
Amazon.com essential video:
An amazingly effective film noir action movie, shot on location in New Orleans in 1950, that has twists of plot and explosions of violence that can still make audiences gasp. Elia Kazan, of all people, directed this story of a public health worker (Richard Widmark) and a police detective (Paul Douglas) who have only a few hours in which to capture some fleeing felons who may be infected with the plague. The bad guys are played, with enormous relish, by Jack Palance and Zero Mostel, the latter only a few years before Kazan ratted him out to the House Un-American Activities Committee. In retrospect, this modest crime picture looks like a crucial turning point in the formation of Kazan's distinctive style, a clear precursor to the blistering location work of landmark films like On the Waterfront, Baby Doll, and America, America. --David Chute
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - New Orleans Noir Works
It was interesting and clever that director Elia Kazan used the New Orleans docks as the backdrop for this gritty noir film that features actor Jack Palance's movie debut. Shot on location with many non-professional locals in acting roles that required scenes featuring their own occupations, Panic in the Streets, is an intense montage of classic noir images. Darkened alleys, seedy coffee shops, and one night boarding houses add to the realism that the New Orleans docks brings to the film's shadowy cinematography. Kazan uses extended long shots and heightened contrasts of dark and light to amplify scenes that are dominated by hopeless characters trapped in low level crime. Richard Widmark gives a credible performance as the doctor who is trying to alert the city's bureaucracy of an impending pandemic caused by a mysterious drifter who spends a night of card playing with local hustlers headed by Blackie ( Jack Palance). Blackie is a menacing character played to the hilt by Palance. Zero Mostel plays one of Blackie's sycophants who urgently seeks his bosses approval by appeasing his every whim. The final chase scene is shot and edited beautifully. The liner notes on the DVD add interesting facts about the making of the film, particularly Widmark's recollection of the ending fight scene. According to Widmark, Palance substituted a real gun, when a prop rubber gun should have been used. Widmark was hit on the head and was out for 20 minutes. Did he say anything to Palance? Watch the film and you will ... Read More
Rating:  - Panic in the Streets
Breathlessly exciting film is one of the best manhunt pictures ever made, with the plague twist adding an extra jolt of tension. Kazan's peerless on-location shooting never obscures the terrific acting from the four central characters, comprising both hunters and hunted. Palance is positively magnetic. Don't miss this one.
Rating: - Great Acting & A Good Story!
This is definitely a "good-guys vs. bad-guys" drama, set in old New Orleans. It includes notable performances by both Barbara Bel Geddes and Jack Palance. The spectre of an epidemic will keep the viewer intrigued, as the clock continues to tick...
Rating: - A classic thriller
I saw this one first years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it! As a film buff, there are some great actors and character actors in this film: Richard Widmark as a "good guy", Jack Palance, Zero Mostel and one of my favorites, totally under-rated his whole career---Paul Douglas. As a person with a medical background, I found the plot of a potential plague infesting New Orleans fascinating, and not too far-fetched. It's classic noir: gritty, grainy, inner-city dirty sets and some great clipped dialogue. Add it to your "noir" collection.
Rating: - THE BEST!
The obvious plot-line is the plague in New Orleans. But, I have always seen it as a sweet love affair between characters of Barbara and Richard. Irrespective of the 'Panic in the Streets,' life goes on! The cast is superb; Walter Jack PALANCE is the epitome of the psychotic 'heavy' (watch his mood swings that happen in a second or two!) -- Zero Mostel as the cowardly hanger-on; Paul Douglas as the straight-shooter cop out of his depth.
The CENTER, however, is the marital contract between Widmark's and Geddes' characters -- never so endearingly portrayed on film.
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