The wharf area of New Orleans, where fragrances of fish, cargo ships fuel, wastes from nearby restaurants, sweat for heated nights and tobacco smoke from unrecommendable poker-players blend together into the atmosphere that will serve the nerve-wracking plot of Elia Kazan's "Panic in the Streets", a noir thriller that mixes many elements from the police procedural film and the gangster picture with a location that never fails to give a touch of authenticity, as it will be the case for Kazan's coming masterpieces. The story is set "on the waterfront", but the streetcar ain't named desire but medical emergency. And surely, a post-Covid public might be more sensitive to that subject.
The film starts in all noir fashion, when a sickly man stricken by fever, severe coughing and flu-like symptoms leaves a winning card game, his partners don't take it in a very sportsmanlike way, they follow his quivering running until finally cornering him in a tunnel lit from the far end. In strong black-and-white contrast, we witness a macabre shadow puppet show concluded by the fatal bullets shot by Blackie (Jack Palance) His associates Fitch (Zero Mostel) and Poldi (actually, the victim's cousin) throw the corpse on the dock. Unbeknownst to them, they got him out of his misery for Kochak (the victim) was to die of pneumonic plague anyway. But by handling the corpse, they inherited the germs, a rather interesting case of posthumous revenge from a victim.
Kazan knows he's handling one heck of a plot here. Written by Edna and Edward Anhalt (who'd win an Oscar) it is certainly the most creative since "D. O. A" with Edmund O'Brien, but the choice of tone is one of striking realism, Kazan never uses stock characters such as private eyes, bartenders or gangster moles and the victim's Slavic background brings on the screen many colorful aspects of the immigrant presence in New Orleans. The director also enlightens us of the merit of good crisis management, showing how sometimes disasters are prevented by sheer professionalism. The unsung hero of the film is actually the coroner who once discovering the bacteria in Kochak's body, decides to postpone his lunch, close the morgue and keep all those who had contact with the corpse "just in case". He then calls the US. Public Health Service and this is where Lieutenant Commander Clinton Reed, played by Richard Widmarck, enters the picture.
The casting of Widmarck is interesting for he has the looks of a civil servant with enough charisma to be credible but not too glamorous to strike as a Hollywood face. The first scenes show him as one of the typical 50s fathers, helping Junior to paint a box and complaining to his wife (Barbare Bel Geddes) that his day-off is canceled. The backstory gives a little quietness before the storm effect until he discovers what is as stakes: a man affected by the plague was killed, his killers or at the very least carriers got the germs so this is a deadly issue. Given the time of incubation, they have 48 hours to find the killers and inoculate all the people that crossed the path of Kochak. Talk about an interesting premise of police investigation where finding a killer is a matter of life-and-death... for everybody.
For that task, he'll collaborate with Captain Warren (Paul Douglas) a man who distrusts his Cassandra-like attitude and his zealous methods but he's got integrity and counts on Reed to let him conduct the investigation his way. The problem is that they have to start from scratch, that they deal in the world of seamen and gangsters and neither had made a reputation of being 'talkative' with the authorities, (the "On the Waterfront" omerta) and telling the press is no option since it would only lead to mass panic and eventually have the killers leave. A massive investigation through the local underworld brings Fitch to the police station, and so Blackie is alerted about the police on-goings and suspects that Kochak might have smuggled some valuable stuff and so the plot thickens when the villains sabotage the very efforts that are meant to save them. The irony would be savorous if it wasn't for the several lives in danger.
There's never a truly dull moment and the sense of emergency that keeps governing Reed and Warren's actions from the docks' shadiest places to Greek restaurants and ultimately in a massive chase on daylight keeps us over the edge of our seats. Kazan even allows a few pauses where Reed questions his competence with Warren and his wife and Warren explaining his dislike of doctors. The actors' performances are on par with the noir-school of authenticity when the heroes doubt themselves and the villains are cowardly (you'd even feel sorry for Mostel's character at times).
Naturally, for the sake of plot accuracy, the film has to take a few artistic licenses about the varying lethality of the disease, it's hard to believe that Blackie didn't contaminate more people and that it all revolves around him but the human aspect of the film and the middle section where the freedom of press is added into that complex equation speak loudly about Kazan's ambition to make more than an average thriller, he who'd make many films about the media. Still, "Panic in the Streets" is certainly more exciting for its race around the clock format, ending with with a rather ironic imagery of Blackie struggling to get over a rat-shield on a mooring rope. Like his own victim who was cornered like a rat, he becomes a rat himself.
But what a big animal... this was the debut of actor Jack Palance and from that starting point where he embodied the laid-back but quite intimidating thug , his chiseled face, devilish smile and faux-suave manners established one truth: whenever menace is called for, a presence such as Jack Palance would rhyme with 'enhance'.
The film starts in all noir fashion, when a sickly man stricken by fever, severe coughing and flu-like symptoms leaves a winning card game, his partners don't take it in a very sportsmanlike way, they follow his quivering running until finally cornering him in a tunnel lit from the far end. In strong black-and-white contrast, we witness a macabre shadow puppet show concluded by the fatal bullets shot by Blackie (Jack Palance) His associates Fitch (Zero Mostel) and Poldi (actually, the victim's cousin) throw the corpse on the dock. Unbeknownst to them, they got him out of his misery for Kochak (the victim) was to die of pneumonic plague anyway. But by handling the corpse, they inherited the germs, a rather interesting case of posthumous revenge from a victim.
Kazan knows he's handling one heck of a plot here. Written by Edna and Edward Anhalt (who'd win an Oscar) it is certainly the most creative since "D. O. A" with Edmund O'Brien, but the choice of tone is one of striking realism, Kazan never uses stock characters such as private eyes, bartenders or gangster moles and the victim's Slavic background brings on the screen many colorful aspects of the immigrant presence in New Orleans. The director also enlightens us of the merit of good crisis management, showing how sometimes disasters are prevented by sheer professionalism. The unsung hero of the film is actually the coroner who once discovering the bacteria in Kochak's body, decides to postpone his lunch, close the morgue and keep all those who had contact with the corpse "just in case". He then calls the US. Public Health Service and this is where Lieutenant Commander Clinton Reed, played by Richard Widmarck, enters the picture.
The casting of Widmarck is interesting for he has the looks of a civil servant with enough charisma to be credible but not too glamorous to strike as a Hollywood face. The first scenes show him as one of the typical 50s fathers, helping Junior to paint a box and complaining to his wife (Barbare Bel Geddes) that his day-off is canceled. The backstory gives a little quietness before the storm effect until he discovers what is as stakes: a man affected by the plague was killed, his killers or at the very least carriers got the germs so this is a deadly issue. Given the time of incubation, they have 48 hours to find the killers and inoculate all the people that crossed the path of Kochak. Talk about an interesting premise of police investigation where finding a killer is a matter of life-and-death... for everybody.
For that task, he'll collaborate with Captain Warren (Paul Douglas) a man who distrusts his Cassandra-like attitude and his zealous methods but he's got integrity and counts on Reed to let him conduct the investigation his way. The problem is that they have to start from scratch, that they deal in the world of seamen and gangsters and neither had made a reputation of being 'talkative' with the authorities, (the "On the Waterfront" omerta) and telling the press is no option since it would only lead to mass panic and eventually have the killers leave. A massive investigation through the local underworld brings Fitch to the police station, and so Blackie is alerted about the police on-goings and suspects that Kochak might have smuggled some valuable stuff and so the plot thickens when the villains sabotage the very efforts that are meant to save them. The irony would be savorous if it wasn't for the several lives in danger.
There's never a truly dull moment and the sense of emergency that keeps governing Reed and Warren's actions from the docks' shadiest places to Greek restaurants and ultimately in a massive chase on daylight keeps us over the edge of our seats. Kazan even allows a few pauses where Reed questions his competence with Warren and his wife and Warren explaining his dislike of doctors. The actors' performances are on par with the noir-school of authenticity when the heroes doubt themselves and the villains are cowardly (you'd even feel sorry for Mostel's character at times).
Naturally, for the sake of plot accuracy, the film has to take a few artistic licenses about the varying lethality of the disease, it's hard to believe that Blackie didn't contaminate more people and that it all revolves around him but the human aspect of the film and the middle section where the freedom of press is added into that complex equation speak loudly about Kazan's ambition to make more than an average thriller, he who'd make many films about the media. Still, "Panic in the Streets" is certainly more exciting for its race around the clock format, ending with with a rather ironic imagery of Blackie struggling to get over a rat-shield on a mooring rope. Like his own victim who was cornered like a rat, he becomes a rat himself.
But what a big animal... this was the debut of actor Jack Palance and from that starting point where he embodied the laid-back but quite intimidating thug , his chiseled face, devilish smile and faux-suave manners established one truth: whenever menace is called for, a presence such as Jack Palance would rhyme with 'enhance'.