Panic in the Streets (film)

Panic in the Streets is a 1950 American medical-themed film noir thriller, directed by Elia Kazan and released by 20th Century Fox. It was shot exclusively on location in New Orleans, Louisiana, and features numerous scenes around the city and Port of New Orleans along the Mississippi River and showing various New Orleans citizens in speaking and non-speaking roles.

The film tells the story of Lieutenant Commander Clinton Reed (Richard Widmark), an officer of the U.S. Public Health Service, and Captain Tom Warren (Paul Douglas), a grizzled veteran detective of the New Orleans Police Department. The men have only a day or two of frantic intense search and interviews in which to prevent a greater outbreak of a deadly epidemic of pneumonic plague (a form of the pandemic disease known as the "Black Death" in Medieval Europe), after Reed determines a waterfront homicide victim is also an index case and the first to be found carrying the disease. The supporting cast includes Barbara Bel Geddes as Reed's wife Nancy, along with Jack Palance (in his film debut) and Zero Mostel – the latter two play crooks, associates of the victim who had prompted the public health investigation. The film was also the debut of Tommy Rettig, best known for playing Jeff Miller in the early seasons of the television series Lassie, who appears as the Reeds' son.

The film was released later on DVD format by 20th Century Fox as part of the "Fox Film Noir collection", along with Laura and Call Northside 777, on March 15, 2005.

The score was composed by Alfred Newman.

The film was originally named Port of Entry, subsequently later as Outbreak, and ultimately Panic in the Streets.

Plot
In the wharf area of New Orleans a man named Kochak, sick of a flu-like illness, is killed after a brawl 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 unidentified dead man is brought to the morgue, the coroner grows suspicious about the bacteria present in his blood and calls Lt Cdr Clinton Reed, a doctor and commissioned corps officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. Reed is having a day off with his family but decides to inspect the body.

After his examination he figures that Kochak had "pneumonic plague," a pulmonary version of the bubonic plague. With his medical experience Reed insists that everyone who came into contact with the body be inoculated. He also orders that the victim's identity be traced to find anyone else in contact with him during the previous days. Reed meets with people from the New Orleans Mayor's office, the police commissioner and other city police and public health officials, but they are ignorant and skeptical of his claims. Eventually, however, his pleas convince them that they have 48 hours to save New Orleans from the plague. Reed must also convince Police Detective Capt. Tom Warren who is assigned to the case and the others that the press must not be notified so as not to spread mass panic.



Detective Warren and his men begin to interview Slavic immigrants since the autopsy suggested that the body may be of Armenian, Czech or mixed blood descent. Fearing that their leads may not be enough, Reed accuses Warren of not taking the threat seriously. In turn, Warren suspects Reed of only thinking of his career. Reed, angry, takes matters into his hands and, acting on a hunch that the man may have entered the city illegally, goes to the nearby National Maritime Union's hiring hall and passes out photos of the dead man among the sailors. Although they tell him that seamen never talk, Reed still goes to a café next door hoping that someone will come forward 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 S.S. Nile Queen, upon which the already ill man was smuggled.

Meanwhile, Fitch, who was questioned by Warren but claimed to know nothing, goes to the crook Blackie and warns him about the investigation. Blackie plans to get out of town, suspecting that the police might be after smuggled goods that sidekick Poldi had received from Kochak. Reed and Warren, now working together, go to the "Nile Queen" and convince the crew to talk or else they will die if the sick man was indeed on their ship. After carrying up a sick cook from the hold, the seamen then allow Reed and Warren to inoculate and question them, and reveal that Kochak had boarded at Oran (in North Africa) and was fond of shish kebab. With this lead, Reed and Warren search the city's Greek restaurants and, just after leaving one of them, Blackie arrives to meet Poldi who is now very ill. Then Reed learns that a woman, Rita, has died of the fever and realizes that she was the wife of the Greek restaurant owner that he had already questioned before and who must have lied.

Reed returns to headquarters to discover that a newspaper reporter is asking about the unusual situation and is threatening to break the story. Reed approves when Warren throws the reporter into jail to keep him from publishing. Late in the evening Reed returns home exhausted for a cup of coffee and his wife announces that she is pregnant.

A few hours later, Reed and Warren learn that the New Orleans mayor is angry about their treatment of the reporter who, released, announces that the story will appear in tomorrow's morning paper in just four hours.

Meanwhile, Blackie goes to Poldi's room and tries to force him to reveal information about the smuggled goods but a dying Poldi is now delirious. Blackie then calls his doctor and tells Poldi's grandmother that they will take care of him. Just then Reed, having been tipped off by the nurse looking after Poldi, arrives on the scene and Blackie and Fitch, who are carrying Poldi down the outside stairs, pitch the sick man over the rail and flee. Reed chases the two to the nearby docks and tells them about the plague danger. The men escape through the docks and at one point Capt. Warren shoots and injures Blackie saving Reed's life. Blackie accidentally shoots Fitch and then, wounded, tries to pull himself up a rope to a tied-up freighter but he is unable to climb over a ratguard on the mooring line and falls into the water. The men are finally captured and, his work done, Reed heads for home. On the way Capt. Warren offers to give Reed some of the smuggled perfume that Poldi had indeed received from Kochak. Back at his house, Reed hears the radio announcing the resolution of the crisis, while his proud wife welcomes him home.

Cast

 * Richard Widmark as Lieutenant Commander "Clint" Reed, M.D.
 * Paul Douglas as Police Captain Tom Warren
 * Barbara Bel Geddes as Nancy Reed
 * Jack Palance (as "Walter Jack Palance") as Blackie
 * Zero Mostel as Raymond Fitch
 * Alexis Minotis as John Mefaris, Greek restaurant owner
 * Dan Riss as Neff, newspaper reporter
 * Guy Thonajan as Poldi, Blackie's henchman
 * Tommy Rettig as Tommy Reed
 * Tommy Cook as Vince Poldi, younger brother
 * Pat Walshe as himself (uncredited)

Pre-production
The production of Panic in the Streets underwent several rounds of edits with the effort to abide by the Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code). Originally titled Port of Entry, the temporary script of the film was sent on November 11, 1949, to Joseph Breen, the film censor with the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America who applied the Production Code to film production. Joseph Breen himself indicated in threads of letters with Colonel Jason S. Joy, the Director of Public Relations of the 20th Century Fox, the changes needed for the script. Suggestions such as "Violet must not be suggestive of a prostitute", "We assume there will be no suggestion that the police officer is killed", and "The scene of Martinez and the mattress falling should not be too realistically gruesome," were made. On December 20, 1949, in Joy's letter responding to the suggestion of Breen, the film had been renamed Outbreak. The sensitive content of the film, especially the scenes pointed out by Breen, were not fully changed until after a of couple back and forth letters that lasted for around 3 months. Ultimately, the film was named Panic in the Streets in the final version of the synopsis on March 8, 1950. Approved by the Production Code Administration (PCA) on March 14, 1950, the film officially entered the production stage.

Box office
The film failed to recover its costs at the box office which Darryl Zanuck blamed in part on location shooting. He felt if the film had been made for $850,000 it would have been profitable.

Critical response
The New York Times gave the film a mixed review and wrote, "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."

Variety magazine liked the film and wrote, "This is an above-average chase meller. Tightly scripted and directed, it concerns the successful attempts to capture a couple of criminals, who are germ carriers, in order to prevent a plague and panic in a large city. The plague angle is somewhat incidental to the cops-and-bandits theme...There is vivid action, nice human touches and some bizarre moments. Jack Palance gives a sharp performance."

New Orleans film critic David Lee Simmons wrote in 2005, "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' cinéma vérité 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."

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected 24 reviews and gave the film a score of 96%, with an average rating of 7.46 out of 10.

Awards
Wins
 * Venice Film Festival: International Award, Elia Kazan; 1950.
 * Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Writing, Motion Picture Story, Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt; 1951.

Nominations
 * Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion, Elia Kazan; 1950.
 * Writers Guild of America: WGA Award, Best Written American Drama, Richard Murphy; The Robert Meltzer Award (Screenplay Dealing Most Ably with Problems of the American Scene), Richard Murphy; 1951.