Filmed entirely on location in New Orleans, Panic in the Streets stars Richard Widmark as Dr. Clinton Reed, a physician from the U.S. Health Service who must race against time to stop a plague. The carrier was an illegal alien, murdered by criminals Jack Palance and Zero Mostel. When local officials note the strange condition of the corpse, they fear that the germs will spread to epidemic proportions, and thus summon Reed to wrest control of the situation. At first facing opposition from
rule-bound police captain Paul Douglas, Widmark is finally able to work hand-in-glove with Douglas in tracking down Palance and Mostel, who have themselves become plague carriers. Many of the actors in Panic in the Streets are local nonprofessionals, selected by director Elia Kazan because of their "rightness" within the framework of the story; the rest of the cast is peopled by such film veterans as Barbara Bel Geddes, Tommy Cook, Emile Meyer and H.T. Tsiang. Widmark's son is played by an uncredited Tommy Rettig, four years before he starred on the Lassie TV series. Though Elia Kazan liked to claim that much of Panic in the Streets was improvised, there was a script, adapted by Richard Murphy and Daniel Fuchs from a story by Edward Anhalt and Edna Anhalt. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A taut thriller with a poignant message, Panic in the Streets, which won the Oscar for Motion Picture Story, is well directed by Kazan and well acted by Richard Widmark, Jack Palance, Zero Mostell (just before he was blacklisted) and others.
Kazan's tense thriller reminds us that Jack Palance's skin needed to get all leathery later in life to prevent his ludicrously prominent cheekbones from piercing through.
With such a great cast this could have been an great classic, but the movie has it's boring slow scenes, other than that I liked it. The story is exciting and the actors do their best.
a medical thriller where widmark gets to play the hero for a change. he's a public health doctor racing the clock to prevent an outbreak of plague in new orleans. jack palance is a very effective villain in his film debut. good suspense
No quotes approved yet for Panic in the Streets. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Panic in the Streets'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
