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Came across both of these during the last year of lockdown/more spare time than I'd have liked, and feel the need to write a little about them.
See both, and you'll come away with the impression that in many ways, there is nothing new about what has been going on over the last year: but it's just about old enough to have faded from public memory.
The Killer that Stalked New York was inspired directly by the smallpox outbreak in the city in 1947. The scope of the movie was a little too ambitious for its budget, and, if you'll forgive me a somewhat catty remark, the talent of its screenwriter. He was trying to integrate what was by then a formulaic noir / femme fatale plot with a disease outbreak sub-plot, and to overlay onto that a PSA type message about responsible behavior to prevent disease spreading. If you're trying to do all of that, the screenplay really is the foundation upon which acting, directing, cinematography, sets/locations, and the other visuals all lie. It's a little shaky, but not enough to undermine the wonderfully atmospherically location shots, from the now disappeared Penn Station in the opening scenes, a seedy hotel, a Bowery flophouse, and a now demolished hospital.
The plot goes essentially as follows: the femme fatale (Evelyn Keyes) gets off a train in New York, returning from a work trip to Cuba, from where she'd smuggled diamonds. Unbeknown to her or anyone else, she'd also smuggled smallpox into the city. Because she's involved in small time crime, she, and everyone she comes into contact with, is reluctant to co-operate with the authorities as the number of cases increases and they attempt contact tracing. Interesting scenes along the way include the mayor negotiating with big pharma for the mass production of vaccines, and demonstrations by anti-vaxxers - a full 60 years before Wakefield reared his ugly head, demonstrating that there really is nothing new under the sun. In terms of the politics portrayed in this movie, I really was struck by how similar the issues covered then mirrored those playing out now.
The cinematography and locations are the real strong point of The Killer. They give the movie the atmosphere and credibility it needs. The acting and direction are seriously melodramatic and B-list, though. Sorry, but none of the principals stand out.
Viewing source: this BD. Excellent source element and transfer - lots of detail in the extreme blacks and whites.
My immediate reaction to Panic in the Streets is that its title is a bait-and-switch, because the movie does not show that at all. Rather, it is about the efforts of its hero to prevent that from happening. As you'd expect from Elia Kazan, there is a lot of immigration and labor relations politics, and improvised method acting. In this movie, an Armenian illegal immigrant stowed away into New Orleans on a cargo ship, where he promptly fell afoul of the local underworld, and was shot by the gang boss (played by a menacing Jack Palance). The deceased happened to have been infected with pneumonic plague, which sets up the main plot in which a straight-laced federal health officer is in a frictional relationship with the local police chief to track down the source of the infection and isolate it. Once again, the locations and cinematography make the movie, but, IMHO, the writing, acting, and directing is significantly more solid. Again, there is some interesting anti-vaxxer commentary to be found.
Viewing source: this BD - a bargain for ten bucks. Not bad, but not as much detail in the really contrasty shots as in the BD of The Killer.
See both, and you'll come away with the impression that in many ways, there is nothing new about what has been going on over the last year: but it's just about old enough to have faded from public memory.
The Killer that Stalked New York was inspired directly by the smallpox outbreak in the city in 1947. The scope of the movie was a little too ambitious for its budget, and, if you'll forgive me a somewhat catty remark, the talent of its screenwriter. He was trying to integrate what was by then a formulaic noir / femme fatale plot with a disease outbreak sub-plot, and to overlay onto that a PSA type message about responsible behavior to prevent disease spreading. If you're trying to do all of that, the screenplay really is the foundation upon which acting, directing, cinematography, sets/locations, and the other visuals all lie. It's a little shaky, but not enough to undermine the wonderfully atmospherically location shots, from the now disappeared Penn Station in the opening scenes, a seedy hotel, a Bowery flophouse, and a now demolished hospital.
The plot goes essentially as follows: the femme fatale (Evelyn Keyes) gets off a train in New York, returning from a work trip to Cuba, from where she'd smuggled diamonds. Unbeknown to her or anyone else, she'd also smuggled smallpox into the city. Because she's involved in small time crime, she, and everyone she comes into contact with, is reluctant to co-operate with the authorities as the number of cases increases and they attempt contact tracing. Interesting scenes along the way include the mayor negotiating with big pharma for the mass production of vaccines, and demonstrations by anti-vaxxers - a full 60 years before Wakefield reared his ugly head, demonstrating that there really is nothing new under the sun. In terms of the politics portrayed in this movie, I really was struck by how similar the issues covered then mirrored those playing out now.
The cinematography and locations are the real strong point of The Killer. They give the movie the atmosphere and credibility it needs. The acting and direction are seriously melodramatic and B-list, though. Sorry, but none of the principals stand out.
Viewing source: this BD. Excellent source element and transfer - lots of detail in the extreme blacks and whites.
My immediate reaction to Panic in the Streets is that its title is a bait-and-switch, because the movie does not show that at all. Rather, it is about the efforts of its hero to prevent that from happening. As you'd expect from Elia Kazan, there is a lot of immigration and labor relations politics, and improvised method acting. In this movie, an Armenian illegal immigrant stowed away into New Orleans on a cargo ship, where he promptly fell afoul of the local underworld, and was shot by the gang boss (played by a menacing Jack Palance). The deceased happened to have been infected with pneumonic plague, which sets up the main plot in which a straight-laced federal health officer is in a frictional relationship with the local police chief to track down the source of the infection and isolate it. Once again, the locations and cinematography make the movie, but, IMHO, the writing, acting, and directing is significantly more solid. Again, there is some interesting anti-vaxxer commentary to be found.
Viewing source: this BD - a bargain for ten bucks. Not bad, but not as much detail in the really contrasty shots as in the BD of The Killer.
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