“It has not only a particularly good story, but a sharpness and flexibility of observation in the writing and handling that occasionally makes it more than a melodrama about a city under the threat of plague.”
After Dr. Clint Reed (Richard Widmark) is called in to supervise an autopsy of a unknown man, he discovers that the John Doe died of pneumonic plague. Revealing his discovery to the mayor and city officials, Reed is informed that he has 48 hours to find out where the unknown man came from before the public will be told about a potential outbreak... With great support from Jack Palance, and making great use of its seedy New Orleans locations, Panic in the Streets is tense, nail-biting and underseen thriller from the brilliant Kazan.
