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Dr. Clint Reed (Richard Widmark) and New Orleans Police Captain Tom Warren (Paul Douglas) must frantically find a pair of criminals involved with the murder of a card player who may have been infected with plague by the victim. Reed and Warren have 48 hours to find the criminals before they become infectious and spread plague through the population like a wildfire. Although it doesn’t compare to the gorefests that pass for suspense thrilers today. Kazan’s eighth film as a director is filled with long takes influenced by Welles (although far more naturalistic looking without the unusual angles that Gregg Toland used on Welles’ masterpiece “Citizen Kane”) creating as much suspense by letting the action play out as the quick cutting style of Hitchcock and other directors working at the time. Featuring the lovely and underrated Barbara Bel Geddes as Widmark’s wife, “Panic in the Streets” continues to astound with its suspenseful direction and brutal violence. A young Jack Palance steals the film with his role as “Blackie” one of the infected criminals and Zero Mostel appears as the other criminal a year or two before Kazan ratted him out to the House of Un-American Acitivies. A believable, powerful drama that still resonates today because of Kazan’s on location shooting and powerful down-to-earth performances. Writer Murphy and Kazan would frequently allow the actors to improvise some of their scenes changing dialogue around to bring a sense of spontaneity. Kazan’s film, unlike many of the time, shows interdepartmental conflicts slowing down the hunt for the infected men.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any featurettes or documentaries on any of the stars from the film. I seem to call A&E Biographies on both Jack Palance and Richard Widmark and am a bit puzzled as to why they weren’t licensed for this project. Perhaps it’s because this is a lower profile classic film that doesn’t have the built in audience of, say, “Laura” or “Letter to Three Wives”. We do get the theatrical trailer for the film as well as four trailers for four other Fox Noir Classics available on DVD.