History Film / PanicInTheStreets

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan:

* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: variant. Reed's wife, fed up with his coldness and distance, reads him the riot act about how he can't disregard her feelings to the degree he has. Reed, knowing that she's right, asks her how long she's been planning the speech. She admits it's been a while.

''Panic in the Streets'' is a 1950 {{film noir}} thriller directed by Creator/EliaKazan and starring Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, Creator/BarbaraBelGeddes, Creator/JackPalance, and Creator/ZeroMostel.

''Panic in the Streets'' is a 1950 film directed by Creator/EliaKazan.

A man named Kochak, a hoodlum who has illegally entered the United States aboard a tramp steamer, has been in the country (specifically, New Orleans) only a matter of hours. He has already found an illicit poker game, lured there by his duplicitous cousin Poldi. Kochak is up $190 at the poker game when, suffering from flu-like symptoms, he tries to leave. Unfortunately for Kochak it isn't the sort of poker game you're allowed to leave with money in your pocket, so Blackie, the seething psychopath in charge of the game, sends Poldi and his other flunky Fitch (Zero Mostel) after Kochak. When Kochak pulls a knife, Blackie shoots him to death.

It turns out that for Kochak, it didn't matter. The authorities pick up his corpse and take it to the morgue, and discover terrifying news: Kochak was suffering from pneumonic plague, a highly communicable and nearly 100% lethal illness. The bullets only shortened his life by about 12 hours. More importantly, Lt. Commander Clinton Reed of the U.S. Public Health Service (Creator/RichardWidmark) realizes that pneumonic plague may be on the loose in New Orleans. A seemingly unimportant gangland slaying suddenly becomes hugely important as Reed goes on a desperate hunt for Kochak's murderers, before they spread the plague all over the city.

Creator/JackPalance made his film debut as Blackie, and would go on to play many more psychos and murderers over a long career. Music/AlfredNewman composed the music.

See also ''Film/TheKillerThatStalkedNewYork'', another film from the same year about a disease outbreak in a US city, this time smallpox in New York City.

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: After bawling out the reporters and the mayor with a rant about how they're endangering the entire nation if they print the story about the plague, Reed goes over to Forrest and says "Gimme a cigarette." An indulgent Forrest says "Take the pack."

* FireForgedFriendship: Reed and Forrest start off snarling at each other but by the end, when the outbreak has been contained, they've formed a friendship.

* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: Done very subtly, and in a non-fatal way, by Captain Forrest. Neff the reporter has put all the pieces together and says he's going to run with the story. Forrest says "If your editor has the story, let him go ahead and print it." When Neff shoots back "He doesn't have the story yet, but he's going to get it," Forrest has Neff arrested so he can't break the story.

* IntrepidReporter: Neff, the reporter who sniffs out something weird going on and discovers the story that Reed and Forrest are trying to keep secret. Reed and Forrest have him arrested to keep the secret a secret, but not before Neff makes some pretty good points about how the public has a right to know about the plague in the city

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The mayor and the rest of city authorities are skeptical and have to be prodded into action by Reed. Captain Forrest of the NOPD is especially hostile, but there's a reason: he hates doctors after a doctor misdiagnosed his late wife's brain cancer as neuralgia.

* SignificantBackgroundEvent: An audio version. As Reed and Forrest are fruitlessly chasing a dead-end lead down by the docks, the police radio sparks with chatter about a woman down with fever. Moments later a frantic cop shouts out to Forrest about the call and Reed and Forest tear off in pursuit of the new case.
* YouHave48Hours: "We have 48 hours", says Reed, as he desperately tries to make skeptical authorities realize the dire necessity of catching Kolchak's killers before the plague is spread all over the city.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Blackie, when finally cornered, tries to [[spoiler: scrambled up the mooring rope of a ship.]]--like a plague rat.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The mayor and the rest of city authorities are skeptical and have to be prodded into action by Reed. Captain Forrest of the NYPD is especially hostile, but there's a reason: he hates doctors after a doctor misdiagnosed his late wife's brain cancer as neuralgia.

A man named Kochak, a hoodlum who has illegally entered the United States aboard a tramp steamer, has been in the country only a matter of hours. He has already found an illicit poker game, lured there by his duplicitous cousin Poldi. Kochak is up $190 at the poker game when, suffering from flu-like symptoms, he tries to leave. Unfortunately for Kochak it isn't the sort of poker game you're allowed to leave with money in your pocket, so Blackie, the seething psychopath in charge of the game, sends Poldi and his other flunky Fitch (Zero Mostel) after Kochak. When Kochak pulls a knife, Blackie shoots him to death.

It turns out that for Kochak, it didn't matter. The authorities pick up his corpse and take it to the morgue, and discover terrifying news: Kochak was suffering from pneumonic plague, a highly communicable and nearly 100% lethal illness. The bullets only shortened his life by about 12 hours. More importantly, Lt. Commander Clinton Reed of the U.S. Public Health Service (Creator/RichardWidmark) realizes that pneumonic plague may be on the loose in New York City. A seemingly unimportant gangland slaying suddenly becomes hugely important as Reed goes on a desperate hunt for Kochak's murderers, before they spread the plague all over New York.

Creator/JackPalance made his film debut as Blackie, and would go on to play many more psychos and murderers over a long career.