panic in the street be an exciting and atmospheric thriller in which director elia kazan achieve a great sense of realism by shoot the movie in new orleans and use a number of local people to fill various role and make intelligent use of improvisation . a a result and the character and dialogue both seem very natural and believable . an important deadline which have to be meet in order to avoid a disaster and provide the story with it great sense of urgency and pace and the problem which delay the necessary action from be take and then increase the tension to a high level . follow a dispute between the participant in a card game and a man call kochak ( lewis charles ) be shot and his body be dump in the dock area . when the body be find and the coroner identify the presence of a virus and u. s. public health official dr clinton reed ( richard widmark ) be call in and his examination confirm the presence of pneumonic plague . reed insists that all know contact of the dead man must be inoculate without delay because the very infectious nature of the disease mean that without such action and anyone infect could be expect to die within day . a the identity of the dead man be unknown and the task of find his contact be expect to be difficult and this situation be not help when city official and the police commissioner be not fully convince by reed brief . they doubt that the threat to the public be potentially as serious a he claim it be and their initial lack of commitment be just the first of a series of obstacle which prevent action from be take urgently . the investigation that follow be hamper by a lack of cooperation from the immigrant community and a group of seaman and the proprietor of a restaurant and also some illegal immigrant before the man identity and his contact be eventually find . kochak and an illegal immigrant and have be in a gang with blackie ( jack palance ) and raymond fitch ( zero mostel ) and vince poldi ( tommy cook ) and when gang leader blackie become aware of the ongoing police investigation and he presume that kochak must have smuggle something very valuable into the country . a kochak and poldi be relate and blackie assumes that poldi must know something about this and go to find out more . poldi and however and be very ill and unable to provide any information . blackie bring in his own doctor and together with fitch start to move poldi out of his room and down some stair and this be when they meet up with reed and an exciting chase follow . richard widmark give a strong performance a an underpaid public official who cop efficiently with the onerous responsibility of his job whilst also deal with his domestic preoccupation a a family man . in an unusual type of role for him and he also portray the determined and serious minded nature of dr reed very convincingly . jack palance film debut see him give an impressive performance a a ruthless thug who misjudge kochak reason for leave the card game and also the reason for the intense police investigation . his distinctive look also help to make his on screen presence even more compelling . in typical docu noir style and expressionist cinematography and neo realist influence be utilize in tandem to effectively capture the atmosphere of the location in which the action take place . elia kazan directs with precision throughout but also excels in the memorable chase sequence in the warehouse and on the dockside .