in panic in the street richard widmark play u. s. navy doctor who have his week rudely interrupt with a corpse that contain plague . a cop paul douglas properly point out the guy die from two bullet in the chest . that not the issue here and the two of them become unwilling partner in an effort to find the killer and anyone else expose to the disease . a be point out by any number of people and for some reason director elia kazan do not bother to cast the small part with anyone that sound like theyre from louisiana . have be to new orleans where the story take place i can personally attest to that . richard widmark and his wife barbara bel geddes can be excuse because a a navy doctor he could be assign there and but for those that be natives it doesn not work . but with plague out there and the news be keep a secret and the new orleans pd start a dragnet of the city underworld . the dead guy come off a ship from europe and he have underworld connection . a new orleans wise guy play by jack palance jump to a whole bunch of erroneous conclusion and start harass a cousin of the dead guy who be start to show plague symptom . palance get rave review in the first film where he receive notice . personally my favorite in this film be zero mostel . this happen right before mostel be blacklist and around that time he make a specialty of play would be tough guy who be really toady . he play the same kind of role in the humphrey bogart film and the enforcer . sadly i can kind of identify with mostel in that last chase scene where he and palance be be chase down by widmark and douglas and and half the new orleans police . see the weight challenge zero try to keep up with palance be something else because i be kind of in zero league now in the heft department . kazan keep the action go at a good clip and there very little down time in this film . if there be any less it would be an indiana jones film . panic in the street win an oscar for best original screenplay that year . kazan also make good use of the new orleans waterfront and the french quarter . some of the same kind of shot be later use in on the waterfront . in fact panic in the street be about people not squeal when they really should in their own best interest . very similar again to on the waterfront . panic in the street do everyone proud who be associate with it . now why couldn not elia kazan get some decent new orleans sound people in the small role .