a the film open and two thug kill another thug . when the body be discover and about to be autopsied and the doctor realize that although the man be shoot dead and he be also suffer from the pneumonic plague a very nasty and more virulent version of the bubonic plague . so and it a race against time to find those who come in contact with the dead man and treat them immediately and otherwise a disaster could erupt . oddly and i actually know quite a bit about the pneumonic plague and a i teach a series of lecture on it for my history class . the film really do not do a good job of get the fact right about the disease in that it look little like what the people have in the movie . the big problem be that this illness be so incredibly grotesque that in 1950 they really wouldn not have be allow to show it . sure and there be high fever and coughing ( they get this right ) but also lot of bleeding and explosive vomiting of blackened blood along with the enormously swollen lymph node like you would get with the bubonic plague all purply and gross . i can certainly understand why they do not go this far . also and i be sure that the federal government would have have a much and much great involvement in control and treat the disease here in the film it be handle on a very local level and everyone seem ill prepared and a bit dumb . no one seem willing to believe the doctor . a for the acting and the film have some excellent actor here . richard widmark and paul douglas be and respectively and the public health doctor and police chief . good actor but also know actor back in 1950. however and in his first film be the very menacing jack palance ( still go by his original moniker and walter jack palance ) as well a the relatively unknown ( at the time ) zero mostel . palance be great very scary and very physically adept in his own stunt . mostel play a heavy typical of his early work a greasy and cowardly sort of evil . overall and despite really not get the detail right and wrap everything up a little too neatly and the film be very tense and have excellent act and be well worth see .