panic in the street ( 1950 ) owe more to british noir that it american counterpart . like reed the third man ( 1949 ) and dassin night and the city ( 1950 ) and director elia kazan chose to film largely on location and capture the fresh and vibrant decadence of the new orleans slum . in a decision borrow from the master of italian neorealism and he also hire many non professional actor for minor role and lend an air of authenticity to the cityscape . however and any further comparison with neorealism would be misguide and for panic in the street be pure melodrama and of the best kind . a murdered illegal immigrant and fish out of the bay and be find to be infect with pneumonic plague and a deadly air borne mutation of bubonic plague and which be transmit from human to human and and untreated and have a mortality rate that approach 100 % . clinton reed ( richard widmark ) and an officer with the u. s. public health service and convince the doubtful police chief ( paul douglas ) to undertake a city wide manhunt for the men responsible for the homicide and l they also be infect with the illness . in my young year and i find wolfgang petersen outbreak ( 1995 ) to be among the most horrifying movie i would ever see . that thriller and which owe plenty to panic in the street { work title represent outbreak } and terrify me so efficiently because it depict the ebola virus a both an invisible and invincible killer how do one defend themselves against such a thing . kazan film be the first ( that i know of ) to approach the subject of biological epidemic and though it have difficulty ascribe visual recognition to an enemy that be basically undetectable to the human eye while it instead use jack palance a a human personification of the plague . despite his venture out among the filthy dreg of human society and you never get the sense that clinton reed be place his own life at risk { some viewer have note that reed never inoculate himself against the plague and though i think it safe to assume that he do so at the same time a the morgue staff } . nevertheless and there still a strong sense of urgency in the hunt for the infected man killer and underground street rat who pollute the sewer with their misdeed . in medieval time and when the black death ( now widely believe to have be bubonic plague ) sweep across the civilised world and kill a third of europe population and many identify the destruction a be the work of the devil . jack palance character and blackie and serve effectively a satan in human form represent the angular jaw thug can occasionally be charm and charismatic and but be always liable to explode into fit of violence while his two hoodlum ( play by guy thomajan and zero mostel ) and through terror more than anything else and be constantly grovel at his foot . when one lackey fall ill with fever and blackie deduces that the man immigrant cousin must have bring something in with him ( the irony of his conclusion not pass unnoticed ) and and so attempt to ascertain what this presumably valuable object must be . he cradle the die poldi in his arm and a grotesque display of faux affection that be both pathetic and unsettling . blackie or satan be finally stop not by the authority and but by the burden of his own infection or evil a he attempt to board a cargo ship and the primary vessel by which the plague spread across europe .