jay@umd5.UUCP (01/16/86)
Although Mr. Palance was been quite busy throughout his career playing some heroes and quite a lot of villains, one of his best and earliest roles is the mobster/killer in Elia Kazan's 1950 film noir "Panic in the Streets". The film also stars Richard Widmark (as a good guy?!!?!) in the role of a government doctor who discovers Palance's murder victim, a stowaway, had contracted pneumonic plague aboard ship. Before the disease spreads through New Orleans, he and Paul Douglas must track down Palance and his henchmen (one of which is Zero Mostel in a smarmy pre-blacklist appearance). This film is splendidly acted and directed. It was filmed on the streets of New Orleans and, although the source material is a fictional account (which won the Academy Award for best original author for the Anhalts), the gritty photography and overlapping bursts of dialogue give it quite a realistic feel. (The dialogue sequences between Widmark and his wife, played by Barbara Bel Geddes, are especially well-written.) If you plan to watch this on commercial television, be aware that the film's 96 minute running time does not fit in the vast majority of 2 hour time slots so you're more than likely to miss between 2-4 minutes due to commercial interruptions. -- Jay Elvove ..!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umd5!jay c/o Systems, Computer Science Center, U. of MD.