Panic in the Streets (1950) – DVD

***/**** Image A- Sound B+ Extras A-
starring Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jack Palance
screenplay by Richard Murphy
directed by Elia Kazan

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Did Elia Kazan really direct Panic in the Streets? Nothing in his grandstanding filmography–not the staring-at-particle-board virtue of Gentleman's Agreement, not the prosaic rationalizing of On the Waterfront, not the great but still morally show-offy A Streetcar Named Desire–describes the scene, evokes the mood, or gets to the point quicker than this marginalized but delicious 1950 semi-noir. For once, Kazan isn't telling you how to sympathize, opting instead to show you the issue and let you draw your own conclusions. The result is speedy, gripping, and affecting like nothing in his turgid oeuvre, and makes the people stick with you longer than the pasteboard symbols in Kazan's other films.

The first ingenious decision was hiring Richard Widmark as a family man. His public health officer Dr. Reed must be the most uneasy paterfamilias in the history of cinema, a plus for a character possessed by his work and unable to keep things together at home. Where Gregory Peck would just look virtuous and Brando would announce his angst, the quietly simmering Widmark sells his wriggling gecko trying to dodge the big feet of the system brilliantly as Reed notices that the dodgy type with two slugs in his gut has bubonic plague, or tries to convince various people that the press shouldn't be notified of his discovery, lest the criminal carriers skip town.

The second stroke of genius was in concentrating on behaviour as opposed to statements. Though the film all but announces its themes of responsibility, red tape, and indifference, there's no big speech telling you how to think–you simply follow the tale and it leads you to the Promised Land. Kazan's technique had taken such a quantum leap since the leaden Gentleman's Agreement that he could speak through the fluidity of his movements and the play of shadow and light, meaning you understand experientially instead of verbally. Meanwhile, the Richard Murphy/Daniel Fuchs screenplay is a masterpiece of streamlining in its avoidance of showstopper monologues and reliance on character bits. They're not dumbing anything down, they're merely keeping things piquant enough for you to want to have an opinion, succeeding marvellously in the process.

Because there are a few too many inconsistencies, one couldn't call Panic in the Streets a masterpiece: Widmark's refusal to blow the whistle seems bizarre when the police can simply block off the city, while a few other plot developments are a tad rich to actually believe. And the equation of the criminal underworld with fatal disease is a little too facile and sensationalistic to accept without a challenge. But the film is full of vivid touches that mainline you into the more general theme, and the teaming of brutal Jack Palance with snivelling Zero Mostel as the shady Typhoid Marys clinches the deal: their hilarious incompatibility makes for combustible interplay that builds a sense of civilians in peril rather than of dragons to be battled by plaster saints. Kazan's road not taken might have been the right road to take, making you wonder about the choices of cinema's most celebrated snitch.

THE DVD
Fox's DVD release of Panic in the Streets (under their "Fox Film Noir" imprimatur) is just ever so slightly imperfect. To be sure, the full-frame image is satisfactory; although there's a slight indistinctness with some backlit shots and a hint of murkiness in the darkest shots, it's mostly smooth sailing. The Dolby 2.0 stereo remix, however, is strangely faint, especially in early scenes featuring Widmark with his onscreen son. I had to crank the volume so high that the mastering logo at the end nearly blew me out of the house.

Extras include a commentary by scholars James Ursini and Alain Silver, who prove excellent company as they describe the film's transitional place in the Kazan canon, its spectacular use of long takes and travelling shots, and the casting of ex-heavy Widmark and ex-pathetic schlub Paul Douglas (playing the police captain) against type. Though the pair come off a tad facile in dealing with the plot and annoy with their constant invocation of Outbreak as an example of today's slack filmmaking, it's still a stellar track full of insight and fascinating detail. The Panic in the Streets' trailer plus trailers for Fox Noir titles Laura, The Street with No Name, Call Northside 777, and, bafflingly, House of Bamboo, round out the disc.

96 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 2.0 (Stereo), English DD 2.0 (Mono), Spanish DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; English, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Fox