SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Robert J. Maxwell We see Evelyn Keyes stepping off a train Penn Station in New York City, looking a little worried. We see Barry Kelley, a Treasury Agent, step off the same train and follow her through the station. The resonant baritone of Reed Hadley informs us that Keyes is returning from Cuba. Not only has she arranged for a shipment of diamonds to be smuggled by mail to her husband here in New York, the suave and handsome Charles Korvin, but she is also the killer that stalked New York. She doesn't know it but she's carrying smallpox. The criminal has become the disease he always represented in movies of the period. Keyes eludes Kelley and rushes to her husband, only to discover that he's been shacking up with her own sister, the succulent Lola Albright. And when the package of diamonds finally does arrive, the psychopathic Korvin dumps both of the babes and takes off on his own to sell the gems. This leads Albright to suicide and prompts Keyes to pack a gun and start tracking her husband down in the city.That, essentially, is what the movie is about -- Keyes' pursuit of her miscreant husband, the Treasury Department's pursuit of a diamond smuggler, and the Department of Public Health's pursuit of a carrier of smallpox who is infecting just about everyone who touches her.It's a modest movie. It lacks the talent that was in front of, and behind, the camera in the similarly plotted "Panic in the Streets." The performances are Hollywood-routine. Keyes gives a low-key performance. She could never be accused of overacting. Make up has given her a pasty-faced look that's entirely appropriate to the role, and her sickly appearance grows more pronounced and sweaty as she gets sicker. The director finally shows us only a few pimples on her neck and avoids any signs except perspiration in the other patients. That's just as well because the variola virus can cover almost the entire skin of the patient, as the blisters coalesce, until the skin sloughs off in patches. Pretty ugly stuff. New York locations are used but not imaginatively. The score is generic.But it's not bad. Okay -- so it wasn't directed by Orson Welles, and it doesn't have David Lean's majestic vistas, and the music isn't as melodic and bombastic as Eric Wolfgang Korngold -- but how can a viewer not be involved in a story about a triple chase through the streets of a great city in its florescent period? Of course it WOULD have been better with Welles, Lean, Korngold or their ilk -- but, okay.By the way, it gets a little confusing because it isn't until about half-way through that the Treasury agents and the Public Health people realize they're looking for the same person.But these weaknesses are amply compensated for by the gripping story and the strong, familiar supporting case, all of whom deliver the goods without special fanfare. Look at that cast. Richard Egan, Carl Benton Reid, Ludwig Donath, Roy Roberts, Art Smith, Whit Bissell, Connie Gilchrest, Dorothy Malone, Harry Shannon (a little touch of Orson in the night). You may not recognize the names but you'll recognize the actors if you're at all acquainted with movies of the 1940s and 1950s.I wish some of the principle roles had been cast differently. Keyes, Korvin, and Bishop are all a little stiff. Korvin's most memorable role was as a mambo instructor in an episode of "The Honeymooners." And I wish the director, Earl McEvoy, had sat down and thought about how he might have introduced some poetry into the proceedings. With such a strong story it wouldn't have taken much work. You can't just sell out, no matter what some less perspicacious reviewers, like that so-called "Howdymax", might argue. But, yes, you gotta have the right attitude here. I HAVE that attitude.

MartinHafer This is a B-movie from Columbia that is part of a two-film DVD under the auspices of "Bad Girl" movies. However, this one really isn't a film noir movie despite coming from the noir era. Instead, it's a story about a crazy lady who is very sick with smallpox but is so intent on revenge that she allows herself to infect many others--necessitating a city-wide vaccination program. There really isn't that much more to it than that.The script is pretty good, but not as taut or exciting as it might have been. The acting isn't bad, but once again isn't all that spectacular. All in all, it's a pretty good film but it isn't one I'd rush to see. A very competent film and nothing much more.

Neil Doyle THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK is small pox. The woman who has it is EVELYN KEYES, whose bleached blonde hair and harsh unflattering make-up makes her look a far cry from the cutie she played in THE JOLSON STORY. She gives a chilling performance as a woman stiffed by her boyfriend (CHARLES KORVIN), both of them diamond smugglers unaware that in Cuba she picked up the deadly smallpox disease.The good supporting cast includes WILLIAM BISHOP, WHIT BISSELL, RICHARD EGAN, DOROTHY MALONE, LOLA ALBRIGHT, and JIM BACKUS. It's photographed in film noir documentary style with voice-over narration, as many films of the '40s and '50s were--similar, in fact, to PANIC IN THE STREETS, another thriller with Jack Palance as the deadly carrier.It's fast paced, with never a wasted moment of time in telling a story that runs one hour and nineteen minutes. Miss Keyes demonstrates that she was a much more talented actress than anyone ever suspected, with hidden depths in her portrait of a vengeful woman.Well worth watching.

barnesgene Robert Osborne, in introducing this movie to the Turner Classic Movie audience for the first time tonight, says that Columbia had to sit on the movie for about 6 months in order to let the similarly-plotted "Panic in the Streets" play out and leave the theaters. What we have then is a gritty, somewhat newsreel sounding (and looking) film whose narrator walks us through all the ironies of modern urban epidemiology. Worth noting, though, are the few scenes out in the street where the tragic couple lives. There's just enough street noise and confusion to make the scenes as claustrophobic as possible, while still being somehow life-affirming. Otherwise, it's a fine B noir plot with a lot of character and muscle, and cinematography to take off your hat to. Not to mention that hot kid sister -- hubba, hubba!