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Entries in Richard Widmark (2)
Panic in the Streets (1950)
“Panic in the Streets” (1950) starring Richard Widmark and Jack Palance as directed by Elia Kazan, makes for a scary combination. I’m not sure which one you should take your chances on; the menace of the totally deadly pneumonic plague (a form of the Black Plague) or the totally creepy Jack Palance as the villain. The hero, Richard Widmark, as Lieutenant Commander Clint Reed, runs around New Orleans with his syringe, prepared to do battle with either culprit. (Apparently, it is true that the totally deadly effects of pneumonic plague can be forestalled with a dose of antibiotics within 24 hours.) This highly potent concoction of gangsters, bioterrorism, post-war anxieties with a bit of romance thrown in, thanks to Barbara Bel Geddes as the good doctor’s wife, makes it a highly watchable film more than 50 years later. 
It may not be Elia Kazan’s best film ever, but it’s worth a look. And it’s so comforting in this crazy post-SARS world of ours to think that there is some nice, upstanding medical man out there who has everything under control with his syringe, if he could just get all those nasty miscreants rounded up.
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Are you ready to "roll up your sleeve"? See the video excerpt from "Panic in the Streets" (1950)
Catherine Savard
in 1950s films, Barbara Bel Geddes, Drama, Elia Kazan, Film Noir, Jack Palance, Paul Douglas, Richard Widmark, Suspense, TVO movies for 2009, Video Trailer, Zero Mostel
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Kiss of Death (1947) Video Trailer
“Kiss of Death” (1947)INDb starring Victor Mature with Karl Malden is overshadowed by the Tommy Udo character played by Richard Widmark. Widmark is unforgettable as the sneering psychopath who inhabits this film. The movie is constructed so that we’re supposed to cheer for the ex-con, Nick Bianco (Mature) and his new love (Coleen Gray) as they try to make a new life for their family far away from the criminal past. Suspense builds as Tommy Udo swears revenge on Nick Bianco for turning him in to the policeand then goes on the 
hunt for his family. It ends up that it’s Widmark who makes an indelible impression on people’s minds and on film history, and not the “good guy” who gets the girl and the happy ending.
See the SNAM blog authored by Thom Ernst on a dedication to the recently passed Richard Widmark.
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Catherine Savard
in 1940s films, Drama, Karl Malden, Richard Widmark, TVO movies for 2008, Victor Mature, Video Trailer, crime drama
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