Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

blanche-2 Evelyn Keyes is a diamond smuggler who smuggles in death in the form of smallpox in "The Killer that Stalked New York," a 1950 noir also starring Charles Korvin, William Bishop, Jim Backus, Dorothy Malone, Lola Albright, and Ludwig Donath.Keyes plays Sheila Bennet, who mails diamonds back to her cheating husband (Korvin) from Cuba, and then returns to him in New York. Unfortunately, he's involved with Sheila's sister (Albright), so he sends her to a hotel. Feeling ill, she seeks medical care from a doctor (Bishop). In the waiting room, she meets a little girl who later develops smallpox. Sheila was incorrectly diagnosed and is now spreading the disease all over town while the city attempts to find the carrier.This is a kind of B version of "Panic in the Streets" and not as good, but it is an effective noir with a fine performance by Keyes as a desperate woman with a will to keep going no matter what.Though Keyes was good-looking and talented, her off-screen exploits with the men in her life, as well as her opinions of Hollywood, are more well-known than her film roles, which were mostly in B movies. The great irony of her career is that she's best known for her smallest role, Suellen O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind." "The Killer that Stalked New York" is a good showcase of her abilities.

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.

edman59 This film about a woman who returns from Cuba to New York City with both smuggled diamonds and smallpox is a fairly typical film-noirish melodrama of the late 40's/early 50's. Will the police and Health Department officials find her in time to save NYC from an epidemic? The film has all the elements one expects from this type of film: great black and white cinematography, romantic subplots, over-the-top shady characters (one played by Jim Backus, "Mr. Howell" of "Gilligan's Island" fame) and too-good-to-be-true good guys, and great New York locations. It also has a hammy narration and some corny dialogue, but it is a fairly suspenseful and generally fun way to spend 75 minutes.However, the situation which probably seemed like far-fetched (but plausible) fiction in 1950, seems frighteningly possible today. The anthrax attacks of 2001, the fears of weaponized smallpox being used by terrorists, the concerns about vaccinations and the amount and safety of vaccines, the inability of governmental agencies to work together and share information effectively all come to mind when one watches this film. This gives it a bit more resonance today than other more dated noirish "chase" films of the same era.Overall, only a pretty good film but definitely worth a watch for the subject matter and its relevance to today's fears about bio-terrorism.

banse From 1950 comes a neat thriller about a couple smuggling diamonds from abroad and also the contagious disease smallpox. Evelyn Keyes pulls out all stops as the essential victim of this film-noir. Once back in the United States she is not aware that she could be spreading the disease on everyone and everything she comes in contact with. Eventually she is pursued and must be stopped before an epidemic occurs. Other than Keyes striking performance there is good support from villainous Charles Korvin, William Bishop, Dorothy Malone, Lola Albright and Whit Bissell. The finale is a humdinger with Miss Keyes on the ledge of a building with spotlights and hundreds of spectators below. A good B flick!