This is a film about a smallpox epidemic in New York City, and the 'killer' is the disease. The title thus gives a false impression that this is a crime film. The film has a police-procedural mode of delivery, with a droning narrator, very much in the style of the FBI and police films of that time. The film is rather terrifying in what it depicts, and I would not hesitate to describe it as 'a scare film'. It was made in close cooperation with the federal government, and it has a hysterical 'reds under the beds' air about it, even though it is germs rather than reds who threaten the USA this time. The film was also released under the title FRIGHTENED CITY, and is based upon what must have been a pretty scary Colliers Magazine article by Milton Lehman (his only contribution to the cinema). The screenplay is by the former journalist Harry Essex, who two years previously scripted the Laurence Tierney film BODYGUARD (1948, see my review). Evelyn Keyes plays the lead, a woman named Sheila Bennett, who has just returned from Cuba ('which has no quarantine arrangement with the US', as a medical man complains in the film) carrying some smuggled diamonds and carrying something else as well, the disease smallpox. This is thus one of the early epidemic scare films, which were to become much more common many years later, such as OUTBREAK (1995) with Dustin Hoffman. In fact, it is the earliest epidemic scare film I can recall seeing, though I presume there must have been others. It must have been difficult to persuade many possible leading ladies to play Sheila Bennett, because she has to spend most of the film looking terrible as she gets worse and worse with the disease, which does not appeal to the vanity of most stars. It is very much to the credit of Evelyn Keyes that she was willing to do this and was not deterred by considerations of her 'image'. Evelyn was a very fascinating and pleasant person, highly intelligent. I knew her during the time she had her relationship with Jack Cushingham in London. I didn't see nearly enough of her, as I was keen to discuss things much more, and we did have some interesting chats about her former husbands John Huston and Artie Shaw. She talked about Artie a lot. I wish I could remember all those stories. Someone should have taped hours of interviews with her, because she was so well-informed and was never lost for words. She was very sophisticated and had seen it all and was prepared to say so. Anyone who survived marriage to John Huston had to have a strong character. She divorced Huston in February of the year this film came out. So maybe one reason why she looked so rough was because of that. After all, what is smallpox compared to being married to a sadist, for despite his buckets full of charm, he was dangerously disturbed. And speaking of Jack Cushingham (1919-1985), his IMDb credits are seriously deficient. THE EXTRAORDINARY SEAMAN (1969), of which he was co-producer (it was by the way a terrible failure of a film), and QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX (1970), of which he was producer (a project concerning which I gave him not inconsiderable assistance), are not listed, because no one at IMDb has figured out that Jack Cushingham is in fact the same person as John S. Cushingham, for whom those two films are listed. The two entries need to be amalgamated into one. As someone who knew Jack very well many years ago, I feel I owe it to him to point this out for the historical record. Before being involved with Evelyn, Jack told me he had an affair with Joan Collins, and from time to time he would phone her and have long and friendly chats, even though they were no longer involved. He said what a wonderfully warm, friendly, and open person she was, and that she always liked to remain permanent friends with all the men who had ever been in her life. I was with him a couple of times when he phoned her, which was interesting, as they certainly were warm and friendly conversations, I can vouch for that. The fact that both Joan Collins and Evelyn Keyes found Jack interesting says a lot. For, as I said, Evelyn Keyes was really something, one of the strong women of Hollywood. As for this film, where she struggles with a deadly disease, I have a certain sympathy for people who survive epidemic diseases, for I once got cholera in China, though not in an epidemic, and I was only saved by less than two hours. (Once symptoms commence you only have between ten and twelve hours to live if not treated with massive rehydration and potassium. They had to inject 32 kilos of saline into me while they stuffed potassium pills in my mouth and injected potassium into the saline, which by the way makes your veins burn on the inside as if they are on fire, just in case you are interested.) My advice: stay at home, sleep in a plastic bubble, never go out, speak to no one, and don't use someone else's chopsticks. And just in case you think 'it can't happen to me', try watching this film. (On the subject of smallpox, the doctors informed my mother that she and I had inherited an immunity to it, as our many attempts to get vaccinated never 'took' and we never got scars on our arms like everybody else did. So I suppose some ancestor made it through a smallpox epidemic centuries ago and we inherited the antibodies. Strange but true. Maybe I should leave my blood to science.) If you watch this, don't eat popcorn, because you might choke.

Evelyn Keyes is a killer, but she doesn't know it. With the narration at the beginning of the film to the revelation that she actually is a carrier of the smallpox disease, the viewer can tell this is going to be rather over-the-top. I went into this knowing nothing, but expecting a lot, with a title like that. Then from the narration telling us, she didn't know she was a killer, I thought maybe she had split personalities or something to that effect. When it became obvious she had smallpox, I was disappointed to say the least. No one today can know why this was made. Maybe a writer got an idea from a real incident. Maybe this was to educate people about the seriousness of getting vaccinated. Whatever the reason and despite all the earnest, sincere and well-meaning intentions, this film doesn't really age well. It comes across hokey and overblown with some of the supporting cast overacting and overly dramatic writing. But while I was disappointed in the content of the film, I have to admit it gets your attention, makes the viewers care about Evelyn and keeps the action moving fairly quickly. But, on the whole, today it seems too campy to be taken seriously, if it was trying to be. "The Killer That Stalked New York" can be found on the Bad Girls of Film Noir, Volume 1 DVD set. Being on that set, it might just fit right in, with other over-the-top movies, but its treatment of the movie's subject matter seems to me to be counterproductive. That's the only reason I'm hard on it. Otherwise, sit back and bask in who will be the next victim of the smallpox disease, as carried by Evelyn Keyes. See?!

In this crackerjack noir thriller from Columbia which is a combination of Panic In The Streets and The Naked City, Evelyn Keyes is unknowingly The Killer That Stalked New York. Evelyn who smuggled some stolen jewels into the country from Cuba also smuggled in smallpox. It gets misdiagnosed by doctor William Bishop and when they do find out what it is the hunt is on for her.For most of the film the Treasury Department is also hunting Keyes, but for the smuggled jewels. It's not until nearly the end of the film that the health department and law enforcement realize they're looking for the same woman.Evelyn's on a mission also. Her husband Charles Korvin has left her flat, the unkindest cut of all being that he was fooling around with her sister while she was in Cuba collecting the gems and contracting smallpox. When Lola Albright as her sister commits suicide over the whole affair, Evelyn's on a mission, get Korvin or die trying. And that's not an idle threat given the situation.The film was mostly shot in New York like The Naked City and its cast is sprinkled liberally with a lot of familiar names and faces. Keep an eye out for good performances by Connie Gilchrist as Evelyn's unsympathetic landlady, Jim Backus as a shifty club owner, and Art Smith as Korvin's fence.A real sleeper in the noir category, don't miss it if broadcast.

There must have been a sale on this storyline back in the 40's. An epidemic threatens New York (it's always New York) and nobody takes it seriously. Some might say that Richard Widmark and Jack Palance did it better in Panic in the Streets, but I disagree.There is always something about these Poverty Row productions that really touch a nerve. The production values are never that polished and the acting is a little rough around the edges, but that is the very reason I think this movie and those like it are effective. Rough, grainy, edgy. And the cast. All 2nd stringers or A list actors past their prime. No egos here. These folks were happy to get the work. Whit Bissell, Carl Benton Reid, Jim Backus, Arthur Space, Charles Korvin, and the melodious voice of Reed Hadley flowing in the background like crude oil. By the way, I've been in the hospital a couple of times; how come my nurses never looked like Dorothy Malone? In these kind of movies they don't bother much with make-up and hair, but they really managed to turn Evelyn Keyes into a hag. Or maybe they just skipped the make-up and hair altogether. Anyway, it was pretty effective. She plays a lovesick jewel smuggler who picks up a case of Small Pox in Cuba while smuggling jewels back for ultra-villain Charles Korvin (who is boffing her sister in the meantime). You got the Customs Agents looking for her because of the jewels, and the Health Department looking for her because she's about to de-populate New York. No 4th Amendment rights here. Everybody gets hassled.You gotta have the right attitude to enjoy a movie like this. I have a brother who scrutinizes movies to death. If they don't hold up to his Orson Wellian standards, he bombs them unmercifully. They must have the directorial excellence of a David Lean movie, the score of Wolfgang von Korngold, the Sound and Art of Douglas Shearer and Cedric Gibbons respectively. This ain't it.But I have the right attitude, and if you do as well, you'll love this movie.