*** This review may contain spoilers *** It isn't a film-noir, more of a Drama or Thriller.The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) plays off as some turgid 1950's health department warning to the citizens of America that smallpox is on the loose. It starts off with a rough-voiced narrator giving us the goods on some dame who smuggled in diamonds from Cuba. Well, it seems she picked up something else, the smallpox. She visits many places and then starts an epidemic in Manhattan. The health department, staffed by idiots it seems and cantankerous old men who complain constantly, are trying to send flatfoot health department investigators to find out where it started from, I don't know why. Plus they want to inoculate each and every person in the five boroughs. These folks were geniuses.One interesting thing is for architecture buffs to look out for the ambiance, it was filmed both in New York City and Los Angeles, California. She arrives to the Pennsylvania Station (1910–63) in Manhattan, but the interiors don't look anything like it. it was probably a station in Los Angeles.Put in a pestiferous T-man (treasury agent) looking for the dame and a few stupid comments from gawkers and this makes for an even worse picture.They add some crime element to the film, with the dame who smuggled in diamonds from Cuba and her husband who double-crossed her. There's plenty of sanctimonious narration from the rough-voiced narrator and those 1950's "thank you" to all the departments involved ending credits.In all, it's really not that good, Panic in the Streets (1950) directed by Elia Kazan with Richard Widmark and Jack Palance, which had a similar story, did it much better.You'll recognize plenty of faces from TV and film.

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.

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!