|
STORIES
VISUAL ARTS
Chicago Art Galleries
|  |
 |
 |
|
Subscribe in your favorite reader using the links below. To learn more about feeds and RSS, click here.
 | |||||
|
Articles
Sections
>>
>
|
|||||
|
Before "Waterfront"
Thursday Aug 18, 2005.
By Joel Wicklund
|
|||||
| |||||
Aside from the destructive impact it had on the careers of many of his colleagues and the political environment of fear it aided, the worst thing about Elia Kazan's unrepentant decision to name names in his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s was that it forever cast a cloud over a remarkable career. However harshly history may judge Kazan for that choice, however, it can't take away from the artistic achievements and influence of his best films, including "Panic in the Streets" (1950). Usually relegated to the second tier of Kazan's features, "Panic in the Streets" was actually a stylistic breakthrough for a director previously known for his tasteful literary and theatrical approach. His much-honored theatre work and early films like "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945) and the Oscar-winning "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947) had put Kazan on the map as a socially conscious creative force with a gift for getting great performances out of his actors. But by the director's own account, "Panic in the Streets" was his first attempt to make something more overtly cinematic, emphasizing visual style as much as dramatic content. With its gritty, urban realism, it forecasts the look and feel of his classic "On the Waterfront" (1954), while its use of exaggerated shadow and nocturnal menace (especially during the opening scene) tie it to the nightmarish world of film noir as well. The film opens with a high-stakes card game gone wrong in New Orleans. When one of the participants leaves the table due to illness, the thug in charge of the game (Jack Palance, billed as Walter Jack Palance in a brilliant film debut) thinks he's merely trying to weasel out of the contest while ahead. With two lackeys in support (including Zero Mostel), he chases the sick man to the docks and shoots him dead. When the victim's body is pulled out of the water the following day, the coroner assumes he will be seeing nothing but gunshot wounds. He sees something far worse and soon Dr. Clinton Reed (Richard Widmark) of the U.S. Public Health Service is called in to verify his suspicion. The shooting victim was already a dead man walking…a carrier of pneumatic plague. As a precautionary measure, Reed has the body cremated, which causes trouble when he tries to convince city officials to prepare for an emergency for which he has no physical evidence. When they finally decide caution is the best route, the city government and police plan to release the story to the press so they can begin widespread vaccine inoculations immediately. But Dr. Reed, certain the shooter will hear the news and flee the city to avoid capture and spread the disease elsewhere, convinces the authorities to hold off for 48 hours (when the threat of epidemic will become imminent) in the hopes of tracking down the unknown carrier or carriers. Seeing such a search as almost impossible, New Orleans Police Captain Tom Warren (Paul Douglas) becomes a very reluctant partner with Dr. Reed. Working against the odds and the clock, Reed and Warren slowly develop a mutual respect as take every measure (including bending the law a bit) to save the city, if not the country, from a lethal health crisis. It's a credit to Kazan that he cast Widmark against type, playing the educated military/medical man instead of his usual tough guy roles. The casting makes Reed seem more real, less of a stock Hollywood scientist. Similarly, Douglas, often cast in likable, often comic supporting roles, is very effective in a more stern, cynical part. Both actors are excellent, as is Barbara Bel Geddes as Widmark's wife in several scenes that suggest even a happy marriage is more complex than Hollywood's usual fairy tale portraits. It's Palance, however, who takes the acting honors here. Alternating between intimidating his subordinates and showing affection toward them, he presents a far more believable low-level crime boss than the standard bad guy. Palance's magnetic portrayal ranges from laid-back charisma to method acting physicality of the highest order. The scene in which he tries to simultaneously cajole and threaten some information out of one of his minions, as the man lies dying in bed, is a marvel. Watch Palance in this film or "Man in the Attic" (a 1953 Jack the Ripper film previously covered in DVDetours) and you wonder if his iconic role as the villain in "Shane" (1954) wasn't as much a curse as a blessing – typecasting an actor of extraordinary range. The screenplay by Richard Murphy and Daniel Fuchs gives the actors plenty to work with, including some great combative banter between Widmark and Douglas. The script also works in many details that add to the realism of the film, such as Palance's character owning a laundromat rather than operating a more glamorous front. It's in the details that Kazan's artistry is revealed as well. From the paint peeling off the wall of a rundown diner to the wide-angle views of the docks, he captures the bleaker side of New Orleans while emphasizing the danger looming over its residents. More than simply proving he was not stagebound as a director, "Panic in the Streets" announced Kazan as the leader of a movement that would open up Hollywood's "dream factory" to bold visions of real life, warts and all. Fox's "Panic in the Streets" DVD offers excellent image and sound quality and includes a feature-length audio commentary by Alain Silver and James Ursini, editors of the well-respected "Film Noir Reader," as well as trailers for the movie and other film noir releases from the studio. Films featured in DVDetours™ may be difficult to find at many video stores but are widely available from some of the online rental services, such as Netflix, Green Cine, QwikFliks and Blockbuster Online. Inventories vary from company to company and DVDetours has no connection to any of these services. © 2005 Joel Wicklund
|
|||||
| |||||
