37: Panic in the Streets (with David Moscrop)

Ottawa-based author and political commentator David Moscrop, whose work has appeared in the Washington Post and Maclean’s, joins the pod to talk about an underseen film noir classic, Elia Kazan’s Panic in the Streets. Shot entirely on location in New Orleans, Kazan’s film depicts a heroic public health official (Richard Widmark) and a determined police captain (Paul Douglas) in a race against time to capture a criminal on the loose (Jack Palance in his feature film debut) who doesn’t know he’s become a plague carrier and has no intention of being caught. Panic in the Streets is fascinating to consider over 70 years later; a film made by an immigrant that associates immigration with contagion (it was originally titled Port of Entry), a film with Red Scare overtones made by a director who would soon testify against friends before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and then make the masterpiece On The Waterfront (“a celebration of the informer” as Orson Welles would later put it), two aspects of the film that still speak to our current polarized era. And of course we talk a little bit about Doug Ford and the excellent prospects of a post-pandemic fall election in Canada. Follow David Moscrop on Twitter. David’s recent book Too Dumb For Democracy? is available now through Goose Lane Editions.  Trailer for Panic In The Streets (Kazan, 1950)