Fox Home Entertainment must be commended for their new DVD series entitled “Fox Film Noir.” As stated on the back of every DVD box in the series, “Film Noir, a classic film style of the ’40’s and ’50’s, is noted for its dark themes, stark camera angles and high-contrast lighting. Comprising many of Hollywood’s finest films, film noir tells realistic stories about crime, mystery, femme fatales and moral conflict.”

Beautifully stated, and it’s even a finer thing when that definition is correctly realized within the film. Panic in the Streets (1950), has a plot that sounds nitty gritty enough to support that film noir definition. Richard Widmark, as public health inspector Clinton Reed, is distraught to learn that a bullet-ridden corpse was infected with a virus, that if spread, could unleash a bubonic plague. Hundreds of cops seal off the city in effort to find the killers who last had contact with the dead man. As a precaution, the cops round up all the usual suspects. Everyone must act quickly, certainly time is of the essence – the virus could spread if its whereabouts are not identified!

All plausibility aside it sounds exciting, doesn’t it? It’s not. The film is directed by Elia Kazan, an old-time director who customarily put a dull spin on exciting subjects. If there’s something you’ll find is some of the films of the 1950’s, it’s the insistence of putting emphasis on the social message above dramatic style. The film has no heat or sizzle since the big-stakes premise of the plot has little kinship with suspense. It’s strictly a treatise of moral issues.

Viewers can’t even play Sherlock Holmes, since there’s no mystery to begin with. From the beginning, the viewer knows that Jack Palance, as the villain Blackie, was the killer responsible for that corpse. Is he infected? Palance, who at least projects a palpable menace in his performance, refuses to allow himself to be turned into the police. Scenes where he is shown in hiding, he talks, well, in tough-guy talk to his fellow hoodlums. Widmark is smarter and more productive than the cops, and saves the day by locating Palance. The film is resolved by a shoot-out at the end that’s adequately watchable. When the film fades to black, you’ll know that the streets are safe again.

Back to the film noir definition, Panic fails to be in the best tradition of the standard. Let’s see: The film is photographed in square straight-ahead angles, it has low-contrast lighting that’s uninteresting, and there’s no femme fatale entangled into the plot. Panic would best be classified as a crime potboiler with moral aspirations. If you’re looking for a good example of film noir that fits the standard, then check out Laura (1944), which I have simultaneously reviewed, which has been released under the same Fox label. Actually, it’s more than just good. It’s pretty terrific.

The Panic in the Streets DVD is short on extras as compared to the impressive DVD riches of Laura, with only a theatrical trailer and an audio commentary by historians James Ursini and Alain Silver as disc supplements. I could tell you that the audio commentary is worth listening to, but who would I be kidding? Widmark and Palance fans may enjoy this one to a minimal degree for reasons of nostalgia, but everyone else can skip it. There are better movies available on DVD from that era. One of them that I just happened to have seen recently was Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway (1949), which was originally released as a 20th Century Fox movie that happened to have found a DVD home recently with the Criterion Collection. It’s one of the best noirs that I have seen (forgive the last scene which marginally cheapens the film), and should have very well been a iDVD release priced to sell. Go figure. I’m hoping that Fox takes care of their better titles from now on.

Movie Score: C
Extras Score: C-
Overall DVD Score: C-