The Killer That Stalked New York

“To the men and women of public health – the first line of defense between mankind and disease.” So reads the closing dedication of Earl McEvoy’s The Killer That Stalked New York, a semi-documentary noir that could easily be mistaken for public health propaganda (on vaccines, “An aching arm told your neighbor you had good sense”). Thankfully, despite several voice-over detours by narrator Reed Hadley and montages of urbanites cooperating with government officials, McEvoy, who only directed two other films, tells a gripping story immersed in spectacular New York City location shooting. Preoccupied with her criminal misadventures and marital conflicts, Sheila Bennett (Evelyn Keyes) is oblivious to her own doom: it seems she smuggled not just jewels back from Cuba, but smallpox too. Unaware of her health status, Sheila wanders the city, infecting (and killing) everyone she comes in contact with. When authorities finally trace the virus back to Sheila, she naturally assumes the police are hunting her as a criminal, not a biohazard. Charles Korvin plays Sheila’s scumbag husband, and Lola Albright plays his mistress, who happens to be Sheila’s sister. Aside from the many New York exteriors, McEvoy and cinematographer Biroc shoot plenty of beautifully composed scenes, such as the beating of Moss the jeweler (Art Smith), Sheila’s moment of rest at the convent, and the final stand-off on a ledge. Released the same year as Elia Kazan’s similarly plotted Panic in the Streets, the sickness on display in these films is as much a moral decay as a pathogen.