The Killer That Stalked New York

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The Killer That Stalked New York
The Killer That Stalked New York one-sheet movie poster
Directed by	Earl McEvoy
Produced by	Robert Cohn
Written by	Milton Lehman (article) Harry Essex
Starring	Evelyn Keyes Charles Korvin William Bishop Dorothy Malone Lola Albright
Music by	Hans J. Salter
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 1, 1950 (U.S. release)
Running time	79 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Killer That Stalked New York is a 1950 black-and-white movie. The film noir was shot on location in New York City. The film, shot in a semi-documentary style, is about diamond smugglers that unknownly start a smallpox outbreak in the New York City of 1947. It is based on the real threat of a smallpox epidemic for New York City that took place in 1946. The story is taken from a Cosmopolitan article. The film as very similar plot to another 1950 film, Panic in the Streets. Actor Jim Backus has an uncredited role playing a slimy nightclub owner.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Arriving at New York City's Pennsylvania Station after a trip to Cuba, Sheila Bennet (Keyes) realizes she's being followed by authorities. She's carrying $50,000 worth of diamonds into the country. She mails the diamonds instead of carrying them to her husband. She then tries to shake the Treasury agent following her.

Feeling sick, she checks into a hotel then finally decides to see her smuggling husband. He's cheating on her with her sister, Francie. Shelia nearly faints on the street, as a cop takes her to a local clinic. While there, she give a young girl a pin she likes and unknownly gives her the illness. Shelia is diagnosed with a common cold and she moves on. Meanwhile, when a doctor checks on the little girl admitted to the hospital, she is found to have small pox.

Meanwhile, after returning home and getting sicker, Matt attempts to take off with the diamonds when they finally arrive through the mail. Unfortunatuly for Matt, the fence cannot buy the diamonds because they're too hot. Matt will have to wait in the city for ten days for the cash. He has left Sheila and Francie but he cannot leave New York.

City officials decides to vaccinate everyone in New York but runs out of the serum. This causes a panic in the city. After tracking the growing number of small pox victims, agents realize that the carrier and the diamond smuggler Shelia are one in the same. Shelia continues to elude police. Still unaware that she has small pox, she returns to the doctor at the clinic to get more medicine the doctor attempts to talk her into turning herself in. She shoots him in the shoulder and escapes.

Francie, after being confronted by her sister, kills herself due to Matt leaving her. This gives Shelia more reason to get revenge on him. Meanwhile, small pox victims are dying from the sickness. Shelia eventually catches up with Matt, who dies from falling from a skyscraper to his death. Afterward the woman goes to authorities and before succumbing to the disease, provides them with a badly needed list of those she contacted.