THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK is small pox. The woman who has it is EVELYN KEYES, whose bleached blonde hair and harsh unflattering make-up makes her look a far cry from the cutie she played in THE JOLSON STORY. She gives a chilling performance as a woman stiffed by her boyfriend (CHARLES KORVIN),both of them diamond smugglers unaware that in Cuba she picked up the deadly smallpox disease.

The good supporting cast includes WILLIAM BISHOP, WHIT BISSELL, RICHARD EGAN, DOROTHY MALONE, LOLA ALBRIGHT, and JIM BACKUS. It's photographed in film noir documentary style with voice-over narration, as many films of the '40s and '50s were--similar, in fact, to PANIC IN THE STREETS, another thriller with Jack Palance as the deadly carrier.

It's fast paced, with never a wasted moment of time in telling a story that runs one hour and nineteen minutes. Miss Keyes demonstrates that she was a much more talented actress than anyone ever suspected, with hidden depths in her portrait of a vengeful woman.

Well worth watching.

Sheila Bennet (Evelyn Keyes) is hot. She's just arrived from Cuba with some smuggled diamonds and a federal agent is shadowing her. She also has a fever from the small pox she is carrying onto the docks of New York.

With the country presently in the mist of a viral outbreak that has the entire state under quarantine and the country on full alert The Killer that Stalked New York is as pertinent today as it was when it was released in 1950. Based upon an outbreak in Queens that took place in 1947 it is given a felonious back story with a sleazy rogues gallery of marginals making the outbreak that much more slippery to contain.

Similar in theme and topic to the earlier released that year Panic in the Streets, it lacks the polish and form of the Kazan as it takes on a documentary feel at times but it does boast a fine performance from the desperate Keyes while Charles Korvin makes for a loathsome villain.

This is a B-movie from Columbia that is part of a two-film DVD under the auspices of "Bad Girl" movies. However, this one really isn't a film noir movie despite coming from the noir era. Instead, it's a story about a crazy lady who is very sick with smallpox but is so intent on revenge that she allows herself to infect many others--necessitating a city-wide vaccination program. There really isn't that much more to it than that.

The script is pretty good, but not as taut or exciting as it might have been. The acting isn't bad, but once again isn't all that spectacular. All in all, it's a pretty good film but it isn't one I'd rush to see. A very competent film and nothing much more.