The Killer That Stalked New York ** (1950, Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, William Bishop) – Classic Movie Review 13,747

Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin and William Bishop star in the 1950 film noir The Killer That Stalked New York about diamond smugglers who unknowingly start a smallpox outbreak in the New York City of 1947.

Columbia Pictures’ 1950 American black and white film noir thriller film The Killer That Stalked New York [Frightened City] is directed by Earl McEvoy, and written by Harry Essex, based on a 1948 Cosmopolitan magazine article by Milton Lehman describing the real-life threat of a smallpox epidemic in the New York City of 1947.

It stars Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, and William Bishop, along with Dorothy Malone, Lola Albright, Barry Kelley, Roy Roberts, Carl Benton Reid, Ludwig Donath, Whit Bissell, Art Smith, Connie Gilchrist, Dan Riss, Harry Shannon, and Jim Backus.

The Killer that Stalked New York is an overly dramatic title for this flaccid, unconvincing, melodramatic tale of a young woman called Sheila Bennet (Evelyn Keyes) who unknowingly brings smallpox into the US when she smuggles diamonds out of Havana, Cuba. Now she is a deadly disease carrier on the loose in the Big Apple.

Evelyn Keyes and Charles Korvin, as her faithless smuggler husband Matt Krane who abandons her in favour of her sister Francie (Lola Albright), help to keep up a level of involvement, along with the rest of the solid B-movie cast (though William Bishop is dull as Dr Ben Wood).

But the overheated picture is really a lost cause, though the premise, from the Cosmopolitan article Smallpox, the Killer That Stalks New York, is acceptable, sparking interest at least at the start. Also of great interest is that the film is shot by Joseph F Biroc on location in a semi-documentary style.

The story telling is disappointing but the film is worthwhile for the factual premise, Evelyn Keyes’s strong star performance and Joseph F Biroc’s noir location cinematography. Maybe the main problem is that the subject is too hot to handle convincingly in a low-budget B-movie.

It is narrated by Reed Hadley.

Release date: December 1, 1950 (US).

It was retitled Frightened City in the UK.

The Killer that Stalked New York [Frightened City] is directed by Earl McEvoy, runs 79 minutes, is made by Robert Cohn Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Harry Essex, is shot in black and white by Joseph F Biroc, is produced by Robert Cohn, and is scored by Hans J Salter.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,747

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