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 film noir starring Evelyn Keyes. The film, shot in a semi-documentary style, is about diamond smugglers who unknowingly start a smallpox outbreak in the New York City of 1947. It is based on the real threat of a smallpox epidemic in the city the previous year. The story is taken from a Cosmopolitan magazine article.

It was shot on location in New York City.

[edit] Plot

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

Feeling sick, she checks into a hotel, then decides to see her husband. He is cheating on her with her sister, Francie (Lola Albright). Shelia nearly faints on the street, so a cop takes her to a local clinic. While there, she give a young girl a pin she likes and inadvertently infects her. Shelia is misdiagnosed as having a common cold and she leaves. When a doctor later checks on the little girl admitted to the hospital, she is found to have smallpox.

Meanwhile, after returning home and getting sicker, Matt attempts to take off with the diamonds when they finally arrive through the mail. Unfortunately for him, the fence cannot buy the diamonds because they are 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 decide to vaccinate everyone in New York, but run out of the serum. This causes a panic in the city. Tracking the growing number of smallpox victims, agents realize that the disease carrier and the diamond smuggler are one and the same. However, Sheila continues to elude capture. Still unaware that she has smallpox, she returns to the doctor at the clinic to get more medicine. The doctor tries to talk her into turning herself in, but she shoots him in the shoulder and escapes.

Sheila confronts Francie, who kills herself due to Matt leaving her. This gives Sheila more reason to get revenge on him. Meanwhile, more and more smallpox victims are dying. Sheila eventually catches up with Matt, who falls from a skyscraper to his death. Afterwards, the woman goes to authorities and, before succumbing to the disease, provides them with a badly-needed list of those she contacted.