Shot on location on the New Orleans waterfront, this tense drama might have seemed an unusual choice for director Elia Kazan. Yet, given the mood of xenophobia that prevailed in the United States at the time, the storyline - the killing of an illegal immigrant results in a potential plague outbreak - is very much in keeping with Kazan's preoccupation with racism as demonstrated in Gentleman's Agreement and Pinky. Richard Widmark gives one of his more restrained performances as the health inspector teaming up with cop Paul Douglas to apprehend the plague-infected murderers, compellingly played by Jack Palance and Zero Mostel, who was himself hounded during the Communist witch-hunt the following year.

A medical examiner discovers that an innocent shooting victim in a robbery died of bubonic plague. With only 48 hours to find the killer, who is now a ticking time bomb threatening the entire city, a grisly manhunt through the seamy underworld of the New Orleans Waterfront is underway.