The cover of the DVD box for this forgotten movie trumpets one of the actors in it, which happens to be Dennis Hopper. Actually, Hopper (who is almost unrecognizable) only plays a minor role in the movie.
When a European scientist working in the US falls, nearly dead, on the street from radiation poisoning, FBI agent Dave Pomeroy (Howard Duff) is given the task of tracking down the source of the radiation. Before he gets a chance to question the dying man, he finds that he has been murdered in his hospital bed by a hired assassin (Dennis Hopper).
Look at that junky VHS cover, pushing Dennis Hopper as the star of this film while he barely has a role in it. Oh Amazon Prime, you got me again.
Agent Pomeroy (Howard Duff) is called in to crack a bunch of saboteurs planning an atomic explosion in LA. Another cheapie which kept us (slightly) entertained while we pointed at the screen and wondered 'who's that?
PANIC IN THE CITY is a B-flick thriller that looks and feels very dated, so I was surprised to see that it was made in the late 1960s rather than the 1950s. The plot is pure Cold War and sees a square-jawed hero tracking down a Russian spy who plans to unleash a nuclear bomb on the city.
"Panic in the City" reminds many viewers of "Hawaii 5-0", "Mannix" and other later 1960s quality TV shows. The shots are not highly imaginative, but they are usually well-chosen by director and co-writer Eddie Davis.
I am somewhat surprised that it is even available to purchase -- since it is not the kind of kitschy-bad that can earn a movie cult status, nor notable as any popular achievement either. Its chief virtue is a sort of understated competence.
What could have been an intriguing view of "Things to Come" considering the acts of terrorism going on around the world today ends up a silly cartoon-like thriller with Boris and Natasha like villains and an over-the-hill leading man who ends up with the sexy younger woman as if he was an Americanized version of James Bond as played by Roger Moore. Howard Duff, still attractive, is out to trap Russian terrorists and stop their attempts to poison an entire city.
