This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vidantam.

In 1950, before he directed the film on the waterfront,

Elia Kazan made another dramatic thriller,

a movie called Panic in the Streets.

There's a reason you probably haven't heard of it.

It is in a great movie.

Here with recorded is the story of a silent savage menace,

the events, incidents and emotions of the people who are apart of it,

who found time running out as they looked into the face of mortal peril.

The film tells the fictional story of a murder in New Orleans.

When the police investigate, they find the victim

suffered from a deadly infectious disease, a version of the plague.

Public health officials believe the killers may have contracted the disease

as they carried the victim's body away.

What follows is a race to track down the criminals

and halt an epidemic, a collision of law enforcement and public health.

Today on the show, we have a story where life imitates art.

It's a story about disease and panic, but it's also a story about psychology.

To control an epidemic takes more than medical skill.

It requires an understanding of human behavior and the forces that drive people to act in certain ways.

Our story starts in Munrovia, the capital of Liberia.

A deadly crisis was sparking fear, news reports were filled with dramatic language

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