So they had 48 hours before disaster struck...

What caught my attention was the scene with the mayor, the police captain and Richard Widmark's character, where Widmark explained Kochak, Poldi's murdered cousin, was infected, and they had 48 hours to find the killers, because it takes 48 hours for the disease to incubate and become contagious. I thought they actually had less than 48 hours, because the body must have already been dead for a few hours, but this wasn't the worst of it.

The "plot device" was greatly flawed, because they wouldn't have been home free by strictly nabbing the killers, implying that the plague would have been thus stopped in its tracks. It was obvious the victim could have come in contact with others, perhaps a good many others, besides his killers. For example, one of the sailors on the ship the victim entered the U.S.A. with was already sick. Most tellingly, the wife of the Greek restaurant owner not only was exposed to Kochak, but she immediately died from the disease. This means she had a whole lot less than 48 hours for the disease to have incubated, or that she had come into contact with Kochak days before. (I have a dim memory that when the husband and wife were heatedly discussing the matter before the wife instructed the husband to lie to the police, that Kochak was in their dive "yesterday"; if this was the case, that meant the wife kicked the bucket in a time period that lasted less than 48 hours.)

In short: many of the others Kochak came in contact with could have already been infected, which means the good guys far from saved the day with the apprehension of the criminals.

Beyond this disturbing plot problem, the movie sure was entertaining -- and I was so impressed especially with Jack Palance.