Yellow Jack

For other uses, see Yellow jack (disambiguation).

Yellow Jack
Directed by	George B. Seitz
Produced by	Jack Cummings
Written by	Sidney Howard (play) Paul de Kruif (play collaborator) Edward Chodorov (screenplay)
Starring	Robert Montgomery Virginia Bruce Lewis Stone Andy Devine Henry Hull Charles Coburn Buddy Ebsen
Cinematography	Lester White
Editing by	Blanche Sewell
Distributed by	Loew's Inc.
Release date(s)	May 27, 1938
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Yellow Jack is a 1934 play and a 1938 Hollywood movie, both co-written by Sidney Howard and Paul de Kruif (the former a Pulitzer- and Oscar-winning playwright and screenwriter; the latter a well-known microbiologist and author).

The plot line followed the true story of the famous "Walter Reed Boards" in which Major Walter Reed of the U.S. Army heroically pursued the conquest of yellow fever (called “yellow jack”) in Cuba in 1898-1900. It tells the story of the U.S. Army Medical Corps doctors who expanded previously ridiculed theories proposed by Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay as to the cause of the fever being bites by infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. It also portrayed the stories of the brave soldiers who volunteered to be human "guinea pigs" to risk their lives by allowing themselves to be bitten and contract the deadly disease. (See History of yellow fever).

James Stewart's first dramatic role was in the 1934 Broadway play and the experience convinced him to stick with acting despite having recently had a difficult couple of years. He went into movies later that same year.

The play and screenplay were adapted for television by Celanese Theatre (1952) and Producers' Showcase (1955), in episodes both again titled “Yellow Jack”.

External links

• Yellow Jack at the Internet Movie Database