Yellow Jack

For other uses, see Yellow jack (disambiguation).

Yellow Jack
Directed by	George B. Seitz
Written by	Sidney Howard (play) Paul de Kruif (play collaborator) Edward Chodorov (screenplay)
Produced by	Jack Cummings
Starring	Robert Montgomery Virginia Bruce Lewis Stone Andy Devine Henry Hull Charles Coburn Buddy Ebsen
Cinematography	Lester White
Edited by	Blanche Sewell
Distributed by	Loew's Inc.
Release date	May 27, 1938 (1938-05-27)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Yellow Jack refers to a 1934 play (see Yellow Jack (play) and a 1938 Hollywood movie by the same name. Both were 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 follows the events of the well-known "Walter Reed Boards," in which Major Walter Reed of the U.S. Army worked to diagnose and treat yellow fever (called “yellow jack”) in Cuba in 1898-1900. The U.S. Army Medical Corps doctors studied the theory by the Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay that the disease was caused by bites of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, a concept which had been ridiculed. The dramas portrayed the soldiers who volunteered to be human "guinea pigs" by allowing themselves to be bitten and contract the deadly disease, for which no cure was then known. (See History of yellow fever).

James Stewart had his first dramatic role in the 1934 Broadway play. The experience led him to stay with acting and he first entered movies later that year.

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

Radio adaptation

Yellow Jack was presented on Philip Morris Playhouse September 5, 1941.

External links

• Yellow Jack at IMDb