The film was shown today on Turner Movie Classics, so I watched it. From what I understand, this film is pretty accurate as far as it goes. During the Spanish American War most American military casualties were due to Yellow Fever, not to Spanish bullets. In fact, many of the troops died in the U.S. after they were returned from Cuba. Yellow Fever epidemics in the Western Hemisphere were a noted part of life. In the 1790s, when the national capital was Philadelphia, there were terrible epidemics in 1793 and 1794, causing the government to briefly shift to another local town. Various southern cities frequently had epidemics (New Orleans did - notice the plot of Bette Davis' movie JEZEBEL, set in 1852 in New Orleans). The cause of the disease was unknown, but it was believed to be highly contagious.
The situation had gotten more intense after the death rate of the Spanish American War, but also with the increased realization that the disease had to be conquered if American hopes for a canal across either the Isthmus of Panama or across Nicaragua was attempted. This is tied up in the film in Henry O'Neill's supporting role as Major Gorgas, the health officer who helped clean up the Canal Zone to build the Panama Canal - and who stresses the point to General Wood and to Major Walter Reed (Lewis Stone). Yellow fever, or Yellow Jack, had to be conquered.
The film (based on a play by Sidney Howard) tells how Major Reed was aware of the work (long unheralded outside of Cuba) of Dr. Carlos Finlay (Charles Coburn) who spent two decades studying the mosquito that he was certain transmitted the Yellow Fever virus (through the female of the species) from people on a one to one basis. Reed has to prove this or medical science will need decades of research to figure it out (thus delaying the canal). He decides to have soldiers volunteer for an experiment involving some in getting stung by the female mosquito.
The film examines the five volunteers (Robert Montgomery, Buddy Ebsen, Sam Levine, William Henry, and Alan Curtis) who decide to do the test - Ebsen, Levine, and Henry to test the old contagion theory in an isolated house full of clothes and bedding used by former Yellow Fever patients and victims, and Montgomery and Curtis in an anti-septic house where Curtis is bitten, and Montgomery is not (it may still be possible for the germ to be contagious after it is given to the first victim). When Curtis gets ill, the possibility that Montgomery might be one of the few who are immune has to be tested - so he has to be bitten by a mosquito on his own afterward, just to show he was susceptible to the disease, but not threatened by contagion.
I recognize that there is criticism directed at some of the actors, but I find that the criticism is hardly fair. Montgomery had used a Welsh accent the year before in NIGHT MUST FALL, possibly his greatest film performance. It sounds natural enough. Moreover, I have heard some British thespians try accents (including Irish) and sound forced. Think of Olivier with his patented German accent (based on Albert Bassermann's voice), or Margaret Rutherford doing an Irish accent (in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT). No matter how hard you can try, Irish accents done by non-Irish people sound full of blarney. It is rough to knock Montgomery for not being born in Ireland and trying to talk like one. Isn't that part acting - trying to play a role you don't totally fit in reality? His performance as the character of John O'Hara is pretty solid. He likes Virginia Bruce, but it takes some convincing (mostly due to the death of Henry Hull's Dr. Lazare) for his conscience to get him to lead his men to take the plunge and volunteer.
The rest of the cast do well. Ebsen as a southern boy who sees the volunteering a chance to get $300.00 to set himself up very comfortably back home. Levine sees it as a chance to help publish a newspaper in Passaic, New Jersey (he seems to be a trifle radical in political opinions). Stanley Ridges as Stones' assistant is critical about the experiment, especially after Lazaire dies. He sees the loss of Lazaire (whom he considers civilization) too great for any possible gain by the experiment. His performance may be the best in the film. Hull's performance is that of an overly enthusiastic assistant, who dies (in the film) ironically by a mosquito that he did not expect. But his performance is actually correct. Andy Devine's performance was for comic relief, so it was not overdone. Charles Coburn plays Dr. Finley as a brilliant researcher, but as cynical because his studies have previously been dismissed or ignored by official medical science. And Virginia Bruce does a decent job as the nurse who helps convince Montgomery to consider volunteering, and then stays with him to give him the extra impetus to beat the disease when he finally gets it. It is not a masterpiece, but it certainly maintains one's interest and keeps the audience's attention. I give it an "8" out of "10.
The situation had gotten more intense after the death rate of the Spanish American War, but also with the increased realization that the disease had to be conquered if American hopes for a canal across either the Isthmus of Panama or across Nicaragua was attempted. This is tied up in the film in Henry O'Neill's supporting role as Major Gorgas, the health officer who helped clean up the Canal Zone to build the Panama Canal - and who stresses the point to General Wood and to Major Walter Reed (Lewis Stone). Yellow fever, or Yellow Jack, had to be conquered.
The film (based on a play by Sidney Howard) tells how Major Reed was aware of the work (long unheralded outside of Cuba) of Dr. Carlos Finlay (Charles Coburn) who spent two decades studying the mosquito that he was certain transmitted the Yellow Fever virus (through the female of the species) from people on a one to one basis. Reed has to prove this or medical science will need decades of research to figure it out (thus delaying the canal). He decides to have soldiers volunteer for an experiment involving some in getting stung by the female mosquito.
The film examines the five volunteers (Robert Montgomery, Buddy Ebsen, Sam Levine, William Henry, and Alan Curtis) who decide to do the test - Ebsen, Levine, and Henry to test the old contagion theory in an isolated house full of clothes and bedding used by former Yellow Fever patients and victims, and Montgomery and Curtis in an anti-septic house where Curtis is bitten, and Montgomery is not (it may still be possible for the germ to be contagious after it is given to the first victim). When Curtis gets ill, the possibility that Montgomery might be one of the few who are immune has to be tested - so he has to be bitten by a mosquito on his own afterward, just to show he was susceptible to the disease, but not threatened by contagion.
I recognize that there is criticism directed at some of the actors, but I find that the criticism is hardly fair. Montgomery had used a Welsh accent the year before in NIGHT MUST FALL, possibly his greatest film performance. It sounds natural enough. Moreover, I have heard some British thespians try accents (including Irish) and sound forced. Think of Olivier with his patented German accent (based on Albert Bassermann's voice), or Margaret Rutherford doing an Irish accent (in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT). No matter how hard you can try, Irish accents done by non-Irish people sound full of blarney. It is rough to knock Montgomery for not being born in Ireland and trying to talk like one. Isn't that part acting - trying to play a role you don't totally fit in reality? His performance as the character of John O'Hara is pretty solid. He likes Virginia Bruce, but it takes some convincing (mostly due to the death of Henry Hull's Dr. Lazare) for his conscience to get him to lead his men to take the plunge and volunteer.
The rest of the cast do well. Ebsen as a southern boy who sees the volunteering a chance to get $300.00 to set himself up very comfortably back home. Levine sees it as a chance to help publish a newspaper in Passaic, New Jersey (he seems to be a trifle radical in political opinions). Stanley Ridges as Stones' assistant is critical about the experiment, especially after Lazaire dies. He sees the loss of Lazaire (whom he considers civilization) too great for any possible gain by the experiment. His performance may be the best in the film. Hull's performance is that of an overly enthusiastic assistant, who dies (in the film) ironically by a mosquito that he did not expect. But his performance is actually correct. Andy Devine's performance was for comic relief, so it was not overdone. Charles Coburn plays Dr. Finley as a brilliant researcher, but as cynical because his studies have previously been dismissed or ignored by official medical science. And Virginia Bruce does a decent job as the nurse who helps convince Montgomery to consider volunteering, and then stays with him to give him the extra impetus to beat the disease when he finally gets it. It is not a masterpiece, but it certainly maintains one's interest and keeps the audience's attention. I give it an "8" out of "10.