Cinco Heróis

This film begins in Cuba at the end of the Spanish-American War with the victorious American army now facing an even more deadly foe-yellow fever. And the concern is even more heightened due to the fact that nobody knows what causes it or how it is spread. So fearful that the returning soldiers may bring this deadly disease back to the United States the army sends a team of highly respected doctors led by a man named "Major Walter Reed" (Lewis Stone) to look for answers. Unfortunately, after a full year in Cuba he is forced to admit to the commander of the area that he is no closer to finding the cause or the cure than he was the day he arrived. Then one day he is apprised of some research conducted by a local doctor named "Carlos Finlay" (Charles Coburn) who had proposed a cause for the disease almost 19 years previously but was derided for it. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a decent drama which contained elements of suspense and romance within the plot as well. And even though it was clearly dated, I still found it to be somewhat enjoyable and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

"Yellow Jack" from 1938 is based on a play by Sidney Howard. It stars Lewis Stone, Robert Montgomery, Virginia Bruce, Andy Devine, Henry Hull, Buddy Ebsen, and Charles Coburn.

In 1898, hundreds of soldiers are dying from "Yellow Fever," known as "yellow jack." Major Walter Reed (Stone), who is a physician for the Army, is trying to find what causes the infection. He draws upon the work of a Dr. Finlay (Coburn), who has been laughed out of conferences for his views.

It has to do with mosquitoes, but there is only one way to find out -- do comparative studies with soldiers, some bitten, some not, some living where people died, others not. But no one will volunteer.

These scientific discovery stories were all the rage in the '30s - Madame Curie, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, The Story of Louis Pasteur, etc. Unfortunately "Yellow Jack" is the weakest.

Because it's based on a play, it's talky. I don't mind talky if the dialogue is scintillating. This wasn't. Also, some of the acting is so far over the top it never landed on earth. Robert Montgomery's brogue was AWFUL, way overdone. Buddy Ebsen's okefenokee swamp accent was worse. Painful. Andy Devine was also out there.

Consequently, I wasn't drawn in by what should have been a compelling story. Lewis Stone was a sincere Reed, and Coburn as Finlay was good as well. Virginia Bruce gives a lovely performance. But it was hard to feel anything for that bunch of buffoons - that's how they came off.

'Yellow Jack' is a goodish, proficiently made Hollywood drama which is weakened by several poor artistic decisions, and rendered absolutely ludicrous by one especially bad decision (which I'll describe presently). The film deals with an inspiring true story in medical history, namely the attempts of the U.S. Army Medical Corps to find a cure for malaria, also known as yellow fever and 'yellow jack'. This disease, spread by mosquitos, was so virulent in tropical regions that it seriously hampered the efforts to build the Panama Canal, as well as similar endeavours in Cuba and elsewhere. I'm only slightly familiar with the facts of this story, so I can't say how accurate this movie is. However, some of the actors in this cast are playing actual historic figures ... notably the underrated Jonathan Hale as Major-General Leonard Wood, the officer in charge of the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission. Also excellent here is MGM stalwart Lewis Stone as Major Walter Reed, and Frank Puglia (whom I usually dislike) as Aristides Agramonte. Less impressive is Henry Hull, trying hard to be a serious "ack-torr" instead of portraying a believable character. Hull is cast as Jesse William Lazear, a physician who -- in real life -- deliberately infected himself by allowing 'loaded' mosquitos to transmit the malaria virus to him. Hull's performance makes Lazear look ridiculous rather than heroic.

The film takes place in Cuba in 1900, hard upon the Spanish-American War. Dr Wood and his staff have found a potential treatment for malaria, but must test it on human subjects. Although one might expect Dr Wood to be the central character in this medical drama, the screenplay oddly emphasises one of his test subjects. (This is one of the bad decisions which I've mentioned, but not the worst of them.) Five medical volunteers are found; the de-facto leader of these is played by Robert Montgomery, as an Irish-American trooper named John O'Hara. Is Montgomery playing an actual historic personage? If not, it seems a strange decision for his character to be named John O'Hara, as this is the name of a best-selling novelist who was already well-known in 1938.

There are the usual Hollywood monkeyshines with history, notably in the casting of Virginia Bruce as an army nurse. An extremely beautiful blonde with great sex appeal but very little acting ability, Virginia Bruce is usually someone I'm delighted to see on the screen. Here, however, I find her beauty distracting. I can't believe that any woman as glammed-up as this would have been working as an army nurse in 1900. During Louis B Mayer's reign as head of MGM, the studio had a firm policy that no leading lady would be depicted in an unglamorous manner. So, we get nonsense like this with army nurses getting the glamour treatment. No matter how steamy the swamps of Cuba might get, Virginia Bruce's mascara never wilts. She has a couple of very beautiful close-ups here ... but that beauty works against the plausibility of this story.

One of Montgomery's fellow guinea pigs, played by Buddy Ebsen, is a feller named Jelly Beans. I found this nickname hugely implausible. Did jelly beans even exist in 1900? Even if they did, 'Yellow Jack' takes place largely in a military compound under military discipline: surely Ebsen's character would be referred to by his name or his rank, not some twee nickname. Ebsen was a talented character actor, but here he's been given a badly-written aw-shucks role, and he just can't make the character credible.

The supremely bad decision was made by whoever decided that Montgomery should play his role with an Irish accent. Did I say Irish? I meant 'Oirish'. Montgomery's begorrah brogue is so full of Killarney blarney that it damages any plausibility in his characterisation, as well as the performances of other cast members in his scenes. Here we have a true story that ought to be dramatic and gripping on its own merits, yet Montgomery and Ebsen -- and, to a lesser extent, Henry Hull and Andy Devine -- are walking about with big red neon signs over their heads, flashing the words 'FICTIONAL CHARACTER'.

On the positive side, 'Yellow Jack' features some extremely impressive montages by the brilliant Slavko Vorkapich. They belong in a better film. I'll rate this movie just 4 out of 10.

Yellow Jack is a film that should be seen more often, if for no other reason than that people should know and appreciate who Walter Reed was and why the United States Army named its medical facility after him.

Sidney Howard had written a play about Reed and his efforts to find a cure for yellow fever, popularly called yellow jack. The original play brought in the British army efforts to do the same thing as well. All that was eliminated and we concentrate on Reed here. Just as well that movie audiences were not diverted from what was going on in Cuba.

Walter Reed was a member of the army medical corps who headed a team of doctors sent specifically to find a cure for yellow fever. Previous reviewers have noted what a scourge it was in the western hemisphere. During a hot summer, the mosquitoes who were the carriers, went as far north as our mid-Atlantic states.

Reed met a lot of resistance, but he was fortunate to have as the Governor General of Cuba after the Spanish American War, Leonard Wood. You see, Wood was a doctor and had joined the army medical corps himself. Wood is played in the film by Jonathan Hale.

Yellow Jack ran for 79 performances during 1934 and the part of the Irish sergeant was played by James Stewart on Broadway. In fact Stewart's performance was noticed by MGM which signed him and brought him to Hollywood. Why they didn't use him in the film, God only knows.

In his entire career in the cinema, I don't think Jimmy Stewart ever attempted any kind of accent, even when he was playing an ethnic or regional type. I'm sure he knew his limitations there.

Now I have heard far worse attempts at a brogue than Robert Montgomery's effort. It's passable enough and Montgomery is a skilled enough player to smooth over the rest. Montgomery is a sergeant in the medical corps and four of his men and he volunteer to be exposed to the Yellow Fever to prove a theory that certain mosquitoes spread the disease. The rest of the volunteers are Sam Levene, Alan Curtis, William Henry, and Buddy Ebsen. Sam Levene was the only member of the original Broadway cast to repeat his role on screen.

Lewis Stone, best known to movie audiences as Judge Hardy, is a stern and dedicated Walter Reed. Like so many scientists Reed met with a lot of ridicule from the medical profession. There always is ridicule until the experts are proved wrong.

If there is a flaw in the film it's Virginia Bruce. Her romance with Montgomery doesn't really advance the plot and she looks out of place, fresh as a daisy for someone working in the tropics.

I'd have liked to have seen more of Charles Coburn as the doctor who Reed based his ideas on and less of Ms. Bruce.

Still and all Yellow Jack is an entertaining and informative film about some very courageous people.

YELLOW JACK is not the enthralling film it should have been about a subject like finding the cure for YELLOW JACK (or malaria), and too much of the early set-up for the story is so talky that right away you can almost see the wheels turning slowly in Sidney Howard's stage play.

But once it gets down to the experimenting, it becomes more interesting to watch. Then again, there are plenty of flaws in the material. One is the insistence on using ANDY DEVINE as comic relief throughout. He makes such a buffoon of the squeaky-voiced dimwit, that his character becomes nothing more than a cartoon. Adding to the unreality, is the appearance of cool blonde VIRGINIA BRUCE as a hard-working nurse in Cuba, looking as fresh as a cucumber no matter how unbearable the heat or how trying the situations are. She looks perfectly groomed in every loving close-up and her acting is, as usual, bland.

ROBERT MONTGOMERY's brogue seems to have annoyed many viewers here, but he does an okay job with the accent. Only question is, why did he have to be portrayed as an Irishman in the first place? And furthermore, why given the name of John O'Hara, when we already had a famous writer by the same name known to the public? Montgomery sounds much like the character he played in NIGHT MUST FALL, but at least his performance here is far better and more convincing than Miss Bruce's work.

Other cast members are competent enough, but little screen time is given to CHARLES COBURN in a minor role as a cynical doctor. Those that make the biggest impression are ALAN CURTIS (handsome man was leading man material and deserved better than this kind of supporting role), SAM LEVENE, HENRY HULL (although a bit overwrought), and in a very brief role as one of the first victims, PHILIP TERRY.

Interesting mainly for the cast and the unusual aspects of the story, but definitely a film that needed to be made more cinematic rather than stagebound with too much talk during the first half-hour.