Twenty-five thousand Frenchman are wiped out by yellow fever, forcing France to abandon its attempt to build the Panama Canal. The Americans take over the project, but realize that unless the deadly jungle fever can be controlled, there is no chance of success. A brilliant team of scientists lead by Dr. Julian Murray face death as they wage all-out war on the rapidly spreading plague.
Ian Keith was a journeyman character actor on Broadway when D.W. Griffith cast him as John Wilkes Boothe in Abraham Lincoln (1930). The handsome actor seemed headed for movie stardom but, according to Hollywood folklore, was black-listed after his affair with Raoul Walsh's wife on the set of The Big Trail (1930). Redemption came when Cecil B. DeMille employed him in Sign Of The Cross (1932), a role that lead to a long busy career as a supporting actor in movies and television. Late in life, DeMille hired him to play Ramses I in the immortal classic The Ten Commandments (1956).