From Wikipedia: "In 1932, aboard the passenger ship, the S.S. Arcturus, engineer "Crusher" McKay (Victor McLaglen) runs a "tight ship", both beloved and feared by his men. The ship's doctor, "Doc" Tony Craig (Chester Morris), has signed on in Shanghai to be on the San Francisco bound trip. He wants to be near his former sweetheart, nurse Ann Grayson (Wendy Barrie).
Crusher is also attracted to Ann but his clumsy courtship soon sets up a rivalry between him and the Doc. While under way, a Chinese stowaway infected with cholera is discovered below decks. Both Doc and Crusher are at odds with what to do. While still far from shore, the disease spreads to the men who are working on the ship's boilers. Crusher orders the doors to the decks above bolted shut, so that passengers have no idea of what is happening below. While the upper-class is being sheltered, the stokers down below begin to get sick.
As panic breaks out, with Crusher's men stricken by cholera, Ann and Doc try to keep the disease isolated. The dead stokers have to be fed into the steamship's boilers. When Crusher falls ill, his men begin to mutiny and only his stubborn determination keeps the boilers stoked. The medical team on topside is thrown together, with Ann and Doc rekindling their previous romance. Crusher's bravery eventually brings the S.S. Arcturussafely to San Francisco."
Unfortunately, a Chinese stowaway is responsible for the outbreak. Given the film's racist overtones, it is an eerily prescient film. An odd coincidence. Makes one wonder how long Pacific Liner had been on TCM's programming schedule.
Another film with similar subject matter is "Contagion". Directed by Stephen Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns, it appeared in theaters in 2011. Soderbergh's film, perhaps, comes closer to the current international health crisis. The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Though it came out after the 2009 flu pandemic.
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