User reviews

This film, coming out at a time when the nation as a whole and Hollywood in particular tended to be sympathetic toward the South, presents a one-sided account of the events surrounding the Lincoln assassination of 1865. This was due to some extend by the visual impressions created by D. W. Griffith of Kentucky, especially his seminal "The Birth of a Nation" which made heroes out of the clandestine hate organization, the KKK. From a political standpoint, the South had become important as a result of many powerful congressmen and senators being from that region which by now had become the stronghold of the Democratic Party, "The Solid South." Pecuniary matters are usually the deciding factor for Hollywood, and there existed a large ticket-buying public in that part of our nation. The Civil War became The War Between the States or the War of Northern Aggression. The volatile issue of slavery was replaced with the states rights rationalization, forgetting that South Carolina and the other ten Confederate slave states withdrew from the Union so their right to own chattel would not be bothered. The right to own slaves became one of the main planks in the Confederate Constitution.

"The Prisoner of Shark Island" presents the Southern view of history. It also conveniently omits the incriminating evidence against Dr. Mudd, that he knew Booth well. In fact, he was the one who had introduced Booth to a leading conspirator, John Surratt. After setting Booth's leg, Booth did not leave the Mudd house but stayed the night and was ably assisted by Dr. Mudd. Evidence indicates that Mudd knew much more than he ever admitted about Booth and the assassination conspiracy. The murder of Lincoln occurred in the federal district of Washington, D.C., not in a state, hence the reason for the military tribunal. Needless to say, the conduct of the trial would have been much different had it been a civilian rather than a military one. The fact that the one who pulled the trigger, Booth, was killed before coming to trial also muddied the water.

The part of "The Prisoner of Shark Island" that sticks with history best is Dr. Mudd's heroic efforts to combat disease at the prison. This justifiably led to his pardon by President Andrew Johnson.

The acting, direction, and cinematography are first rate. Written by a Southerner, Nunnally Johnson, the historical facts are a bit skewed but otherwise the script is a good one. If the viewer keeps an open mind, this is a very entertaining picture.

This moving story does have some actuality. One of the interesting details is some legal argument about the place of residence of doctor Mudd. The lawyers argue that if he could be transported from Shark Island, the prison on Dry Tortugas, to a place where normal US legislation is applied, then a writ of habeas corpus could be served and he would go free. Therefore Mudd's supporters launch a failed rescue attempt to that effect. On Dry Tortugas, an island off the Floridy Keys, the prisoner has no chance to appeal for territorial reasons. In my understanding (I am no lawyer, however) this pretty much reflects the Guantanamo situation of today and one just hopes that no doctor Mudds are holed up there and that all open legal questions in that context can be resolved satisfactorily.

I am always amazed how outspoken movies of the great Hollywood Studios could be on political issues or social or legal injustice. This movie is an important product of this tradition. The Prisoner of Shark Island is almost an Anti Yankee-movie. The soldiers are uncouth and brutal, the carpet baggers sleazy double talkers. The authorities panic after President Lincoln's assassination. Somebody, anybody has to hang for the crime. And fast. One of the memorable moments of the movie has one of the military judges in charge say something like „we owe it to the people", clearly meaning the enraged mob in the square below. Thinking of who else claimed to fulfill the wishes of „the people" around 1936 this could also be an appeal to legal authorities to serve the written law and not give in to those who shout the loudest.

Director John Ford certainly knew how to stir up emotions, some of the pathos might be regarded as slightly overwrought by contemporary viewers. However, The Prisoner of Shark Island certainly is one of the most beautiful and memorable movies of his.

Having jumped from THE TALL TARGET to PRINCE OF PLAYERS, you can now turn to this excellent film by John Ford. It's star Warner Baxter has had a very unfair posthumous reputation. He was the second actor to win the Academy Award for best actor for the role of the Cisco Kid in IN OLD ARIZONA (1928), and was overused in Hollywood for the next seven years. As a result, most of his movies were duds. This, and the fact that his Oscar was partly based on a fake-Mexican accent, downgraded a fine acting reputation. It should be remembered that he was the first actor (before Alan Ladd and Robert Redford) to portray Jay Gatsby on the screen. His credits include his tragic, war-weary French army officer in THE ROAD TO GLORY, Alan Breck Stewart in KIDNAPPED, and Dr. Mudd in this film. But most people recall him as Julian Marsh, the struggling, ill producer in FORTY-SECOND STREET, who tells Ruby Keeler, "YOU HAVE TO COME BACK A STAR!"

Historically Mudd's innocence is still up in the air - he had met Booth the previous fall and winter when Booth was going through southern Maryland, studying possible escape routes. But Mudd was a doctor, and (whether or not he knew Booth that April 1865 night)was bound by the Hippocratic Oath to treat him for his broken leg. It really was the image of a southern (and pro-Confederate) doctor treating the leg of the man who shot Lincoln that annoyed Northerners. It is that which convicted Mudd, unfair as it really is.

While Ford's direction, and the performances of Baxter and the cast hold the film well together, Ford does get the atmosphere of hate that permeated the trial of the Conspirators - look at the sequence of witnesses Arthur Byron produces against Mudd at the trial, and how Byron instructs the army officers (who are under him and Secretary of War Stanton) to ignore Baxter's sensible outburst ("Would John Wilkes Booth have intentionally broken his leg to see me?!"). John Carridine's performance is fine, but what is not mentioned is that his sadism against Mudd is based on his fanatical devotion to Abraham Lincoln. There is great subtlety there. Also, after Mudd beats the Yellow Fever epidemic, Carridine is the first soldier to sign a petition for Mudd's release.

It is not a great film, but it is a fine one for all that. Now, if only a modern John Ford can do the definitive movie about that other tragedy of the conspiracy trial: the judicial murder of Mary Surratt.

**SPOILERS** A bit inaccurate version of the life of Dr. Samuel Mudd in regards to his knowledge of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilks Booth. It's been brought out that Dr. Mudd did know Booth before he treated his injured leg after he escaped from the Union troops, during the confusion at the Ford Theater. After he shot and killed Pres. Lincoln on the evening of April 14, 1865.

Booth did know and met with Dr. Mudd three different times during social occasions on Nov. 13 Dec. 18 & 23 of 1864 so it wasn't ,like the movie made it out to be, that Dr. Mudd met Booth only after he's escape from the Union Army after shooting Pres. Lincoln. Besides that inaccuracy the rest of the film "The Prisoner of Shark Island" honestly tells the story of the tragic saga behind Dr. Mudd's incarceration in the yellow fever and mosquito infested island prison Fort Jefferson or as it's also known as the notorious Shark Island.

Taking in an injured John Wilks Booth and his fellow conspirators David Herold Dr. Mudd treats his broken leg and before you know it the two take off and travel south towards Virgina. Booth's Gunned down a few days later and anyone who had anything to do with him was quickly arrested and sentenced to be hung by a military court with the exception of Dr. Mudd.

Dr. Mudd given a life sentence at the infamous Fort Jefferson of the Florida Keys where he's treated worse then the worst criminals on the island for his involvement in the Lincoln assassination which he had nothing to do with.Being a man of medicine Dr. Mudd felt it was his duty as a doctor to treat Booth even though at the time he had no knowledge of his murder of the president. At Shark Island Mudd is treated as an outcast even among his fellow prisoners and after an aborted escape attempt Mudd is thrown into solitary confinement, or the hole, that almost cause him to lose his mind and go insane.

After two years at Shark Island the prison population, as well as the military personnel guarding and controlling them, is hit by a plague of Yellow fever that cause the island to be quarantined. Both the inmates and guards are struck down by the hundreds and with no medical man wanting to go on the island to help it's left up to prison inmate Dr. Samuel Mudd to do the job. In the end Dr. Mudd not only saves over 1,000 lives,mostly prisoners regardless of what crimes that they committed, but after four years behind bars Dr. Mudd is given a full and complete pardon from the them President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, on March 8, 1869.

Fine performance by Warren Baxter as Dr. Samuel Mudd. There's John Carridine as the vicious Sgt. Rakin who after treating Dr. Mudd with sadistic brutality he in the end repents from what he did to the good doctor after Dr. Mudd saved his life as well as over a thousand others on the mosquito infected isle from Yellow Fever. Dr. Mudd himself got infected by what he called the "Yellow-jacket" that almost ended up killing him as well.

Dr. Mudd was a real man of medicine as well as man of kindness as he showed, like in the case of John Wilkes Booth, that he didn't care what a person did even though he had no idea of Booth's actions at the time. He not only treated him but helped anyone else, to the best of his ability, regardless of what they did like the many prisoners that he save from the jaws of death on "Shark Island".

It has been a long time since I have seen this movie, but it was very enjoyable and moving. I am not familiar with the facts of Dr. Mudd's life sentence after he was imprisoned, but he was not a victim of circumstance. According to the novel I am reading regarding the escape of John Wilkes Booth, Dr. Mudd was an acquaintance of John Wilkes Booth prior to the assassination and had at one time agreed to aid Booth in escaping with Lincoln after kidnapping him, a plot that fell through a year before the assassination occurred. With his leg broken, Booth sought out Dr. Mudd as he was a Southern sympathizer, an acquaintance, and a doctor. He fed Booth, let him sleep in his house, and lied to the soldiers hunting Booth as to aid him in his escape from justice, all with full knowledge of his deeds. Sadly, this is not what is seen in the movie, but much like most of history has been distorted to make people feel guilty about someone with supposedly good intentions. Still, an enjoyable movie with a good heart, even if it is not based in fact.

On 09 April 1865, John Wilkes Booth (Francis McDonald) breaks his leg after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.). He flees with an accomplice and once in Maryland, they seek medical treatment with the country Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd (Warner Baxter) that does not know that his patient has murdered the president.

Dr. Mudd is arrested by the army for helping John Wilkes Booth and together with seven other suspects, they are sent to a military court without civil rights. Dr. Mudd is a scapegoat and sentenced to life imprisonment in the hopeless prison in the Dry Tortugas, in Gulf of Mexico. When the prison is isolated due to a yellow fever epidemic, Dr. Mudd helps the guards and the other prisoners to cure the disease.

"The Prisoner of Shark Island" is a great biographical drama by John Ford, telling a tale of injustice and recognition of a nation with a family man that is sentenced to a life sentence in a devil's island of the Nineteenth Century in Gulf of Mexico. The story is engaging and supported by magnificent performances and direction. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Prisioneiro da Ilha dos Tubarões" ("The Prisoner of Shark Island")

Mmm… just saw this and noticed that there's an eerie correspondence between John Ford's slightly dated, but still superior, The Prisoner of Shark Island and some events today. Those unfortunates accused of Lincoln's murder are given a show trial (in which the judges are briefed to avoid such annoying legal niceties as considerations of guilt being 'beyond reasonable doubt'), as they shuffle, chained, hooded, and without rights, from hearing to internment and back again. Railroaded on the back of belligerent public opinion after an outrage that shocked a nation, guilty by association in the hasty eyes of the establishment, Dr Mudd is denied true process of law in the special military court hearings and ends banged up on the far edge of the States, just outside of the place where the presentation of a Habaeus Corpus would, we are told, ensure a fair reassessment of his case.. Ford couldn't have known of course, but as a study of a controversial case from the past his film is somewhat prescient of the Guantanomo Bay shame, a current and larger stain over the face of American justice

In general, Hollywood bio-pics of the 1930s bore me. So many of them stray so far from the real story or attempt to canonize the subjects that they just seem too fake and sickly to watch. This movie is a good exception to this rule of thumb. I was pleasantly surprised that the movie was NOT all treacle and it was easy to find myself engaged in the plot. Plus, the subject matter of the movie is an enigmatic person in that NO ONE alive knows for sure what, if any, role he had in Licoln's death. It really got me thinking and as a result I did some research--and ultimately learned that this debate will probably never be decided! But, based on excellent writing and acting, I strongly recommend it. Plus, as a history teacher, I am happy that, in general, the facts seem to be presented well. THAT'S a rarity for any biographical movie!

Not among Ford's best films, unfortunately. Warner Baxter is excellent as Dr. Samuel Mudd, the doctor who set John Wilkes Booth's leg after he broke it jumping from the balcony in which he shot Abraham Lincoln. Like most Hollywood films, it completely ignores history. It's not generally believed that Mudd was a conspirator against Lincoln, but the truth was a lot murkier than this film presents. The beginning of the film is pretty good, with the assassination and Mudd's arrest and trial. Strangely enough, I thought it got much less interesting when it moved to the titular island, Dry Tortuga in the Florida Keys. I don't exactly know why, but I lost interest during the latter half of the movie, despite the wonderful presence of John Carradine at his hammiest. Love that guy. The bug-eyed Negro characters are pretty annoying in this one, although I thought the character of Buck, a former slave of Mudd's who aids him in prison, was one of the more positive characters of that type I've seen. Not that the depiction isn't fairly racist, but at least he's kind of a hero.

One of John Ford's more under-appreciated movies is this biopic of Dr Samuel Mudd, the doctor who set John Wilkes Booth's broken leg after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Mudd (Warner Baxter) is convicted of being a part of the assassination and sent to a Union prison on the Dry Tortugas, a small group of islands off the coast of Florida. The prison island is surrounded by sharks, hence the movie's title. While there he endures brutal treatment and living conditions. When the prison is stricken with an outbreak of yellow fever, Dr. Mudd rises to the occasion and heroically saves lives.

It's solid entertainment directed by one of the greats with a script from Nunnally Johnson and starring a fine cast. In addition to Warner Baxter, who does an excellent job in the lead, the cast includes Gloria Stuart, Harry Carey, and Claude Gillingwater. Ernest Whitman is good as Mudd's friend (and his former slave!). John Carradine shines as an abusive Union guard ("Hiya, Judas!"). Ford's direction is superb, as one might expect, and he wrings every ounce of emotion out of each scene. While some parts of the movie are historically accurate (or at least close), it's inaccurate in many places. The primary example being the portrayal of Dr. Mudd as a complete innocent who knew nothing of Booth before the man showed up at his door with a broken leg. In reality, Mudd was a Confederate sympathizer who had met Booth on more than one occasion. It is true there is no concrete proof that Mudd knew about the assassination plot or knew that Lincoln was dead when Booth arrived at his house, but there is enough room for doubt that we still don't know the extent of his guilt or innocence to this day. But, as I always say with these biopics, I don't look to movies for history lessons but rather to be entertained. On that front, this is very successful.

This is the true story, with some embellishments and liberties, of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who treated John Wilkes Booth's injury as he escaped after assassinating Abraham Lincoln. Ford's direction is visual poetry, as he uses fog and shadows to create a chilling atmosphere on Shark Island. The only problem is that, after an interesting start, the story kind of runs out of gas, getting bogged down in the scenes dealing with yellow fever outbreak. The cast is good, although the acting by the supporting players could have been more subtle. Baxter capably plays Mudd while Stuart is fine as his devoted wife. Carradine, in one of 14 films he made in 1936, plays a sadistic prison official.

Viewers can tell that "Prisoner" is the work of a great director, and some of the performances are indeed fine; but this film is a lie, and it did a great disservice to the understanding of US history. Samuel Mudd knew John Wilkes Booth and almost certainly was aware of the identity of the patient he treated on the morning of April 15, 1865. Mudd got caught up in his own lie, and he later tried to change his story - not once but twice. His role as a medical doctor is certainly important, but the reality is that the other two surviving defendants who had been sent to Ft. Jefferson were also pardoned by Andrew Johnson at the close of Johnson's term of office. The portrayal of blacks in this film is nothing less than disgusting - way beyond GWTW and into "Birth of a Nation" territory. Mudd remains a fascinating figure, and watch this film - but don't be fooled into thinking it is at all historical. (Also, couldn't the filmmakers have at least given Mrs. Mudd her real name? and stuck to the very real drama of the military commission voting by a margin of just one vote to preserve Mudd's life?)

Dr. Samuel Mudd thought he was being kindly by setting a stranger's broken leg in the middle of the night. He didn't know the stranger was John Wilkes Booth on the run after killing President Lincoln. Mudd was tried as a conspirator in the assassination plot and sentenced to a living hell to a prison a prison off the Florida Keys. Legendary director John Ford took this true story and turned it into one of the best films about the Civil War. Every scene has true suspense (the assassination itself, troops finding Booth's boot at Mudd's house) or genuine sentimentality (Lincoln asking Union troops to play "Dixie") While Warner Baxter (as Mudd) and Gloria Stuart do wonders with their roles, the real scene stealer is John Carradine. His performance as a sadistic Sargent at Shark Island is chilling, like something out of a horror movie. The ending is a bit dated, otherwise this is top notch John Ford.

This is an engaging film about the doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth after the Lincoln assassination. The film goes on to show how all the defendants in the case were hanged except Mudd. He was sent to a lovely spot off the coast of the Florida keys, but with no air conditioning. We see his treatment and attempt to escape as well. I will not reveal the conclusion of the film, but Dr. Mudd is the origin of the saying "His name is Mudd, now" meaning that you have lost your reputation. Good acting by Warner Baxter and good viewing.

The Prisoner of Shark Island is directed by John Ford and written by Nunnally Johnson. It stars Warner Baxter, Gloria Stuart, Harry Carey, John Carradine, Ernest Whitman, Francis McDonald, Joyce Kay, Claude Gillingwater and Frank McGlynn. Music is by R.H. Bassett and Hugo Friedhofer and cinematography by Bert Glennon.

After setting the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth (McDonald), Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (Baxter) is tried as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (McGlynn). Sentenced to life imprisonment at the military prison of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Mudd desperately tries to stay sane and fight a vicious regime in the hope of one day proving the unjust nature of his sentence.

A personal favourite of Ford's, it's not hard to see why given that The Prisoner of Shark Island is supreme film making. Based on the true story of Samuel Mudd, there is perhaps unsurprisingly some little fudging of the facts, but this in no way detracts from the truthful basis of this incredible human interest story. Time is afforded to the joy at the end of the Civil War, Lincoln's weariness (McGlynn classy as usual), the assassination on that desperate day April 14th 1865, Mudd's family life and moral fibre and then the night he abided by his Hippocratic Oath and administered medical aid to the man who had just murdered the president. These are all delicately handled scenes by Ford, who aided by Johnson's screenplay manages to hit home to us the fragile nature of the Mudd incident that is harnessed by a country grieving with anger.

Once the trial arrives, the film shifts to another level, the delicacy of Ford's framing of characters and Johnson's rich dialogue passages are replaced by striking imagery and an impassioned performance by the wonderful Baxter. The hooded prisoners on trial for their lives and the wooden gallows outside the court chill the blood, then Baxter delivers his heart tugging three pronged defence monologue that is as good a piece of acting as was given in the 30s. Sentenced passed, execution off camera strikes a chord and then Mudd sits alone and forlorn in a darkened cell, filtered light shards imprison Mudd and let us know that Glennon has arrived to takes us up yet another notch.

What then unfolds is a superb depiction of the horrors of prison life, Fort Jefferson is a dank and desperate place, a place of misery for the prisoners, especially for Mudd, who has the patriotic but sadistic Sergeant Rankin (Carradine brilliant) after his blood. Ford is alive to the benefits of Carradine's nasty performance, so has him lighted as malevolent and angled like a horror movie protagonist. Some of the shots during the prison sequences are clinical on impact value, such as Mudd on his cell window sill or one capture as he stares down through a floor grate, shadows and light showing Glennon at his best and giving us a shot fit to grace the best film noirs of the 40s.

The rest is history as written, the desperation of an escape attempt, the yellow fever outbreak and his eventual pardon by President Andrew Johnson (this would be 1869 in reality). Nicely packaged by Ford who closes the picture down by having Mudd and Buck (Whitman an impressive presence throughout the picture), his one time black slave and loyal friend, return home to their families, harmony restored after such hardships. There is inevitably some annoyance by critics and film fans alike that the black characters are racial stereotypes, but this is a 1936 film depicting a story unfolding in 1865/67, Ford and Johnson's work here is representative of its times. And in no way, to my film loving mind, hurts this picture in any way.

Classic cinema in its purest form from the writing table to finished product, it's highly recommended viewing. 9.5/10

Abraham Lincoln has been on the edge of a few of John Ford's work, most notably The Iron Horse where he was the impetus for the overall action of building a transcontinental railroad (Ulysses S. Grant deserved no mention, apparently). Here, Ford tells the story of a man accused of conspiracy in the assassination of Lincoln, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, a Maryland country doctor who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth after Booth's jump from the balcony at Ford's Theater and before word of the deed had reached the Mudd family farm in the countryside.

The movie begins with the very nice and truthful moment of on the night that news of Lee's surrender reached Washington City, the crowds came to the White House lawn where Lincoln (Frank McGlynn) appeared to the crowd. From his balcony, wrapped in a blanket over his suit, he asked the band there to play "Dixie", as a spoil of war, but actually the first act of reconciliation he planned towards the South, a gesture of goodwill. Then, John Wilkes Booth (Francis McDonald) sneaks into Lincoln's private booth in Ford's Theater and puts a bullet in his head, breaking his leg on the fall to the stage, and running off.

In the Maryland countryside is Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (Warner Baxter) waits with his wife Peggy (Gloria Stuart) for news of one of his slaves who is expecting to delivery her twelfth child when Booth and his two confederates arrive at his door begging for help. Mudd helps him, unknowing who he is or what he has done, and is granted $50 in Union money for his trouble. With dreams of life turning around from the hardship of the Civil War, Mudd goes off to help deliver that baby.

The next day, Federal troops raze through Maryland, following Booth's tracks, and round up everyone who helped him in any way, either directly or indirectly, including Mudd. The military court used by the new administration is designed to appease the baying mobs outside on the streets, and they run roughshod over everyone brought before them, seven men and one woman. Mudd can only give an impotent plea before he's convicted for life and sent to Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortuga, the eponymous Shark Island, so named because it uses a moat filled with sharks as a protective border.

The bulk of the movie occurs here with Mudd protesting his innocence in the face of guards who see him as the man who killed the greatest man in history. His former slave Buck (Ernest Whitman) made his way down to Florida at Peggy's insistence, signing up and becoming a guard in the newly appointed colored guard at the prison. Together, they help carry out an escape plan organized by Peggy to get Mudd out, into a civilly controlled area, and serve him a writ of habeas corpus in order to try and get him into a civilian court and retry him there where the legal requirements are a bit more strict. The escape goes wrong, and Mudd and Buck end up in a tortuous solitary confinement just as a yellow fever outbreak hits the prison. When the prison becomes desperate at the collapse of their own doctor due to the fever, they bring out Mudd to help, getting them through the pandemic at great sacrifice to himself, earning the respect of those guarding him and eventually earning a presidential pardon from Andrew Johnson.

It's a history that bears some resemblance to the actual events. There was an escape attempt, but it probably didn't involve Peggy at all. There was a yellow fever outbreak, as well, but Mudd probably didn't order a cannon fired on the vessel anchored off shore that was unwilling to deliver necessary supplies. It's all heightened drama, and Ford manages the production well. With solid actors doing good work, especially Baxter who's in almost every scene, giving a dedicated performance, the film is a good piece of entertainment that touches on real life and a subject obviously near and dear to John Ford's heart.

I recently thought I would treat myself to a John Ford retrospective by viewing all the films of his in my collection (some 32) in chronological order. I was surprised at how little my rating of them had changed over the years, with the sole exception of "The Horse Soldiers" which seems to get better and better. I think my all-time favourites will always be "How Green was my Valley" and "The Quiet Man", while time can do nothing to redeem the sheer awfulness of "What Price Glory?" However, what really did surprise me about one of the most uneven of the great directors, was the tremendous visual flair of his films of the '30s. True there were some potboilers such as "Wee Willie Winkie" and "Submarine Patrol", but the period contains a Western, "Drums Along the Mohawk", that is right up there with the finest, "The Searchers" and "The Horse Soldiers", "The Hurricane", arguably the finest disaster movie of all time and "The Prisoner of Shark Island", a fascinating story of wrongful imprisonment. The latter is based on the true story of a country doctor who had the misfortune to treat the assassin of Abraham Lincoln during his flight, an action that prompted his arrest and incarceration in a prison island off the Florida coast. Anyone wishing to study action film montage at its most skilful need look no further than the first half-hour of "Prisoner". The reconstruction of the theatre assassination, Booth's flight, his encounter with Dr Mudd, Mudd's arrest and trial are shot with a breathtaking urgency of pace. If the last two-thirds seem a little conventional beside the whirlwind opening, this is partly due to the fact that the genre of prison drama with attempted escapes has become something of a cinema commonplace. It should not cloud the issue that this comparatively early example is still one of the best. Nevertheless the film is not without faults that largely arise from genre expectations of the period. John Carradine hams it all the way as a prison office oozing malevolence, Mudd's daughter is a Shirley Temple lookalike, simperingly coy and cosy and all the darkies, although thoroughly nice and obvious goodies in a troubled world, are portrayed as if they hardly possess a brain between them. Still, this is the sort of tosh it is wise to overlook in order to fully appreciate films as wonderfully crafted as this.

'The Prisoner of Shark Island' is based on an actual historical event and makes a pleasing contrast to the last film I watched that concerned 19th-century American history (Young Mr Lincoln, 1939). That is not to say it is correct about every detail. However, total historical accuracy is obviously impossible to achieve in any case (Kurosawa's 'Rashomon', 1950, explains the reason why), and besides, 'The Prisoner' avoids the fawning and sycophantic tone that annoyed me when I watched the film about Mr Lincoln's days as a young lawyer. 'The Prisoner' is about one Dr Mudd who treated the broken leg of the assassin of President Lincolns without realising who his patient was. He is jailed, and because the government needs a scapegoat to calm a mob baying for blood, is imprisoned for life on the Dry Tortugas where normal US law does not apply (something like a 19th-century Guantanamo Bay, as other reviewers noted). On the whole I think this is a well-acted film. I liked Warner Baxter as Dr Mudd and Claude Gillingwater as the doctor's father in law and comic relief. The pacing is somewhat uneven, though. There is quite a long exposition, whereas the military kangaroo court that tries Mudd is handled excellently. Most of the prison scenes are alright, though the Yellow Fever epidemic could have been used to better effect - after all, it is why Mudd was eventually rehabilitated. What is seriously jarring is the way black former slaves and black soldiers are shown. This is racial stereotyping of the worst kind, and this despite one of the black actors (Ernest Whitman) playing an important and almost heroic role. All in all I'd say this is not a bad film, but one that could clearly have been much better. It is obvious why it failed to become a classic.

Very entertaining John Ford flick about Dr. Samuel Mudd, who treated John Wilkes Booth for a broken leg after Booth had assassinated Lincoln. Mudd was convicted of being part of the conspiracy and was sentenced to life in prison at the Dry Tortugas, just off the coast of Florida. Warner Baxter is outstanding as Mudd. I've always felt Baxter was a competent performer, but never in the top tier of actors. His performance here has me rethinking that; maybe he just needed the right material. Fine support comes from John Carradine as a brutal soldier at the prison, and Harry Carey as the prison commandant who asks for Baxter's help during a yellow fever epidemic. Claude Gillingwater, as Baxter's father-in-law, gives a hilarious performance as a Southern Colonel. Little Rascal Stymie Beard has a cameo. At about 95 minutes long, there is never a dull moment. I highly recommend this one.

"The Prisoner of Shark Island" tells the story of Dr. Samuel Mudd, the man who set John Wilkes Booth's broken leg following his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The screenplay, as is to be expected from 1930's Hollywood (Hollywood period, I should say) is not wholly factual about Mudd's story. Also, unfortunately, it is quite racist, also to be expected from 1930's Hollywood. Still, the film features some strong performances and frequently very fine direction by the great John Ford. Warner Baxter plays Mudd and this is probably the finest performance he ever gave. His wife is played by Gloria (Old Rose) Stuart, and his daughter by a Shirley Temple lookalike named Joyce Kay, who doesn't age or grow one day in the whole length of the story. Ford found room for his favorites Harry Carey, Sr. and John Carradine in the portion of the film showing Mudd's imprisonment at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, near Key West, Florida. Carradine is especially memorable as a sadistic sergeant who makes the prisoner's life miserable, as is O.P. Heggie as the prison doctor. The prison is a fantastic set and cinematographer Bert Glennon does some very memorable, expressionistic work shooting it. Especially exciting is a tense attempted escape sequence. I also found fascinating the arrest and trial scenes of Mudd and the co-conspirators of Booth. The scenes of them shackled and hooded while being railroaded to justice by a panicked military are still shocking. All in all, this is one of Ford's best efforts from the 30's and it certainly made me want to know more about this interesting episode in history.

John Ford may have made several masterpieces in his long career but sometimes, particularly in the early days, by letting his heart rule his head he had a tendency to go off the rails. "The Prisoner of Shark Island" may well have been an honest and heartfelt attempt to right a judicial wrong; to show that Dr. Samuel Mudd was completely innocent of the charge of conspiring to assassinate the president after unwittingly treating Lincoln's assassin.

It's a very melodramatic picture that's not helped by Warner Baxter's over-the-top performance as Mudd. Baxter was a star of the silent screen, as well as an early Oscar winner, who hammed his way into the talkies. Indeed the acting throughout this melodrama is pretty woeful with the exceptions of those two great, and mostly underrated actors, John Carradine as a sadistic prison guard and Harry Carey as the warden. Of course, you could say no Ford film was completely negligible and there are a few scenes here worthy of him, (the execution of the conspirators is particularly fine), and there are a few moments that are pictorially interesting but for the most part this mostly forgotten Ford film deserves to remain forgotten.

I chanced upon this movie today on television and could not stop watching it until its end. I am glad I did not miss much. It is a fascinating story of the doctor who treated President Abraham Lincoln's assassinator, John Wilkes Booth's broken leg. I feel that Mudd certainly knew it was Wilkes who came to his house that early morning--how could he not---but he was a doctor and thought that treating his leg was justified. Apparently, the court did not and sentenced him to a life term. In any event, he proved invaluable when a yellow fever/yellow jack epidemic ran rampant in the prison he was confined in on the island called Dry Tortugas in the Gulf Of Mexico, now a national park and monument in Florida, 70 miles west of Key West. For his selflessness and bravery in aiding his fellow man and his doctoring skill, he was pardoned by the President and was able to live the rest of his life as a free man and, of course, rejoin his family. It is debatable whether the real Samuel Mudd knew he was aiding an abetting John Wilkes, I feel, he did, but, as said, was just doing his service as a physician. This is a excellent old fashioned, good movie to watch and you should not miss it.