The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936) watch online HD

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.

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")

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.

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.

**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".

THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND (20th Century-Fox, 1936), subtitled "Based on the Life of Samuel A. Mudd," directed by John Ford with screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, brings forth an obscure fact-based story about one country doctor whose name has become unjustly associated with conspiracy and treason. The preface that precedes the story gives the indication as to what the movie represents ... FORWARD: "The years have at last removed the shadow of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd of Maryland, and the nation which once condemned him now acknowledges the injustice it visited upon one of the most unselfish and courageous men in American history," George L. Radcliffe, United States Senator of Maryland. THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND recaptures the tragic event in American history forgotten through the passage of time. Aside from the fact that this could very well be a sequel to D.W. Griffith's biographical depiction of ABRAHAM LINCOLN (United Artists, 1930), with its concluding minutes depicting the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Walter Huston) seated along side his wife, Mary (Kay Hammond), by John Wilkes Booth (Ian Keith), while watching a play, "Our American Cousin," at Ford's Theater. What happens after-wards is never really disclosed, until the release of THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND six years later.

The Civil War has ended. Soldiers are seen parading home, accompanied by a marching band. Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.) comes out on his upstairs balcony, and not quite up to making a speech, asks the band to simply play "Dixie." The reconstruction of Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theater soon follows, with Lincoln, becoming the fatal victim of a bullet aimed at his head shot from the gun belonging to John Wilkes Booth (Francis J. McDonald). Injuring his leg after jumping onto the stage, Booth, accompanied by David E. Herold (Paul Fix), make their escape from the theater riding on horseback into the rainy night bound for Virginia. Unable to stand the pain of his leg much longer, the two fugitives from justice locate the home of a country doctor named Samuel Alexander Mudd (Warner Baxter), a happily married man with a beautiful wife, Peggy (Gloria Stuart), daughter, Martha (Joyce Kay), and his live-in father-in-law, the outspoken Colonel "Turkey" Dyer (Claude Gillingwater Sr.). Unaware of who this injured man is, true to his profession, Mudd attends to the fracture of this stranger's leg before moving on. The next morning, officers trace Booth's whereabouts towards Mudd's property, and when one of them finds a cut up boot with Booth's name nearly smeared off, Mudd, is taken away from his family, put to trial and charged with being part of the conspiracy to Lincoln's murder along with seven others, including the captured David Herold. (Wilkes fate is described through inter-titles as being killed while resisting arrest in Virginia, leaving eight strangely assorted people, guilty as well as the innocent, to face trial and an angry mob). In spite of his pleas, Mudd, is sentenced serve life of hard labor at Dry Tortugas, a prison located on the Gulf of Mexico along the Florida Keys surrounded by man-eating sharks, better known as "Shark Island." Once there, Mudd finds his name associated with conspiracy and treason, and must cope with Sergeant Rankin (John Carradine), an evil jailer and Lincoln sympathizer, who, once learning of Mudd's identity, pleasures himself in abusing the doctor with punches to his jaw and forceful shoves every chance he gets.

Other actors featured in this historical drama include Harry Carey as the Commandant; Francis Ford as Corporal O'Toole; Fred Kohler Jr. as Sergeant Cooper; along with O.P. Heggie (1879-1936) as the prison physician, Doctor McIntire, and Arthur Byron (1872-1943) as Secretary of War Erickson, each making their final screen appearances. Child actress Joyce Kay as Martha Mudd looks somewhat like a pint-size Shirley Temple, with curls and all. Extremely cute, her movie career became relatively short-lived.

Whether the story about inhuman injustice to an innocent doctor is historically accurate or not really doesn't matter, for that John Ford's direction recaptures the essence to the post Civil War era, along with brutal hardships of prison life depicted on screen as America's Devil's Island. Warner Baxter, gives one of his best dramatic performances of his career of the doctor condemned for following the ethics of his trade. The yellow fever sequence where Mudd, who has contacted yellow fever himself, shows his true dedication by working continuously in heat and rain, and making all efforts possible to save those hundreds of near death prisoners. Even more dedicated is his wife, Peggy, wonderfully played by Gloria Stuart, who, like her husband, stops at nothing either, in this case, trying to prove her husband's innocence in countless efforts in getting Sam a new trial. Right from the start, viewers are very much aware of Mudd's innocence, and as with many noted historical figures who have faced similar situations, he finds himself punished along with the guilty, with the indication that everything happens for a reason. One man's fate (Lincoln) becomes another man's (Mudd) destiny.

As with the biographical sense of Samuel A. Mudd, the film version to THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND is unjustly forgotten. Out of circulation on the commercial television markets since the late 1970s or beyond, THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND frequently aired on the American Movie Classics cable channel until 1993, and brought back one last time in August 1999 as part of AMC's annual film preservation and tribute to director John Ford. In later years THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND has played on the Fox Movie Channel as well as Turner Classic Movies where it premiered December 10, 2007. Of great interest to American history buffs, THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND, is the sort of Hollywood-style history lesson director John Ford does best. (***)

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.

In today's police jargon, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd would be referred to as a 'known associate' of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth. What or how much he knew of Booth and his schemes is still a matter of interpretation. It is certain on that night that Booth and accomplice David Herrold came knocking at his door to mend Booth's broken leg as a result of jumping off the balcony at Ford's Theater after shooting Abraham Lincoln, Mudd had no way of knowing what had just happened.

He was acquainted with Booth, it was no accident Booth stopped by that night, he knew where a doctor was. Mudd obfuscated the facts and that might just have earned him the trip to the Dry Tortugas.

The Prisoner of Shark Island overlooks these details. What it does not do is overlook the complete disregard for due process. Booth, his confederates in the assassination plot against top government officials, and those like Mudd who got drawn into the orbit of Booth were tried by drumhead military tribunals as is shown. It's also to be remembered that we were five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Other armies like Joe Johnston's, Richard Taylor's were still in the field. Confederate elected officials like Jefferson Davis were also at large. It was by no means an easy time for the justice system. Abraham Lincoln himself had suspended habeas corpus during the war and Dr. Mudd got caught in that order.

Warner Baxter and Gloria Stuart make a fine Dr. and Mrs. Mudd. Baxter articulates well the man caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare. Also note some fine performances that John Ford elicited from Claude Gillingwater as Baxter's unreconstructed rebel father-in-law, Harry Carey, Sr. as the prison commandant, and John Carradine as the stockade sergeant who has a burning hatred for Mudd the man accused of complicity in Lincoln's death. Such was the public opinion of most in the north.

The Prisoner of Shark Island also graphically illustrates Mudd's heroism in fighting the yellow fever epidemic in the Dry Tortugas prison. That part is completely factual and did win him a pardon in 1869 from outgoing President Andrew Johnson. That by the way is no accident. Johnson by that time had broken with the Radical Republicans and had escaped removal from office via impeachment by one vote in the Senate. The power to pardon however remains the sole property of the president and I'm sure that was Johnson's way of thumbing his nose at incoming President Ulysses S. Grant. There was no love lost between those two. We've recently seen an example of the abuse of the pardoning power with Bill Clinton's last days in the White House and I'm sure Scooter Libby will get a similar pardon from George W. Bush as he leaves office.

Dr. Mudd however really earned his and if you watch The Prisoner of Shark Island, I'm sure you'll agree.

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

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.

Most history buffs will like this though they may disagree with the portrayal of Dr. Mudd as being complete innocent after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Historians say Mudd knew John Wilkes Booth from often seeing the famous actor on the stage. However, it doubtful if he knew Booth had just assassinated Lincoln and was in flight from pursuing soldiers after breaking his leg while leaping from the Ford Theatre balcony onto the stage. It is now believed by many that Dr. Mudd allowed Booth to remain in his home overnight due to the strain put upon the recently set leg. The next morning Mudd went into town to get a newspaper and then discovered that Booth was wanted for Lincoln's murder. He was thus placed in the uncomfortable position of unintentionally harboring a murderer and if he had notified the police at that time he would never have been implicated in the tragedy. He unwisely chose not to do so and instead returned home to tell Booth to leave. The pusuing troops discovered that Booth had been at the Mudd home and the doctor was arrested and later tried. The movie does give a good presentation of the trial which was a travesty conducted by the military with orders from the authorities to convict and hang all those charged. Booth did luck out a bit by escaping the death penalty. Many legal experts now believe that the trial was illegal since the civilian courts were still functioning. But vengeance was to be extracted and what did befall Dr. Mudd could have been far worse.

I caught this one on American Movie Classics as part of its John Ford retrospective and found it to be an extremely well-done film that stand up very well for its 60-plus years. Lots of tension, and the action is extremely well-paced. Good acting all-around, especially from Claude Gillingwater as Mudd's feisty father-in-law.

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!

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.

This film drives home the point that in times of national hysteria, several of which the US has had in it's history, civil liberties are in peril and at times are just shoved aside. Dr. Samuel Mudd was a MAryland physician who treated the injured John Wilkes Booth and set his broken leg while he was in flight after having mortally wounded President Lincoln. Mudd did this in all innocence. He didn't even know who Booth was, nor did he even know that Lincoln had been shot. Nevertheless, he was arrested, tried before a military tribunal (sound familiar), convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. Mudd later had his sentence commuted because of his heroism in combating a yellow fever epidemic in the prison and, although this isn't shown in the film, he later received a full pardon.

The lesson of this film is especially relevant today when the US government wants to subject the enemy combatants held in the Iraq war to military tribunals. Let's hope that more attention is paid to due process in those trials, should they occur, than in the tribunals after the civil war. 8/10

Spoilers, somewhere, I'm sure. I'm not that familiar with Dr. Samuel Mudd's career. But it doesn't really matter. None of the movies of this period were concerned with historical accuracy. (See They Died With Their Boots On, for a good example.) This movie is worth watching because it is an excellent example of 1930s studio craftsmanship and because, however subdued, there are touches of Ford in it. (Mudd's father-in-law while tearing apart a trunk of his, throwing clothes right and left, comes across a bottle of booze and sets it carefully aside.) As far as the narrative goes, it's fairly interesting and exciting, although it isn't a landmark in the Ford ouvre, as "The Informer" was, for good or bad.

Samual Mudd is an innocent Southern country doctor. A couple of odd people show up in the middle of the night, one of them (Booth) with a broken leg, but Mudd doesn't know who they are and fixes his patient's foot before sending them on their way. That was a big mistake. Well, two big mistakes. Mudd fixed the guy's ankle. And Booth, a handoms devil, shot Lincoln and killed him, while Lincoln was, at that time, the greatest hope the South had. Lincoln had NEVER called the CSA "the enemy." On the contrary he sometimes referred to them as our "misguided friends." And his intention after the war was to welcome them back to the Union as if nothing had happened. What we got instead was Tennessee Johnson and reconstruction. Lincoln could also be thought of as the last truly literate president we had, and he nothing more than a rural rail-splitter self-educated. He would never be elected President today because some press operative would dig up the fact that he'd once suffered a severe depressive episode. That's what happened to Eagleton in 1972. Lincoln was also considered homely, which would have worked against him. And suppose he sounded like, say, Truman Capote. Doomed, I would guess.

Back to the film. Poor Doctor Mudd. ("My name is Mud" comes from his experiences. Roger Mudd is a descendant, as Gore Vidal is a descendant of Aaron Burr.) He winds up on trial. The most terrifying moment in the movie comes when the half dozen or so defendants are marched into the courtroom in chains and their hood are yanked off their heads. Everybody else is hanged, including a woman, whose skirts were taped discreetly around her calves so that they wouldn't flare out and reveal her bloomers when she dropped on the gallows..

Mudd, spared the death sentence, is sent to a hell hole in Florida, despised by all except his family. There is an epidemic of yellow fever and lots of people get sick and die, including the prison doctor. Who is left to save them? Well, Doctor Mudd is.

I can't help adding at this point that doctors in 1865 didn't carry the cachet they do today. Nobody knew what caused yellow fever. (Which brings up the question of what sort of "medicine" the government ship managed to get ashore during the storm. There was no medicine. Antiobiotics became available in the 1930s. Aspirin is an effective antipyretic but wasn't synthesized until after the turn of the century.) It was a common belief that diseases were caused by "bad air." This is exactly how "malaria" translates. If you needed a surgeon at the time, you usually went to a barber, who would do the necessary. Those spinning poles of red and white signified bandages and blood. The particular way in which Dr. Mudd solves the yellow fever problem is skipped over. It HAD to be skipped over, because he couldn't have done it.

But I recommend this movie for all its historical flaws, because it is a good tale in its own right and because it is a first-rate example of Ford's craftsmanship. Also, come to think of it, because a lot of people may not know about this episode in our history. And its minor allusions -- "Leave Behind All Hope Who Enter Here." It's a quote from a classic in Western literature. Can high school students identify it? If so, I give them a B plus.

Do catch it if you can. It's not a masterpiece of film-making and not a landmark in Ford's ouevre. But it's a good, well-told tale.

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.

Released Feb 12 1936, it was "The Prisoner of Shark Island" where audiences became aware of the screen presence of 30 year old John Carradine, here making his debut for director John Ford, who cast him in ten more features over the next 28 years, most memorably in "The Grapes of Wrath," like this film scripted by Nunnally Johnson. Starring as Dr. Samuel A. Mudd is Warner Baxter, a huge star in early talkies sadly forgotten today, but here perfectly cast in the role for which he may be best remembered, wearing his own beard and enduring many hardships that help endear him to the audience. Yes, it plays loose with the actual facts, but most biopics of that era did the same, particularly 1939's "Jesse James," again scripted by Johnson and featuring Carradine (as Bob Ford). In the kind of 'weeping heroine' role she'd hoped to abandon by leaving Universal (where she missed out on "The Invisible Ray," replaced by Frances Drake), the lovely Gloria Stuart winds up being cast in the same type of part, required only to 'cry harder' at the director's request (at least in her opening scenes, the sexy actress gets to let her hair down, quite fetching). With a fine cast including Francis McDonald (as John Wilkes Booth), Paul Fix, Ernest Whitman, Arthur Byron ("The Mummy"), O. P. Heggie ("Bride of Frankenstein"), Harry Carey, and the ubiquitous Francis Ford, it's still the newcomer John Carradine effortlessly stealing the show. At first Sergeant Rankin seems calm and rational, then meets Mudd for the first time, transforming into a snarling wolf, never letting up on the new prisoner, repeatedly taunting him by calling him 'Judas.' John Ford captures the Satanic glint in Carradine's eye, the leering sneer on his face, yet doesn't allow the character to descend into clichéd madness, a constant threat to Mudd's attempts at liberty. And in the final scene, Rankin is once more calm and rational, a real human being again, quite an achievement for any actor. More than anything, it's the relish with which Carradine performs that made him stand out, carving a lengthy and distinguished career out of playing mostly villains, despite the fact that in the final analysis Sergeant Rankin was no evil bad guy, only fanatical.

Abraham Lincoln's assassination is the basis of this interesting film that tries to do justice to a Southern doctor that is accused of abetting the man that killed the President. The story begins in 1865 as the Civil War ended. Abraham Lincoln, one of the most beloved, and hated men in the new republic, appears in the White House balcony to address the troops. He makes a surprise announcement when he asks the band to play "Dixie", something that was meant to be a conciliatory gesture. Lincoln's murder by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford theater, brings Dr. Samuel A. Mudd into the investigation.

Dr. Mudd, a Southern doctor, happens to be at home when the fleeing assassin needs the services of a physician to treat his broken leg, the result of having jumped to the stage after killing Mr. Lincoln. The doctor and his wife are dumbfounded when the companion of Booth gives him a fifty dollar bill for a two dollars job. They are quite taken aback, but it is too late to return the money since the men had gone away. The boot that was ripped from Booth surfaces during an investigation being conducted that follows the trail followed Wilkes took to escape the police.

Because of the circumstantial evidence, Dr. Mudd is taken prisoner. The trial that ensues condemns the doctor to life in prison, something the real conspirators did not get. His sentence is to be served in the prison at Fort Jefferson, in the Dry Tortugas, off the Florida coast. The jailed Dr. Mudd finds an avowed enemy in the cruel Sgt. Rankin, who vows to make his life miserable. The onset of yellow fever changes things for Dr. Mudd. He is called to assist the sick men. The story ends in a good note as Washington pardons him for his role in containing the outbreak.

John Ford joined forces with Nunnally Johnson in a film that, as seen today, still holds the viewer's attention after more than seventy years of having been made. Mr. Ford, perhaps the best director in the history of American cinema, shows why he was a man that understood what the movie going audiences wanted. He treated the material with reverence, as he focuses his attention on a man that for all accounts had nothing to do with the assassination of a US president.

Warner Baxter, playing Dr. Mudd, brought a raw intensity to the way his character needed to show. Mr. Baxter had a great role in the falsely accused doctor, as he showed in the film. Gloria Stewart is seen as Mrs. Mudd, a valiant woman who believed in her man's innocence and stuck to her principles. John Carradine made an excellent Sgt. Rankin. Ernest Whitman, Francis McDonald, Fred Kohler, and O.P. Heggie, are featured in the large cast.

"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.

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.

Movie audiences who think of director Ford as mostly a western filmmaker may enjoy checking out this solid, mid-career film set in the post-Civil War era. Based on fact (but fact that is hotly disputed by two camps), it depicts the tribulations of Dr. Samuel Mudd, a country doctor who one night, according to this film, set the broken leg of a stranger and was later sentenced to prison for it. The stranger turned out to be none other than John Wilkes Booth, fresh from assassinating President Abraham Lincoln. Baxter plays the doctor who finds himself caught up in a maelstrom of outrage and can't get a fair trial. He is sent to Dry Tortugas, a sweltering, severely-run island prison which is surrounded by a shark-filled moat. A former slave of his (Whitman) attempts to aid him in escape, but it's hardly an easy accomplishment. Meanwhile, Baxter's devoted wife Stuart examines every possible avenue of retrieving her husband and seeing him pardoned or at least retried. Baxter suffers mightily, especially from Carradine, a zealously antagonistic prison sergeant, until he has a chance to redeem himself during a horrific Yellow Fever epidemic. Baxter, an actor few people would be able to note as a Best Actor Oscar winner (for "In Old Arizona") does a commendable job and a reasonably understated one considering the period. He has to carry much of the film on his shoulders and is solid throughout. Stuart hasn't got a great deal to do, but she is strong as well and is benefited by several affectionate close-ups. (She claims to have been given virtually no direction by Ford, but comes across professionally and emotionally appropriate nonetheless.) Her Confederate father is played by Gillingwater in an interesting, but entirely over the top performance. Gillingwater's reaction to the presence of Union soldiers in his home is preposterously handled. Rounding out the family (in a detail that has no relation to the reality of the Mudd's family tree) is perky and adorable little daughter Kay (whose career, strangely, didn't go anywhere much after this.) Carradine is memorably menacing and already possesses his distinctive growl of a voice at the time of filming. Fix, who went on to a memorable career as a character actor, appears as an accomplice to Wilkes Booth (adequately played by McDonald.) Though the story of Dr. Mudd, as presented here and in some memorable television productions, is a stirring and dramatic one, there are large factions of people who believe that he was not quite the innocent lamb he is made out to be in this film. Reportedly he at least met with Wilkes Booth (possibly even plotted a kidnap attempt) and may have been part of the plan all along as he despised Lincoln. However, as Baxter even points out in this movie, a broken leg couldn't have been a planned part of any scheme! The film is best enjoyed as fiction, in the same vein as "The Count of Monte Cristo" or even the more recent "An Innocent Man", rather than a piece of history. With some nice performances, several striking visuals and a rip-snorting storm sequence, it's easy to watch and enjoy.

One of the most fascinating aspects of John Ford's 1936 film is the Black participation

Elements of stoicism

Real moments of something that looks like intimacy between Buck and Dr. Mudd

Buck not simply functioning as the classic enabler

The joyful fecundity that looks forward to Donovan's Reef: "Rosabell did it again!"

A racial cliché conflated with paganistic humanism. Which looks forward to The Quiet Man

Moments where actual Black anger and rage can be felt: "Keep moving, White man" and the sight of all of those armed and rebellious Black soldiers barricaded

Which somehow seems like a moment from the period of Black Power - teleology

And somehow "Shoot, nigra!" which is a clear parallel feels like (and is) the same old racism...shocking that this was still acceptable in 1936

Mudd is a man of the Confederacy, and the film takes place right after the Civil War

Thus the racial tension of this film feels appropriate. Raw, sometimes painful to watch, but appropriate

At no point does Ford show his hand (the way he does in Fort Apache or The Searchers), and so we are left wondering how much is depiction and how much is a statement of Ford's own racial attitudes. This is one of the things that makes the film such a complex text

Recent "period" films which show blacks coming and going wherever and whenever they please display the most pernicious Political correctness. They dispense with a whole uncomfortable element of the society of the time which is being represented, an element which a conservative like Ford has no problem looking squarely in the face.

Expressionism

much talk about the influence of Murnau and Sunrise

But expressionism is not merely a series of positions and a stylish use of fog and shadow.

Expressionism - especially German Expressionism of the period of Caligari and Nosferatu is connected to externalization of psychological states: shock, horror...Murnau found a deep lyricism and romanticism in his development of the expressionist vocabulary.

What Ford took from this was ultimately external. The purification of his style leads him to reduce such elements to the point where in The Searchers they are not consistent parts of the mise en scene but rather colors used for underscoring, heightening the deceptively "natural" look of the film.

In Prisoner of Shark Island we are still in a Murnau-ish looking world. But Ford's approach to character is radically different from that which is found in Murnau. The discipline found in obeying some idea of a higher authority is always behind the action of Ford heroes. The Hippocratic Oath functions here much as the Navy or Cavalry will function in mature - period Ford. There is ambiguity in Ford characters and their will is tested. But ultimately they always choose the path that has been assigned to them. The expressionistic anti-hero, racked by doubts and pulled ever which way by his appetites and his desires is unknown to Ford. The shadowy, foggy world of German Expressionism is ultimately not appropriate to Ford's stoicism.

Part of this look is Ford and part of it is a mid-Thirties style. Even Fritz Lang's films lost a lot of their expressionist look as '30's moved to '40's moved to '50's

As Eyman says on the commentary track, this is not "A John Ford Film"

Carradine

The only performance in this film that could come right out of Nosferatu - but equally right out of a late-19th century potboiler - is that of John Carradine as the sadistic jailer. A deliriously stylized performance, and one which influences our sense of the "tone" of the film. He sides with the artificial element of the mise - en - scene, calling the ultimate agenda of the film into question

Victor Hugo, hélas

So said Andre Gide when asked who was the greatest French poet...

It's somewhat the same feeling I have when I think of my pantheon of American filmmakers.

There's a whole series of filmmakers whose aesthetic and sensibility is so much closer to mine: Fuller, Welles, Ray and such émigrés as Sirk, Ulmer, Lang...

But the fascination with Ford has much to do with his stature. His signature is writ so large, and he's able to include so many of our contradictions. Now, well maybe not more than ever, but at least as much as ever, we need Ford. Within the mainstream of American thinking (there is very, very little "counter-cultural" about Ford) he provides a clear-headed critique and a vision full of ambiguity. This becomes obvious only in a few films: They Were Expendable, Fort Apache, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.

But I propose that The Prisoner of Shark Island is a worthy and important addition to this list.

And as I said before, this is not an Auteurist Masterpiece

At this point, Auteurism is a fact of life. It shouldn't be necessary (I hope it isn't) to argue that a director has a signature. Of course, what makes this difficult, in terms of the establishment of hierarchy, is the fact that film is such a deeply collaborative art. That the director's vision is the key and ultimate vision of a film seems debatable, on a case-by-case basis.

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?)

Falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND tries to maintain his dignity under vile circumstances.

This is director John Ford's exciting and passionate tale of real-life Dr. Samuel Mudd, who, having set John Wilkes Booth's broken leg after Lincoln's assassination, was swept up in the hysteria following the President's death. Convicted of conspiracy, Dr. Mudd was sentenced to incarceration at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas south of Florida, a hellish, mosquito-infested prison where savage brutality was commonplace and escape attempts futile.

In one of his best roles, Warner Baxter gives a searing portrait as Dr. Mudd. While some of the plot situations are purely fanciful, Baxter never lets the viewer forget that this is the story of a real man unfolding before us. Whether vociferously proclaiming his innocence, vainly struggling to escape his hideous confinement or valiantly attempting to fight back an onslaught of yellow fever, Baxter is never anything less than completely compelling.

Equally fascinating is John Carradine as the sadistic prison sergeant who torments Mudd; with his gimlet eye and sadistic grin, Carradine sets the seal on the sinister persona he'd project for the rest of his career. The beloved silent Western cowboy star Harry Carey plays the warden of Fort Jefferson with realism & good grace. Gloria Stuart as Mudd's valiant wife and Claude Gillingwater as his fierce old father-in-law give firm support. Vivid character portrayals are given by O. P. Heggie as the prison's doomed doctor, Francis McDonald as Booth and Paul Fix as his accomplice David Herold. A cast standout is Ernest Whitman as Buck, Mudd's faithful field hand who attempts to rescue him.

Movie mavens should recognize Jan Duggan & Dick Elliott as the performers on stage at Ford's Theatre and Our Gang's Matthew ‘Stymie' Beard as the lad come to fetch the Doctor to a birthing - all uncredited.

Director Ford's love of American history is plainly manifest in this frequently factual film. His reconstructions of the death of Lincoln (movingly played by Frank McGlynn Sr.) and the execution of the conspirators all have the look of antique illustrations. The entire film has excellent production values, with the Fort Jefferson sets being particularly well conceived.

*****************

The film depicts three of Booth's conspirators being executed for the murder. Actually, four individuals were hung on 7 July 1865: Lewis Powell (he stabbed & wounded an invalided Secretary of State Seward), George A. Atzerodt (he was assigned to murder Vice President Johnson), David E. Herold (who had accompanied Booth on his flight from Washington) and Mrs. Mary Surratt (she owned the boarding house where Booth met with his gang and may have been completely innocent). Two other men, along with Dr. Mudd, were given life sentences. The stagehand who held Booth's horse at the back of the theatre was given eight years.

And what of the other three people in the presidential box at Ford's Theatre that fateful night? Already emotionally fragile, Mrs. Mary Lincoln would eventually go mad and have to be placed in an asylum by her son. The Lincolns' guests were Miss Clara Harris and her fiancé Major Henry R. Rathbone. They would marry, but Henry would also go insane and murder Clara in a fit of rage.

Dr. Mudd's health was permanently affected by his time at Fort Jefferson, and, although released, he would die in 1883, the year of his 50th birthday.