utgard14
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.
bkoganbing
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.
lugonian
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. (***)
