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")

One of my first exposures to lead actor Warner Baxter was his Oscar-winning lead performance in 'In Old Arizona', despite not being amazed by the film he was one of the best things about it. John Carradine was always dependable and he did villain roles more than very well. My main interest point for 'The Prisoner of Shark Island' was director John Ford, here very early in his career and in a different genre to the Westerns that he is best known for.

'The Prisoner of Shark Island' was to me a very good and often excellent film. Sure, it is not true to the facts and it is definitely one of those films to be taken on its own terms and not be compared to history. As that is the best way to enjoy it or at least find some value in it, and to me it's actually a fairer way to judge any film based on history, books etc. On its own terms, there is a huge amount to like about 'The Prisoner of Shark Island' and it does a very good job with its interesting subject.

It is not perfect. Some of the fever outbreak parts slow the film down slightly and could have done with more tension and urgency.

But that is more of a nit-picky criticism. The elephant in the room is the racial stereotypes, have seen worse on film (i.e. the second half of 'The Birth of a Nation') but they here are not particularly tasteful, even when judging it as a product of the time, and how they are represented is very of the time and took me out of the film.

A shame, as so much works here. Baxter is very persuasive and gives one of his best performances, actually think he was better here than he was in 'In Old Arizona' with his performance here being more subtle, more consistent and at ease and his character (especially in the disease combat) easier to get behind. Carradine is also chillingly sadistic, few depictions of prison sargents at this point in film bone chilled this much. Gloria Stuart is movingly dedicated and the rest of the roles are well taken. Ford directs superbly and with tension and sensitivity, some of his best directing of his early career in one of his better early films.

Visually 'The Prisoner of Shark Island' has style and atmosphere, the prison being suitably foreboding, and it is tautly written, conveying the feelings felt when something is an injustice with intensity and honesty. The story is on the whole beautifully done, the fever outbreak depicts Mudd's dedication and heroism powerfully and everything with the escape is riveting and has one biting their nails. It is honest and moving too and it doesn't shy away from showing the grimness and difficulties of prison life, not idealising it or anything. The characters are fleshed out well.

Summarising, very good. 8/10

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.