Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

kevin olzak 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.

waynemillan 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?)

bluesfan1735 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.

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. (***)