The Prisoner of Shark Island **** (1936, Warner Baxter, Gloria Stuart, Joyce Kay, Claude Gillingwater, Douglas Wood, Harry Carey, Paul Fix, John Carradine) – Classic Movie Review 4679

Director John Ford’s 1936 historical drama makes a useful change of pace for the Westerns director, as he deals with his humanitarian tale of the unfair sentencing to life imprisonment in jail of Doctor Samuel Alexander Mudd (Warner Baxter), who unwittingly treated the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth (Francis McDonald), the killer of President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr).

Mudd, who has no idea Lincoln is dead, treats a wounded man who shows up at his house, and cannot know that he is treating the President’s assassin. An army posse finds evidence Booth has been to Mudd’s house. Though Mudd claims to have acted according the ethics of his profession, he is condemned as part of a supposed conspiracy, sent for life to the infamous pestilence-ridden jail on the island Dry Tortugas, and is only redeemed through his heroic medical actions battling a yellow fever epidemic in the prison.

This fascinating tale makes a riveting film, perfectly played by Baxter and the rest of the cast. It is one of Ford’s finest and least-known films, with an outstanding screenplay by Nunnally Johnson and equally remarkable work on camera by Bert Glennon in striking black and white images. Ford keeps it taut, tense and fast moving, as well as brief – just 95 minutes.

Also in the cast are Gloria Stuart as Mrs Peggy Mudd, Joyce Kay as Martha Mudd, Claude Gillingwater as Mudd’s father-in-law Colonel Jeremiah Milford Dyer, Douglas Wood, Harry Carey Sr, Paul Fix, John Carradine, Ernest Whitman, Arthur Byron, Francis Ford, O P Heggie, John McGuire, Paul McVey, Ernest Whitman, Frank Shannon, Arthur Loft, Maurice Murphy, Paul Stanton, Jack Pennick, James Marcus, Jan Duggan, Fred Kohler Jr and Lloyd Whitlock.

The origin of the phrase ‘his name is mud’ is thus explained. What isn’t explained is the name Shark Island, which is never used in the movie after the credits, and does not exist in the Western Hemisphere.

Twentieth Century Pictures bought the rights to the book The Life of Dr Mudd by Nettie Mudd Monroe, the doctor’s daughter, who is not credited. Producer Darryl Zanuck was inspired to make the film after reading an article in Time magazine about the Dry Tortugas island prison camp for political prisoners.

Remakes: Hellgate, The Ordeal of Dr Mudd.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4679

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