Review of The Prisoner of Shark Island

"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.