Whether Dr. Samuel Mudd was indeed part of the conspiratorial group around John Wilkes Booth is still open to speculation. The Ordeal Of Dr. Mudd presents him as a completely innocent party. I'm not sure that was the case.
But his heroism during the yellow fever epidemic that struck the Dry Tortugas is unquestioned. And also the fact that due process in the case of his trial was completely and totally trashed by the government still operating under wartime auspices.
The good doctor in this film is portrayed by Dennis Weaver and his loving and helpful wife is Susan Sullivan. Her role in his ordeal is vital, she kept his case before the public and before the politicians.
The story is simply that while fleeing from the assassination scene of Abraham Lincoln, the assassin John Wilkes Booth and one of the conspirators David Herold stopped at the Mudd house. Mudd had met Booth before and was evasive about certain answers. He claimed he did not know about the assassination, he was just setting the broken leg that Booth got jumping from Lincoln's box in Ford's Theater.
The villain of the piece is Edwin M. Stanton who is played here pretty accurately by Richard Dysart. Stanton in real life was every bit as ruthless as the man you see here. He also was one of the best lawyers in the country so his trashing of Mudd's due process is an even more severe black mark on his character than even the film shows. Lincoln made him Secretary of War in 1862 after the original Secretary Simon Cameron was caught lining his pockets with war contract rakeoffs. Stanton was also honest and he brought a marked degree of efficiency to the department and was invaluable in winning the Civil War.
To be fair the country was still operating in a wartime mode. Though Lee had surrendered, Joe Johnston's army was still in the field and so was Kirby Smith's west of the Mississippi. Jefferson Davis was at large as were many of the Confederate government cabinet and Congress. They did not know who or what was behind Booth. But had they simply arrested the other conspirators and allowed a real investigation to proceed, it's possible Mudd might never have been tried.
One glaring inaccuracy was the fact that the whole group of conspirators arrested including several who wound up with Mudd on the Dry Tortugas prison were all tried together. Mudd was not given an individual trial as is shown here. General Thomas Ewing did defend him and Arthur Hill does a good job in playing Ewing.
It's not an accurate film, but it's a good one and a reminder of what can happen when we take legal shortcuts and trash due process.
But his heroism during the yellow fever epidemic that struck the Dry Tortugas is unquestioned. And also the fact that due process in the case of his trial was completely and totally trashed by the government still operating under wartime auspices.
The good doctor in this film is portrayed by Dennis Weaver and his loving and helpful wife is Susan Sullivan. Her role in his ordeal is vital, she kept his case before the public and before the politicians.
The story is simply that while fleeing from the assassination scene of Abraham Lincoln, the assassin John Wilkes Booth and one of the conspirators David Herold stopped at the Mudd house. Mudd had met Booth before and was evasive about certain answers. He claimed he did not know about the assassination, he was just setting the broken leg that Booth got jumping from Lincoln's box in Ford's Theater.
The villain of the piece is Edwin M. Stanton who is played here pretty accurately by Richard Dysart. Stanton in real life was every bit as ruthless as the man you see here. He also was one of the best lawyers in the country so his trashing of Mudd's due process is an even more severe black mark on his character than even the film shows. Lincoln made him Secretary of War in 1862 after the original Secretary Simon Cameron was caught lining his pockets with war contract rakeoffs. Stanton was also honest and he brought a marked degree of efficiency to the department and was invaluable in winning the Civil War.
To be fair the country was still operating in a wartime mode. Though Lee had surrendered, Joe Johnston's army was still in the field and so was Kirby Smith's west of the Mississippi. Jefferson Davis was at large as were many of the Confederate government cabinet and Congress. They did not know who or what was behind Booth. But had they simply arrested the other conspirators and allowed a real investigation to proceed, it's possible Mudd might never have been tried.
One glaring inaccuracy was the fact that the whole group of conspirators arrested including several who wound up with Mudd on the Dry Tortugas prison were all tried together. Mudd was not given an individual trial as is shown here. General Thomas Ewing did defend him and Arthur Hill does a good job in playing Ewing.
It's not an accurate film, but it's a good one and a reminder of what can happen when we take legal shortcuts and trash due process.