The Prisoner of Shark Island

For treating President Lincoln’s assassin, Dr. Samuel Mudd is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on Dry Tortugas island where he fights an outbreak of yellow fever.

The Prisoner of Shark Island is a highly fictionalized version of the events involving Dr. Samuel Mudd following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

The film takes a little while to warm up. It starts as a melodrama before finding its stride as an adventure film, then returns to melodrama in a somewhat underwhelming third act. Lead Warner Baxter is great as Mudd, as is Gloria Stuart as his wife, and John Carradine delivers a memorable villain, but they’re all undone by a script that’s so ridiculously one-sided, especially during the court proceedings, that it’s almost laughable.

While it’s certainly fine to paint things in black and white for an adventure film, it’s undermining for a melodrama. Hence, the film works well in adventure mode, when Mudd is trying to break out of prison, but less so later, when the soapy dramatics are a bit difficult to swallow. The character of Mudd has a lot of things happen to him but very little happens in him, which is ultimately what separates this film from the great innocent-man-in-prison movies, such as The Shawshank Redemption.

For his part, director John Ford delivers a well-shot picture, and shows great finesse handling both the dramatic and action aspects. It’s clear he has an affinity for the material, and treats his characters with respect, but ultimately fails to recognize the script’s condescending nature with regards to the audience.

As a curiosity for fans of John Ford and Civil War enthusiasts, The Prisoner of Shark Island might be worth a look, but others would do well to look elsewhere.