The Prisoner of Shark Island
The Prisoner of Shark Island is a 1936 American drama film that presents a highly whitewashed and fictionalized life of Maryland physician Samuel Mudd, who treated the injured presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth and later spent time in prison after his unanimous conviction for being one of Booth's accomplices. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, was directed by John Ford and starred Warner Baxter and Gloria Stuart.
Plot
A few hours after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.), Dr. Samuel Mudd (Warner Baxter) gives treatment to a man with a broken leg who shows up at his door. In the movie, Mudd does not know that the president has been assassinated, and also does not know the man he is treating is Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. But the historical record shows that Mudd had met Booth at least twice before and Booth had actually stayed at Mudd's Maryland farmhouse a few months before the assassination. In the movie, Mudd splints the broken leg and receives a banknote as payment, only later realizing that it is a $50 bill.
Awards
More details
| author | Nunnally Johnson |
|---|---|
| award | National Board of Review: Top Ten Films |
| contentLocation | Florida |
| director | John Ford |
| editor | Jack Murray |
| genre | crime drama historical |
| keywords | abraham lincoln arrest assassination of president confine devil\'s island dr. samuel mudd dry tortugas escape plan frank mcglynn sr. hatred john wilkes booth military tribunal president president of the united states prison guard safe house samuel mudd suffer wait yellow fever |
| musicBy | Reginald Hazeltine Bassett |
| producer | Darryl F. Zanuck |
| publisher | Twentieth Century Fox |
| theme | docudrama prison war |