The Prisoner of Shark Island

The Prisoner of Shark Island
film poster by Joseph A. Maturo
Directed byJohn Ford
Written byNunnally Johnson
Produced byNunnally Johnson
Darryl F. Zanuck
StarringWarner Baxter
Gloria Stuart
Frank McGlynn
Francis McDonald
CinematographyBert Glennon
Edited byJack Murray
Music byR.H. Bassett
Hugo Friedhofer
Production
company
Twentieth Century Fox
Distributed byTwentieth Century Fox
Release date
  • February 28, 1936 (1936-02-28)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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.

The film portrays Dr. Mudd as an innocent man, while the historical record shows Mudd sheltered Booth and another conspirator in the Lincoln Assassination, David Herold, and assisted them in their flight from Washington after learning Booth had assassinated President Lincoln, making Mudd an accomplice after the fact. Unlike the film narrative, in real life Dr. Mudd had been part of an earlier conspiracy to kidnap President Lincoln and exchange him for Confederate prisoners, which constitutes treason.

Twentieth Century Pictures, before it merged with Fox, purchased the rights to the book The Life of Dr. Mudd by Nettie Mudd Monroe, the doctor's daughter. The film's credits, however, make no reference to Monroe or her book. Modern sources state that Darryl F. Zanuck, Twentieth Century's vice-president in charge of production, got the idea to make the film after he read an article in Time magazine about the prison camp for political prisoners on the Dry Tortugas island.[1]

  1. ^ "Home".