THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND (1936)

The prisoner is Samuel Mudd, the southern doctor who provided medical treatment to John Wilkes Booth after the latter assassinated president Lincoln and briefly escaped capture. Then Booth was killed while resisting arrest and several men were charged with conspiracy, Mudd among them. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life at a penal colony in one of the Dry Tortuga Islands, off the southern tip of Florida.

The Prisoner of Shark Island was one of the earliest and best collaborations between Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck and John Ford. The film's major theme is the miscarriage of justice perpetrated by the government to appease the angry population. There was no evidence that Booth was involved in a conspiracy (although, contrary to his testimony, he had met Booth on a previous occasion, a fact elided by Ford). The influence of German Expressionism, as practiced by the great F.W. Murnau particularly, is amply evident in Bert Glennon's glistening, low-key photography. TPOSI is a series of stunning set pieces_the assassination, Booth's tense stopover at Mudd's house, the trial, the unforgettable execution scene, Mudd's brilliantly-edited failed escape, and his fight against an epidemic on the island_held together by Ford's direction, its visual texture, and a very effective performance by Warner Baxter as Mudd. The film presents a rather complex vision of our country during Reconstruction, particularly in the arc of the relationship between Mudd and one of his former slaves.