Purely Joyful Movie!

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Released Feb 12 1936, it was "The Prisoner of Shark Island" where audiences became aware of the screen presence of 30 year old John Carradine, here making his debut for director John Ford, who cast him in ten more features over the next 28 years, most memorably in "The Grapes of Wrath," like this film scripted by Nunnally Johnson. Starring as Dr. Samuel A. Mudd is Warner Baxter, a huge star in early talkies sadly forgotten today, but here perfectly cast in the role for which he may be best remembered, wearing his own beard and enduring many hardships that help endear him to the audience. Yes, it plays loose with the actual facts, but most biopics of that era did the same, particularly 1939's "Jesse James," again scripted by Johnson and featuring Carradine (as Bob Ford). In the kind of 'weeping heroine' role she'd hoped to abandon by leaving Universal (where she missed out on "The Invisible Ray," replaced by Frances Drake), the lovely Gloria Stuart winds up being cast in the same type of part, required only to 'cry harder' at the director's request (at least in her opening scenes, the sexy actress gets to let her hair down, quite fetching). With a fine cast including Francis McDonald (as John Wilkes Booth), Paul Fix, Ernest Whitman, Arthur Byron ("The Mummy"), O. P. Heggie ("Bride of Frankenstein"), Harry Carey, and the ubiquitous Francis Ford, it's still the newcomer John Carradine effortlessly stealing the show. At first Sergeant Rankin seems calm and rational, then meets Mudd for the first time, transforming into a snarling wolf, never letting up on the new prisoner, repeatedly taunting him by calling him 'Judas.' John Ford captures the Satanic glint in Carradine's eye, the leering sneer on his face, yet doesn't allow the character to descend into clichéd madness, a constant threat to Mudd's attempts at liberty. And in the final scene, Rankin is once more calm and rational, a real human being again, quite an achievement for any actor. More than anything, it's the relish with which Carradine performs that made him stand out, carving a lengthy and distinguished career out of playing mostly villains, despite the fact that in the final analysis Sergeant Rankin was no evil bad guy, only fanatical.

One of the most fascinating aspects of John Ford's 1936 film is the Black participationElements of stoicismReal moments of something that looks like intimacy between Buck and Dr. MuddBuck not simply functioning as the classic enablerThe joyful fecundity that looks forward to Donovan's Reef: "Rosabell did it again!"A racial cliché conflated with paganistic humanism. Which looks forward to The Quiet ManMoments where actual Black anger and rage can be felt: "Keep moving, White man" and the sight of all of those armed and rebellious Black soldiers barricadedWhich somehow seems like a moment from the period of Black Power - teleologyAnd somehow "Shoot, nigra!" which is a clear parallel feels like (and is) the same old racism...shocking that this was still acceptable in 1936Mudd is a man of the Confederacy, and the film takes place right after the Civil WarThus the racial tension of this film feels appropriate. Raw, sometimes painful to watch, but appropriateAt no point does Ford show his hand (the way he does in Fort Apache or The Searchers), and so we are left wondering how much is depiction and how much is a statement of Ford's own racial attitudes. This is one of the things that makes the film such a complex textRecent "period" films which show blacks coming and going wherever and whenever they please display the most pernicious Political correctness. They dispense with a whole uncomfortable element of the society of the time which is being represented, an element which a conservative like Ford has no problem looking squarely in the face.Expressionismmuch talk about the influence of Murnau and SunriseBut expressionism is not merely a series of positions and a stylish use of fog and shadow.Expressionism - especially German Expressionism of the period of Caligari and Nosferatu is connected to externalization of psychological states: shock, horror...Murnau found a deep lyricism and romanticism in his development of the expressionist vocabulary. What Ford took from this was ultimately external. The purification of his style leads him to reduce such elements to the point where in The Searchers they are not consistent parts of the mise en scene but rather colors used for underscoring, heightening the deceptively "natural" look of the film.In Prisoner of Shark Island we are still in a Murnau-ish looking world. But Ford's approach to character is radically different from that which is found in Murnau. The discipline found in obeying some idea of a higher authority is always behind the action of Ford heroes. The Hippocratic Oath functions here much as the Navy or Cavalry will function in mature - period Ford. There is ambiguity in Ford characters and their will is tested. But ultimately they always choose the path that has been assigned to them. The expressionistic anti-hero, racked by doubts and pulled ever which way by his appetites and his desires is unknown to Ford. The shadowy, foggy world of German Expressionism is ultimately not appropriate to Ford's stoicism.Part of this look is Ford and part of it is a mid-Thirties style. Even Fritz Lang's films lost a lot of their expressionist look as '30's moved to '40's moved to '50'sAs Eyman says on the commentary track, this is not "A John Ford Film" CarradineThe only performance in this film that could come right out of Nosferatu - but equally right out of a late-19th century potboiler - is that of John Carradine as the sadistic jailer. A deliriously stylized performance, and one which influences our sense of the "tone" of the film. He sides with the artificial element of the mise - en - scene, calling the ultimate agenda of the film into questionVictor Hugo, hélas So said Andre Gide when asked who was the greatest French poet...It's somewhat the same feeling I have when I think of my pantheon of American filmmakers.There's a whole series of filmmakers whose aesthetic and sensibility is so much closer to mine: Fuller, Welles, Ray and such émigrés as Sirk, Ulmer, Lang...But the fascination with Ford has much to do with his stature. His signature is writ so large, and he's able to include so many of our contradictions. Now, well maybe not more than ever, but at least as much as ever, we need Ford. Within the mainstream of American thinking (there is very, very little "counter-cultural" about Ford) he provides a clear-headed critique and a vision full of ambiguity. This becomes obvious only in a few films: They Were Expendable, Fort Apache, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.But I propose that The Prisoner of Shark Island is a worthy and important addition to this list.And as I said before, this is not an Auteurist MasterpieceAt this point, Auteurism is a fact of life. It shouldn't be necessary (I hope it isn't) to argue that a director has a signature. Of course, what makes this difficult, in terms of the establishment of hierarchy, is the fact that film is such a deeply collaborative art. That the director's vision is the key and ultimate vision of a film seems debatable, on a case-by-case basis.

This moving story does have some actuality. One of the interesting details is some legal argument about the place of residence of doctor Mudd. The lawyers argue that if he could be transported from Shark Island, the prison on Dry Tortugas, to a place where normal US legislation is applied, then a writ of habeas corpus could be served and he would go free. Therefore Mudd's supporters launch a failed rescue attempt to that effect. On Dry Tortugas, an island off the Floridy Keys, the prisoner has no chance to appeal for territorial reasons. In my understanding (I am no lawyer, however) this pretty much reflects the Guantanamo situation of today and one just hopes that no doctor Mudds are holed up there and that all open legal questions in that context can be resolved satisfactorily.I am always amazed how outspoken movies of the great Hollywood Studios could be on political issues or social or legal injustice. This movie is an important product of this tradition. The Prisoner of Shark Island is almost an Anti Yankee-movie. The soldiers are uncouth and brutal, the carpet baggers sleazy double talkers. The authorities panic after President Lincoln's assassination. Somebody, anybody has to hang for the crime. And fast. One of the memorable moments of the movie has one of the military judges in charge say something like „we owe it to the people", clearly meaning the enraged mob in the square below. Thinking of who else claimed to fulfill the wishes of „the people" around 1936 this could also be an appeal to legal authorities to serve the written law and not give in to those who shout the loudest.Director John Ford certainly knew how to stir up emotions, some of the pathos might be regarded as slightly overwrought by contemporary viewers. However, The Prisoner of Shark Island certainly is one of the most beautiful and memorable movies of his.

THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND (20th Century-Fox, 1936), subtitled "Based on the Life of Samuel A. Mudd," directed by John Ford with screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, brings forth an obscure fact-based story about one country doctor whose name has become unjustly associated with conspiracy and treason. The preface that precedes the story gives the indication as to what the movie represents ... FORWARD: "The years have at last removed the shadow of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd of Maryland, and the nation which once condemned him now acknowledges the injustice it visited upon one of the most unselfish and courageous men in American history," George L. Radcliffe, United States Senator of Maryland. THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND recaptures the tragic event in American history forgotten through the passage of time. Aside from the fact that this could very well be a sequel to D.W. Griffith's biographical depiction of ABRAHAM LINCOLN (United Artists, 1930), with its concluding minutes depicting the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Walter Huston) seated along side his wife, Mary (Kay Hammond), by John Wilkes Booth (Ian Keith), while watching a play, "Our American Cousin," at Ford's Theater. What happens after-wards is never really disclosed, until the release of THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND six years later. The Civil War has ended. Soldiers are seen parading home, accompanied by a marching band. Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.) comes out on his upstairs balcony, and not quite up to making a speech, asks the band to simply play "Dixie." The reconstruction of Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theater soon follows, with Lincoln, becoming the fatal victim of a bullet aimed at his head shot from the gun belonging to John Wilkes Booth (Francis J. McDonald). Injuring his leg after jumping onto the stage, Booth, accompanied by David E. Herold (Paul Fix), make their escape from the theater riding on horseback into the rainy night bound for Virginia. Unable to stand the pain of his leg much longer, the two fugitives from justice locate the home of a country doctor named Samuel Alexander Mudd (Warner Baxter), a happily married man with a beautiful wife, Peggy (Gloria Stuart), daughter, Martha (Joyce Kay), and his live-in father-in-law, the outspoken Colonel "Turkey" Dyer (Claude Gillingwater Sr.). Unaware of who this injured man is, true to his profession, Mudd attends to the fracture of this stranger's leg before moving on. The next morning, officers trace Booth's whereabouts towards Mudd's property, and when one of them finds a cut up boot with Booth's name nearly smeared off, Mudd, is taken away from his family, put to trial and charged with being part of the conspiracy to Lincoln's murder along with seven others, including the captured David Herold. (Wilkes fate is described through inter-titles as being killed while resisting arrest in Virginia, leaving eight strangely assorted people, guilty as well as the innocent, to face trial and an angry mob). In spite of his pleas, Mudd, is sentenced serve life of hard labor at Dry Tortugas, a prison located on the Gulf of Mexico along the Florida Keys surrounded by man-eating sharks, better known as "Shark Island." Once there, Mudd finds his name associated with conspiracy and treason, and must cope with Sergeant Rankin (John Carradine), an evil jailer and Lincoln sympathizer, who, once learning of Mudd's identity, pleasures himself in abusing the doctor with punches to his jaw and forceful shoves every chance he gets.Other actors featured in this historical drama include Harry Carey as the Commandant; Francis Ford as Corporal O'Toole; Fred Kohler Jr. as Sergeant Cooper; along with O.P. Heggie (1879-1936) as the prison physician, Doctor McIntire, and Arthur Byron (1872-1943) as Secretary of War Erickson, each making their final screen appearances. Child actress Joyce Kay as Martha Mudd looks somewhat like a pint-size Shirley Temple, with curls and all. Extremely cute, her movie career became relatively short-lived.Whether the story about inhuman injustice to an innocent doctor is historically accurate or not really doesn't matter, for that John Ford's direction recaptures the essence to the post Civil War era, along with brutal hardships of prison life depicted on screen as America's Devil's Island. Warner Baxter, gives one of his best dramatic performances of his career of the doctor condemned for following the ethics of his trade. The yellow fever sequence where Mudd, who has contacted yellow fever himself, shows his true dedication by working continuously in heat and rain, and making all efforts possible to save those hundreds of near death prisoners. Even more dedicated is his wife, Peggy, wonderfully played by Gloria Stuart, who, like her husband, stops at nothing either, in this case, trying to prove her husband's innocence in countless efforts in getting Sam a new trial. Right from the start, viewers are very much aware of Mudd's innocence, and as with many noted historical figures who have faced similar situations, he finds himself punished along with the guilty, with the indication that everything happens for a reason. One man's fate (Lincoln) becomes another man's (Mudd) destiny.As with the biographical sense of Samuel A. Mudd, the film version to THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND is unjustly forgotten. Out of circulation on the commercial television markets since the late 1970s or beyond, THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND frequently aired on the American Movie Classics cable channel until 1993, and brought back one last time in August 1999 as part of AMC's annual film preservation and tribute to director John Ford. In later years THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND has played on the Fox Movie Channel as well as Turner Classic Movies where it premiered December 10, 2007. Of great interest to American history buffs, THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND, is the sort of Hollywood-style history lesson director John Ford does best. (***)