Prisoner of Shark Island

John Ford
1936
You'd be hard pressed to hear me say anything bad about a John Ford picture, but I must admit I prefer another prison-break film the director would go on to make only a year (and a remarkably prolific four pictures) later: "The Hurricane" (1937). This one celebrates the life, and cruel imprisonment, of Dr. Samuel Mudd, the country sawbones jailed for fixing-up presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth's leg while he was on the run from a quickly tightening Yankee dragnet. The positive depiction of Southern slavery is an eyebrow-raiser that leads to a wild buddy-picture element when master and servant are hunkered down on the eponymous island. The special-effects depiction of the moat circling sharks are a hoot , and there's plenty of thrilling gunfire during the escape sequence. But Ford really hits his signature groove when malaria strikes: institutionalism fails where individualism succeeds, and former enemies become fast friends. Particularly bold/amusing is the inclusion of Mudd's father-in-law, a dyed-in-the-wool Confederate gentleman, blustering about the screen in a flurry of Rebel resentment.