The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd

Whether Dr. Samuel Mudd was indeed part of the conspiratorial group around John Wilkes Booth is still open to speculation. The Ordeal Of Dr. Mudd presents him as a completely innocent party. I'm not sure that was the case.

But his heroism during the yellow fever epidemic that struck the Dry Tortugas is unquestioned. And also the fact that due process in the case of his trial was completely and totally trashed by the government still operating under wartime auspices.

The good doctor in this film is portrayed by Dennis Weaver and his loving and helpful wife is Susan Sullivan. Her role in his ordeal is vital, she kept his case before the public and before the politicians.

The story is simply that while fleeing from the assassination scene of Abraham Lincoln, the assassin John Wilkes Booth and one of the conspirators David Herold stopped at the Mudd house. Mudd had met Booth before and was evasive about certain answers. He claimed he did not know about the assassination, he was just setting the broken leg that Booth got jumping from Lincoln's box in Ford's Theater.

The villain of the piece is Edwin M. Stanton who is played here pretty accurately by Richard Dysart. Stanton in real life was every bit as ruthless as the man you see here. He also was one of the best lawyers in the country so his trashing of Mudd's due process is an even more severe black mark on his character than even the film shows. Lincoln made him Secretary of War in 1862 after the original Secretary Simon Cameron was caught lining his pockets with war contract rakeoffs. Stanton was also honest and he brought a marked degree of efficiency to the department and was invaluable in winning the Civil War.

To be fair the country was still operating in a wartime mode. Though Lee had surrendered, Joe Johnston's army was still in the field and so was Kirby Smith's west of the Mississippi. Jefferson Davis was at large as were many of the Confederate government cabinet and Congress. They did not know who or what was behind Booth. But had they simply arrested the other conspirators and allowed a real investigation to proceed, it's possible Mudd might never have been tried.

One glaring inaccuracy was the fact that the whole group of conspirators arrested including several who wound up with Mudd on the Dry Tortugas prison were all tried together. Mudd was not given an individual trial as is shown here. General Thomas Ewing did defend him and Arthur Hill does a good job in playing Ewing.

It's not an accurate film, but it's a good one and a reminder of what can happen when we take legal shortcuts and trash due process.

This agreeable TV movie concerns on Samuel Mudd and wife well interpreted by Dennis Weaver and Susan Sullivan . Mudd is a Mariland physician implicated for aiding and conspiring with John Wilkes Booth , then he is accused assassination Abraham Lincoln and prisoned in Fort Jefferson placed 70 miles West of Key West, Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. The story is under point of view that Samuel Mudd was innocent of any conspiracy. Evocative cinematography by Figueroa and atmospheric musical score by Gerald Fried, Stanley Kubrik's usual composer . Rightly produced and well written by Michael Berk and Douglas Schwartz , future creators of ¨Baywatch¨ series. The picture is professionally directed by Paul Wendkos, a craftsman who directed several TV episodes and movies as ¨Untouchables, The Rifleman, Bif Valley and Invaders¨ and several others. It's a remake from classic film titled ¨The prisoner of Shark Island¨ based on a script by Nunnally Johnson and directed by John Ford with Warner Baxter as Mudd and Gloria Stuart as his spouse.

This film is based on real events , it deals about the tribulations of Doctor Samuel Mudd (Dennis Weaver) and his wife (Susan Sullivan). The deeds are the following : A few short hours after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln , Mudd (1823-1883) gives treatment to a wounded man who shows up at his door. He does not know that the President has been killed assassinated and the man he's healing is John Wilkes Booth . He's arrested for being a accomplice in the assassination and on 1865 President Andrew Johnson and his Secretary of State (Richard Dysart) ordered the formation of a nine-man military commission to judge the conspirators. Mudd was represented by General Thomas Ewing Jr (Arthur Hill) . The prosecution contended that he had been a member of a Confederate communications distribution agency and had sheltered confederate on his plantation. Mudd escaped the death penalty by one vote and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Four of the defendants were hanged at the old Penitentiary at the Washington Arsenal on July 7, 1865. He is sent to prison in the dry Tortugas islands , referred in the movie as Devil's island. After a period of ill treatment due his notoriety, his skills as doctor are requested by the Commandant of the prison . The island has been in the grip of a yellow fever epidemic and officer physician has dead. Samuel Mudd as good medic persuaded to treat patient despite any personal or political disagreement , or even potential legal repercussions. He takes charge injured person and the yellow epidemic subsides. In the ending he receives pardon and is allowed to return freedom. On 1869 , Mudd was pardoned by President Johnson and returned home. Mudd's grandson Richard Mudd tried unsuccessfully to clear the name from stigma of conspiring with James Wilkes Booth. He petitioned several successive Presidents , receiving replies from President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

I haven't seen this movie but it appears from the post that it is based on faulty history. While Mudd was not a part of the actual assassination (and was appalled that Booth took this action) he WAS part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln acting as Booth's active co-conspirator. This is why Booth went straight to Mudd's home after escaping from the shooting.

Mudd was also a violent racist who, with the help of his overseer, flogged one of his slaves to death. If you want to know more about him you may want to read "Blood on the Moon" by Edward Steers Jr.. You won't feel so bad for him after that.

I have always been a fan of history especially the Lincoln assassination. I had previously written of how much I enjoyed The Day Lincoln Was Shot. Almost twenty years earlier, this film told the story of one of the players in this tragedy. What happened to Doctor Mudd was a terrible miscarriage of justice because he was only a doctor doing his duty who had nothing to do with Lincoln's assassination. This film captures the terrible mood in the country after the tragedy where reason took a back seat and there was a terrible desire for vengeance and not justice. This film is harrowing in its depiction of Mudds nightmare. Forced before a military tribunal of perjured testimony and convicted on fabricated evidence, torn from his loving family and sentenced to the living hell of the Dry Tortugas prison, America's Devils Island. Weaver does a wonderful acting job in conveying this man's anguish and at the same time his determination to survive and be reunited with his loving family. I am glad they presented a fair balanced portrait of this mans case especially when they showed his heroic efforts to care for the sick and dying soldiers at the Fort during the yellow fever outbreak. LA Laws Richard Dysart gives a creepy performance as the villanous secretary of war Stanton. The Iran hostage crisis was going on at the time this movie came out in March of 1980 and he sort of reminded me of the Ayatollah Khomeni. Susan Sullivan gives a wonderful performance as Mudd's loving and courageous wife who stands by her man. There is hardly a film I have ever seen that had a more happy ending. THe courageous and loving woman manages to work a miracle and Doctor Mudd's hellish ordeal is over at last.

As far I know two movies reported this sadly event took place on April 14 1865 when Pres. Lincoln was deadly shot at Ford Theatre, THE PRISIONER OF SHARK ISLAND and THE ORDEAL OF DR. MUDD which I'm been referring in my review, both implied Dr. Samuel Mudd (Dennis Weaver) is not guilty over a possible involvement in the plot carried out by John Wilkes Booth, as exposed in the picture he claimed just made his duty as Doctor, when he provides medical assistance on late night of two outsiders among them a wounded broken leg killer without noticed.

Later when John Wilkes Booth was found died, Dr. Mudd status changes a simply witness to conspiracy, indicted by the secretary of war Edwin Stanton (Richard Dysart), lead on military trial has been defended by Gen. Thomas Ewing (Arthur Hill), finally was found guilty and was sentenced by life imprisonment at military prison Fort Jackson in Dry Tortuga islands in golf of Mexico at Florida, staying there and forthcoming years he fiercely struggles against the lethal yellow fever, given the pardon from Pres. Johnson by toughness work of his devoted wife Frances Mudd (Susan Sullivan), backing at home.

According several sources this movie wasn't accurate whatsoever, many pivotal things were concealed on the screenplay, firstly Dr. Mudd didn't explained why he postponed that he had treated Wilkes's leg to the local Army, he also forgot to mentioned his previous meeting with Wilkes on Christmas at Washington, later he alleged it due Wilkes was planning buy part of his farm, sounds contradictory at least.

Worst the ordeal wasn't centered on Dr. Mudd case only, he was in trial among several conspirators and treated as such, not individually as the movie displayed, other key info, Dr. Mudd was pardoned, although never overturned as in the final credits states, the producers wrongly granted that Pres. Carter gave it, whilst it was really concerned by many US's Presidents it never was given, actually this movie wanted the re-write the real events, by this downgrading by itself.

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 1984 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 7.