On 09 April 1865, John Wilkes Booth (Francis McDonald) breaks his leg after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.). He flees with an accomplice and once in Maryland, they seek medical treatment with the country Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd (Warner Baxter) that does not know that his patient has murdered the president.

Dr. Mudd is arrested by the army for helping John Wilkes Booth and together with seven other suspects, they are sent to a military court without civil rights. Dr. Mudd is a scapegoat and sentenced to life imprisonment in the hopeless prison in the Dry Tortugas, in Gulf of Mexico. When the prison is isolated due to a yellow fever epidemic, Dr. Mudd helps the guards and the other prisoners to cure the disease.

"The Prisoner of Shark Island" is a great biographical drama by John Ford, telling a tale of injustice and recognition of a nation with a family man that is sentenced to a life sentence in a devil's island of the Nineteenth Century in Gulf of Mexico. The story is engaging and supported by magnificent performances and direction. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Prisioneiro da Ilha dos Tubarões" ("The Prisoner of Shark Island")