It makes sense as to why fictitious names would be used in this adoption of Doctor Mudd story from the days right after President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Dr Mudd was imprisoned on Shark Island for giving him medical treatment, and innocently not knowing who he was. Here, a country veterinarian played by Sterling Hayden has the same thing happened to him, except the man he treats is the head of a group of guerrillas, and Hayden is sense to a hell like Prison in the middle of the wilderness in the Middle West. Even though he continues to proclaim his innocence and hopes that with his wife Joan Leslie's help, he will be freed, the prison commander Ward Bond keeps a close watch on him, hoping that he will slip up and reveal things which of course he does not know because of his innocence.
What starts off great moves into extremely convoluted plot twists, with Hayden and a group of his cave dwelling prisoners escaping and being led into an attack by Native Americans and others whom Bond has out on the watch for this group. A series a bad choices in moving the plot forward culminates with ridiculous revelations being made, and that results in this being one of the most outlandish re-tellings of American history in Hollywood history.
Having already been filmed as the excellent "The Prisoner of Shark Island" in 1936, the story of Dr Mudd had already been presented in a more realistic light. If there was any reason to change what had already been filmed, it was the fact that the producers knew that there was no way that this could compare with the desperate manner in which 20th Century Fox had already done 16 years before. So why do it at all?, is my question. Sterling Hayden does an excellent job as the hero, but he is defeated by a script that doesn't seem to believe in the story it is telling. Ward Bond's character is so one dimensional yet three are indications that this character has multiple personalities because his motivations continue to change at outlandish rates. For that reason I had to give this one a thumbs down, you are better off sticking with your original story or possibly even the television version done more than 20 years later which took great pains to find out details that had not been revealed before.
There is also no point in having a major actress like Joan Leslie cast in the insignificant role of the devoted wife, intermittently seeing talking with people she is hoping I can find the evidence to clear him.James Arness has a thankless role as one of the people living inside the cave prison nicknames hell we are all these prisoners are kept. the ending had me raising my eyes with disbelief, and I thought how can I have suffered through 90 minutes of this for a conclusion that made absolutely no sense.it is sad to say, but this one is a piece of American history that is well worth skipping.
What starts off great moves into extremely convoluted plot twists, with Hayden and a group of his cave dwelling prisoners escaping and being led into an attack by Native Americans and others whom Bond has out on the watch for this group. A series a bad choices in moving the plot forward culminates with ridiculous revelations being made, and that results in this being one of the most outlandish re-tellings of American history in Hollywood history.
Having already been filmed as the excellent "The Prisoner of Shark Island" in 1936, the story of Dr Mudd had already been presented in a more realistic light. If there was any reason to change what had already been filmed, it was the fact that the producers knew that there was no way that this could compare with the desperate manner in which 20th Century Fox had already done 16 years before. So why do it at all?, is my question. Sterling Hayden does an excellent job as the hero, but he is defeated by a script that doesn't seem to believe in the story it is telling. Ward Bond's character is so one dimensional yet three are indications that this character has multiple personalities because his motivations continue to change at outlandish rates. For that reason I had to give this one a thumbs down, you are better off sticking with your original story or possibly even the television version done more than 20 years later which took great pains to find out details that had not been revealed before.
There is also no point in having a major actress like Joan Leslie cast in the insignificant role of the devoted wife, intermittently seeing talking with people she is hoping I can find the evidence to clear him.James Arness has a thankless role as one of the people living inside the cave prison nicknames hell we are all these prisoners are kept. the ending had me raising my eyes with disbelief, and I thought how can I have suffered through 90 minutes of this for a conclusion that made absolutely no sense.it is sad to say, but this one is a piece of American history that is well worth skipping.