The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd

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.