25 reviews
Excoriating the Pharisees
John Ford had a fondness for The Sun Shines Bright. It's a beautiful tale of an honorable old man who even while facing a tough re-election for town judge refuses to be a hypocrite or play up to a lot of his town's hypocrites.
The film was done before as Judge Priest with Will Rogers in the title role. As good as The Sun Shines Bright is, it would have been even better had John Ford not chosen to use Stepin Fetchit in the same part he had in the original film. Stepin Fetchit is, well Stepin Fetchit. Funny thing is that a whole lot of black players are used in this film and their roles are not as stereotypical as his is.
Charles Winninger is every bit as good as Will Rogers in the lead. If you can imagine Captain Andy from Show Boat had he taken up the law instead of show business, you get some idea of what Judge William Pittman Priest is all about. Justice is blind in his courtroom, but it isn't deaf and dumb also. In Winninger's life as well as his courtroom.
He's up for re-election in his small Kentucky county and he's got a hard fighting opponent in prosecutor Milburn Stone. Priest is a proud Confederate veteran, but he's not above saving an innocent black kid from a lynch mob.
Nor is he above a little Christian charity when it comes to seeing a fallen woman who just came to town to see her daughter before she died given a proper funeral service. When no accredited minister will do the service, Winninger fills in at the pulpit and has some choice words taken from the parable about the woman caught in sin.
My favorite scene in The Sun Shines Bright is the funeral procession for the same woman. Winninger is the head of the local United Confederate Veterans and Henry O'Neill is the head of the local Grand Army of the Republic chapter. They are friends and friendly rivals. Yet on that day Republican O'Neill and Democrat Winninger both lead the funeral procession. Too bad our Republicans and Democrats of today can't agree on some common values.
How does this impact on Winninger's election? You'll have to watch the beautiful and poetic The Sun Shines Bright to find out.
The film was done before as Judge Priest with Will Rogers in the title role. As good as The Sun Shines Bright is, it would have been even better had John Ford not chosen to use Stepin Fetchit in the same part he had in the original film. Stepin Fetchit is, well Stepin Fetchit. Funny thing is that a whole lot of black players are used in this film and their roles are not as stereotypical as his is.
Charles Winninger is every bit as good as Will Rogers in the lead. If you can imagine Captain Andy from Show Boat had he taken up the law instead of show business, you get some idea of what Judge William Pittman Priest is all about. Justice is blind in his courtroom, but it isn't deaf and dumb also. In Winninger's life as well as his courtroom.
He's up for re-election in his small Kentucky county and he's got a hard fighting opponent in prosecutor Milburn Stone. Priest is a proud Confederate veteran, but he's not above saving an innocent black kid from a lynch mob.
Nor is he above a little Christian charity when it comes to seeing a fallen woman who just came to town to see her daughter before she died given a proper funeral service. When no accredited minister will do the service, Winninger fills in at the pulpit and has some choice words taken from the parable about the woman caught in sin.
My favorite scene in The Sun Shines Bright is the funeral procession for the same woman. Winninger is the head of the local United Confederate Veterans and Henry O'Neill is the head of the local Grand Army of the Republic chapter. They are friends and friendly rivals. Yet on that day Republican O'Neill and Democrat Winninger both lead the funeral procession. Too bad our Republicans and Democrats of today can't agree on some common values.
How does this impact on Winninger's election? You'll have to watch the beautiful and poetic The Sun Shines Bright to find out.
- bkoganbing
- Sep 9, 2006
- Permalink
Holds True To Regnant Ford Themes.
When discussing this enriched remake of his 1934 film featuring Will Rogers, director John Ford, not one to speak with crossed fingers, is quoted by Peter Bogdanovich: " 'The Sun Shines Bright' is my favorite picture - I love it. And it's true to life, it happened. Irvin Cobb got everything he wrote from real life, and that's the best of his Judge Priest stories." Three Cobb stories: "The Sun Shines Bright", "The Man From Massac", and "The Lord Provides", form the basis of a Laurence Stallings screenplay set in 1905 Fairfield, Kentucky, where incumbent magistrate William Priest (Charles Winninger in a rare starring turn) faces a close election against Yankee prosecutor Horace Maydew (Milburn Stone), while traces from a good many of Ford's customary themes are in place, including his relish for lost causes, Christian based parables, and the significance of closely-knit communities. When 20th Century Fox destroyed expurgated negatives from his initial Judge Priest effort, Ford decided to re-film it, and this unabashedly sentimental essay displays remarkable artistry from this highly visual director, as evil is mastered by simple good nature, even without the "director's cut" that restores over ten minutes of important footage, and is not widely available. Ford employs many of his favourite stock company players including two, Stepin Fetchit and (for the last time in a Ford picture) his brother Francis, who had been cast in the 1934 production, and all perform with enthusiasm, Winninger earning acting honours for his full-blooded performance, and viewers will appreciate the magnificent funeral procession and service scenes along with others where Ford's brother-in-law, assistant director Wingate Smith, utilizes his outstanding control of extras, a superlative element in a film that benefits from many such, and from which was reproduced a large print that was placed over the head of Ford's bed until his death.
Liberal, Dixie judge takes a principled stand against small town hypocrisy in turn of the century Kentucky
One of the odd aspects of this film is the post Civil War background that looms large to a greater or lesser degree throughout. This takes the form of a blatantly obvious pro Confederate stance, and an almost religious idolatry of 'Dixie'. Halliwell tells us that Judge Priest, the moral heart of the film, "has trouble quelling the Confederate spirit" - but the opposite is the case - the judge is absolutely central to maintaining and celebrating that spirit. The oddness comes because, it seems to me at least, we are not used to seeing such a character defending black rights, preventing a lynching, etc. Even more peculiar is to see such a 'happy' black population - particularly the quite disturbing courthouse scene where 2 black characters suddenly burst into a grotesque song and dance routine. "Mississippi Burning" this certainly isn't! But certainly a film worth watching, and the prostitute's daughter's funeral scene is excellently done. It somehow feels older than 1953.
- fisherelle
- Jan 28, 2008
- Permalink
A near remake of 'Judge Priest' is a film of great beauty and formal complexity(some spoilers)
And there's no need to ask where it's shining from...
It would be nice to be able to discuss this film without having to refer to its politically incorrect depiction of blacks, but it's impossible to do so. The film, which is a remake of director John Ford's own Judge Priest from the 30s (in which Will Rogers played the title role), must have seemed curiously dated even when it was released, and feels like it was made in the early forties rather than the mid-fifties. Whether that's because of its outdated attitude towards blacks and the presence of slow, scratchy-voiced Stepin Fetchit is open to conjecture – it could just be that the fog of nostalgia that hangs over the entire work is the reason.
Charles Winninger makes an amiable old judge whose quiet wisdom puts to shame the hypocritically puritanical attitudes of his small town's people and the racist assumptions of an unruly lynch mob out to hang a blameless teenage Negro. The storyline is kind of meandering, reflecting the apparently relaxed pace of life in the turn of the century Deep South, and you do really get a taste of Southern gentility – whether accurate not. Its various sub-plots are linked together by the judge's bid for re-election, which serves to emphasise the importance of standing by one's principles no matter what the possible personal costs may be. Of course, the truth is Billy Priest is too good to be true, but I don't think anyone was out to make him a more realistic figure in this milieu than Santa Claus or God would have been.
John Ford's notorious sentimentality is in danger of becoming cloying at times, but he just about manages to rein it in at key moments. The film says as much about Hollywood's take on American social attitudes in the mid-50s as it does about the same in the Deep South at the turn of the century, which isn't in itself a bad thing. I suppose it's even possible that one day films like this will be shown in classrooms to demonstrate the gigantic positive strides made in the cause of racial equality in the latter half of the 20th Century. Better that than they are wilfully ignored in the name of political correctness.
Charles Winninger makes an amiable old judge whose quiet wisdom puts to shame the hypocritically puritanical attitudes of his small town's people and the racist assumptions of an unruly lynch mob out to hang a blameless teenage Negro. The storyline is kind of meandering, reflecting the apparently relaxed pace of life in the turn of the century Deep South, and you do really get a taste of Southern gentility – whether accurate not. Its various sub-plots are linked together by the judge's bid for re-election, which serves to emphasise the importance of standing by one's principles no matter what the possible personal costs may be. Of course, the truth is Billy Priest is too good to be true, but I don't think anyone was out to make him a more realistic figure in this milieu than Santa Claus or God would have been.
John Ford's notorious sentimentality is in danger of becoming cloying at times, but he just about manages to rein it in at key moments. The film says as much about Hollywood's take on American social attitudes in the mid-50s as it does about the same in the Deep South at the turn of the century, which isn't in itself a bad thing. I suppose it's even possible that one day films like this will be shown in classrooms to demonstrate the gigantic positive strides made in the cause of racial equality in the latter half of the 20th Century. Better that than they are wilfully ignored in the name of political correctness.
- JoeytheBrit
- Sep 6, 2010
- Permalink
Everyone's Happy in Post-War Kentucky.
- rmax304823
- Apr 3, 2015
- Permalink
Ford's own personal favourite - and a masterpiece.
A masterpiece and reputedly John Ford's personal favourite from among his own movies. The sentimentality quotient is unnaturally high, even by Ford's standards and the racial stereotypes are appalling but this is still one of the cinema's greatest pieces of folk-art. It speaks of an American South about as realistic as the Ireland of "The Quiet Man" or "The Rising of the Moon", (another great, under-rated Ford film), where the old guard still cling to memories of a hopelessly romantic past, where blacks are treated 'honourably', even if their sole purpose is to play the banjo and the harmonica and in the name of the eponymous actor to 'Stepin Fetchit'.
By today's standards the film is anything but PC but it has an innocence that transcends its stereotypes and Ford handles the set pieces magnificently. In particular, the funeral of the 'fallen woman', (and mother of the heroine), that ends the film is deeply moving and is among the high points of Ford's work. The film itself is a remake of Ford's earlier "Judge Priest" with Charles Winninger in the role made famous by Will Rogers, but this is altogether superior.
By today's standards the film is anything but PC but it has an innocence that transcends its stereotypes and Ford handles the set pieces magnificently. In particular, the funeral of the 'fallen woman', (and mother of the heroine), that ends the film is deeply moving and is among the high points of Ford's work. The film itself is a remake of Ford's earlier "Judge Priest" with Charles Winninger in the role made famous by Will Rogers, but this is altogether superior.
- MOscarbradley
- Jun 23, 2007
- Permalink
Thou shalt not judge lest ye be judged....
- mark.waltz
- May 5, 2014
- Permalink
CLASSIC FORD
This film although rarely shown, has one beautiful vignette after another. Although a remake of Fords JUDGE PRIEST,we see a small town,where everybody is brought together by Charlie Winninger who portrays Judge Priest. The scene where he campaigns for the decent burial for the Prostitute who has come home to die, just might be one of the finest sequences ever put on film. A film only Ford could pull off, and does!! Don,t miss this one.
- davnimm1956
- Oct 7, 2002
- Permalink
Ford's heart is in the right place, but the message is naive.
An atypical John Ford Western. Not solely due to the strong de-emphasis of gunfighting, but also due to the fractured sense of community. Plagued by racial tensions and economic disparity, those elements serve to test the comradeship of the town. While Bill Priest is portrayed as the agent of change, what's made clear is that turning the town around requires more than just the efforts of one man. Everyone else needs to find forgiveness in each other and recognize their mistakes in order for there to be an understanding. Such themes are complicated when the film adopts some somewhat sterotypical depictions of the black characters in the film (such as the disproportionately spooked black character trope), and I also found a central romance sub-plot unnecessary, but I don't know that Ford's primary goal was to necessarily create a masterpiece so much as correcting a prior mistake. Though I don't believe this was billed as a remake (someone can correct me on this if that's untrue), "The Sun Shines Bright" adapts some of the same material in John Ford's earlier film "Judge Priest", along with some of the same characters. Calling "The Sun Shines Bright" a retread of the earlier film's themes though misses the point as there's a crucial difference between both films. Ford initially wanted to include a scene of an attempted lynching (as well as a condemnation of the act) in "Judge Priest", but this scene was cut by 20th Century Fox. Once studio intervention was no longer a threat nearly two decades later though, Ford then went on to direct the film he originally intended to make, along with the aforementioned scene.
While I respect what Ford was going for though and while I recognize that his heart was in the right place, his intentions came off as naive. The film establishes early on that women and people of color in the town are walking on thin ice and one small misstep could put their lives in danger. Take an early scene where a black character has to stop another black character from unknowingly playing a Yankee song to a group of Confederate veterans. This should set you up for the tone of the rest of the film. Unfortuately, we instead get an outdated idea that an authority figure with a good sense of morals and justice is all that's needed to fix the hierarchical and systemic problems with the town and turn it into a utopia, and this idea is just pure fantasy. If anyone from the upper class wishes to provide a perfect solution to systemic racism, they first need to recognize their complicity in the hierarchical system which still exists today. Ford didn't properly do this. After the two main conflicts are resolved in the film, the resulting, supposed fixed society is still hampered by the same hierarchy and status quo which engendered those issues in the first place. Overall, Ford certainly has good intentions. His message just wasn't well-thought out.
While I respect what Ford was going for though and while I recognize that his heart was in the right place, his intentions came off as naive. The film establishes early on that women and people of color in the town are walking on thin ice and one small misstep could put their lives in danger. Take an early scene where a black character has to stop another black character from unknowingly playing a Yankee song to a group of Confederate veterans. This should set you up for the tone of the rest of the film. Unfortuately, we instead get an outdated idea that an authority figure with a good sense of morals and justice is all that's needed to fix the hierarchical and systemic problems with the town and turn it into a utopia, and this idea is just pure fantasy. If anyone from the upper class wishes to provide a perfect solution to systemic racism, they first need to recognize their complicity in the hierarchical system which still exists today. Ford didn't properly do this. After the two main conflicts are resolved in the film, the resulting, supposed fixed society is still hampered by the same hierarchy and status quo which engendered those issues in the first place. Overall, Ford certainly has good intentions. His message just wasn't well-thought out.
- brianberta
- Aug 22, 2023
- Permalink
Everyone is extremely happy and knows their place in post-Civil War Kentucky!
"The Sun Shines Bright" is an offensive portrait of the post-Civil War South and it's hard to imagine the film NOT offending anyone. Instead of showing real life in Kentucky, it's super-idealized to such a point that the film is ridiculous. The Confederate Civil War veterans get along just great with the Union vets (Kentucky was one of the few states that had folks fighting on both sides), the blacks are all extremely happy and life is grand. No matter that all this just isn't true and that blacks were treated, often, as subhuman.
In the original film, "Judge Priest", Will Rogers played the Judge and his ever-present lazy, stupid black sidekick, Poindexter, was played by Stepin Fetchit. Rogers, however, had been killed long ago in a famous plane crash and here the character is played by Charles Winninger and Fetchit is back to play the same stupid and lazy guy-- something Fetchit did in many films back in the day when laughing at a stupid and lazy black man was considered the rage. But his subhuman characterization is more sad than anything else...and I cannot imagine folks today thinking it's funny.
As for the stories in the film, they are all mildly interesting and they are engaging. You can tell it's a John Ford film even without a decent budget and fancy cast because it is highly sentimental. It also paints a portrait of what life SHOULD have been like--with the paternalistic white man looking out for their good little black children. It's odd, however, that the same racist director then went on to make "Sergeant Rutlidge" with Woody Strode--a film far ahead of its time and extremely sensitive to the dehumanization of black Americans.
So would I recommend this film? Not really. It's certainly among the director's lesser movies and is so inaccurate a portrayal that the retired history teacher within me felt a bit sad as I watched. Not horrible...just not what life was ever like in Kentucky...ever.
In the original film, "Judge Priest", Will Rogers played the Judge and his ever-present lazy, stupid black sidekick, Poindexter, was played by Stepin Fetchit. Rogers, however, had been killed long ago in a famous plane crash and here the character is played by Charles Winninger and Fetchit is back to play the same stupid and lazy guy-- something Fetchit did in many films back in the day when laughing at a stupid and lazy black man was considered the rage. But his subhuman characterization is more sad than anything else...and I cannot imagine folks today thinking it's funny.
As for the stories in the film, they are all mildly interesting and they are engaging. You can tell it's a John Ford film even without a decent budget and fancy cast because it is highly sentimental. It also paints a portrait of what life SHOULD have been like--with the paternalistic white man looking out for their good little black children. It's odd, however, that the same racist director then went on to make "Sergeant Rutlidge" with Woody Strode--a film far ahead of its time and extremely sensitive to the dehumanization of black Americans.
So would I recommend this film? Not really. It's certainly among the director's lesser movies and is so inaccurate a portrayal that the retired history teacher within me felt a bit sad as I watched. Not horrible...just not what life was ever like in Kentucky...ever.
- planktonrules
- Feb 2, 2016
- Permalink
Ford's best? He thinks so! And me too!
- JohnHowardReid
- Feb 14, 2018
- Permalink
What the hell?
I couldn't watch more than 10 minutes. The demeaning absurdity of how black people were forced to act in these atrociously stupid films left me aghast. I'd forgotten just how horribly they were depicted, as I haven't watched an old movie this terrible in a very long time.
- eyeintrees
- Jul 18, 2020
- Permalink
A beautiful about loyalty in a time that never was
It is a lovely film to watch. Archie Stout one of fords favorite cameraman, shot it. The last scene where Judge Priest is seen in the doorway echos the last scene in the Searchers. It is a film about loyalty, honor and redemption. But there are scenes where the black people of the town are shown to be childlike, and in awe of their white leaders. This marks the film as a product of a time long past. Some of the scenes of the black people are demeaning. But over all, Judge Preists sense of honor, his fairness to all, his sense of decency looms over the film. Ford makes Judge Priest (played by Charles Winninger in his best role) a heroic figure. But a figure that is isolated even in a crowd. A former bugler he is left to carry on the codes of honor and fairness that the old south thought it contained. People vote for him, return him to office year after year, yet he goes into his home alone. He is man out of his time. A man of the community but set apart from it by his strict adherence to his code. Some of the acting in the film is over acting. But the last fifteen minutes are lovely to watch.
- rappaportrapp
- Aug 2, 2004
- Permalink
A brilliant work of political philosophy
I will make an introductory, Autobiographical comment.I am , by training, a Political Theorist and a student of American Institutions.A long time ago, I saw a list of the ten greatest films ever made. The only one I had never heared of was The Sun Shines Bright...Only later did I discover that Ford listed it, with Wagonmaster, as one of his two favorite films. I wrote an essay on Fords "democratic poetics" for a course on Tocqueville(!)In the essay, I analyzed Wagonmaster and the Sun Shines Bright. Wagonmaster(implicitly) and The Sunshines Bright(explicitly)are films about politics, and about democracy. Wagonmaster is ,in fact a pilgrimage narrative, while The Sunshines Bright takes place in a "polis", the tiny Kentucky town of Fairfield,during an election.The whole story is, in fact, a meditation on democracy, leadership, compassion and tradition.Charles Winninger is superb. The Prostitutes funeral,with its closing scene in the church,where Priest quotes the Bible, is simply grand.The parade at the end is very touching, and the final shot of the lonely, but beloved Priest walking alone into his house, is almost equal to the end of The Searchers....Ford was indeed the grand lion of the cinema.
My all-time favourite movie!
'The Sun Shines Bright' is my all-time favourite movie and, though it is now more than 50 years old, there is not one better that has been made since. I first saw it on BBC TV way back and, having taped it for my own use, I never tire of it. The plot, based on stories by Irvin S. Cobb, is beautifully acted out, especially by Charles Winninger as Judge Billy Priest. The evolving drama is most moving. The post-Civil War period setting and atmosphere are perfectly caught by the greatest of all movie directors, John Ford, and the 'moral' (an apparently out-dated word, but still as relevant today as in the 1950s when the movie was made) of this splendid entertainment is still worth marking, learning and inwardly digesting. If Kentucky is still as it is pictured, even if in black-and-white, may I please move there right now?!
My O-o-old Kentucky Home...
A whimsical piece of fiction - not a social document.
- ianlouisiana
- Mar 2, 2018
- Permalink
Offensive, perhaps, but invaluable
I feel like I have to walk over eggshells to say anything at all about this movie, Ford's remake of his earlier, 1934 Will Rogers vehicle Judge Priest. Both films have some hard-to-take racial stereotypes, first and foremost in the personage of Stepin' Fetchit, who, along with Butterfly McQueen, stand as the ugliest black performers of their era. But the offense doesn't stop there. The Sun Shines Bright contains a plethora of objectionable material, some of which probably well deserves to be objected to, and some of which will be construed as hateful by modern audiences when it really isn't. The story concerns an aging judge running for re-election in Kentucky, somewhere near the Mason-Dixie line around the turn of the 20th Century. Judge Priest is a Confederate veteran, as are many of his friends. They celebrate this with open nostalgia, although there isn't really any hatred between them and those in the county who fought for the North. The main story of the film is of Judge Priest's deep humanity, and his love for all people. There are two main plot threads, that of a lynch mob out to hang a young black man and that of a dying prostitute, who happens to be the long absent mother of one of the town's outstanding young women. Priest must defend the black man from the mob and arrange a dignified funeral for the prostitute, even though it very well could cost him the election. The film's treatment of African Americans seems quite more in tune with the 1930s than the 1950s. The original film, Judge Priest, might be less offensive, actually. Yes, the blacks in that film were caricatures. However, the star of that film, Will Rogers, who famously never met a man he didn't like, seemed more like a friend to the African Americans around him, including Stepin' Fetchit and Hattie McDaniel. He even sings with McDaniel at one point. Priest in that film seems something of an outcast from the whites; they respect him, even love him, but he is not exactly one of them. In The Sun Shines Bright, Priest spends most of his time with his fellow veterans. Stepin' Fetchit is there most of the time, too (he even attends a veterans' meeting with a gray cap on his head), but he and Priest don't seem like buddies. Fetchit is his servant. Even though Fetchit and McDaniel were also his servants in the earlier version, like I said, they seemed more like friends. When Judge Priest helps out the African Americans of his county in the later version, his actions seem more patronizing than friendly. He is the father figure to every black person. At the end of the film, it almost seems like they're worshiping him. Worse yet, when the election is held, we see everyone vote except for the blacks. It's not even implied that they have already voted. Despite these very important problems, The Sun Shines Bright is a very good film that would indeed inspire a deep love for humanity long before it would ever inspire bigotry. I would never dismiss the problems of the film, but I think that what it accomplishes is much more valuable than what most would damn it for. 9/10.
Delightful
A sort of remake of Judge Priest, taking on a slightly different selection of short stories by Irvin S. Cobb about his character of Billy Priest, The Sun Shines Bright is a more refined telling of a very similar set of stories than the earlier version. Still steeped in nostalgia for an idealized Kentucky post-Civil War and missing the presence of Will Rogers, replaced capably by Charles Winninger, the movie is a sweet look at one man making his little town better by simply being good and decent. Ford would later say that it was one of his favorite movies he made himself, holding it up as an example of what he was trying to do in the movies.
Billy Priest (Winninger) is a local judge up for re-election in the next few days against his opponent, the county prosecutor Horace K. Maydew (Milburn Stone). Priest helps to let off a young black man, US Grant Woodford (Elzie Emanuel), son to Priest's servant Uncle Plez (Ernest Whitman) of a small charge, helped by his ability with a banjo. That same day, Ashby Corwin (John Russell) returns to town after years away and gains an eye for the social pariah Lucy Lee Lake (Arleen Whelan), a woman of unknown parentage, the ward of the local doctor. She's pretty and young, but no one will approach her because of the knowledge that her mother was a woman of not a well-looked upon profession.
The closest thing this film has to a plot is Priest navigating the eventful few days before the election to both do what he thinks is right and to try and win re-election. The central piece to all of this is US going into a white part of town where a trio of hound dogs chase him up a tree after a young white woman is attacked and left unconscious. Because the dogs went after US, the people in the small community think it was him and they're ready to lynch him the first chance they get. In a scene reminiscent of the future president talking down a mob in Young Mr. Lincoln, Priest tries to talk down the mob before pulling a gun on them and threatening to shoot them should they try to break down the door, scattering them for a time. At a teetotalling election dinner where Priest must try to keep his fellow ex-Confederate soldiers happy in the face of an evening without alcohol, the sheriff rolls up with the actual perpetrator whom the girl identified after she woke up, Buck (Grant Withers) whom had insulted Lucy on the street earlier in the film.
Concurrently, an older woman (Dorothy Jordan), sick with disease, comes into town and dies in the local brothel despite the doctor's good care. She is Lucy's mother, a former paramour of the Confederate general Fairfield (James Kirkwood) whom has known that Lucy was his daughter for years due to her resemblance to the woman he had known and refused to acknowledge her as well. The woman's dying wish was to have a real funeral with a preacher giving a sermon. When she does die, Priest leads the funeral procession that he pays for himself, his act of goodwill towards an unwanted member of society inspiring the people of the town to join in and attend her funeral where he reads the story of Jesus saving Mary Magdalene. It's a real sweet moment as Priest uses his status of authority in the town to extend a gracious hand towards a woman forgotten and cast aside, even in death.
Needless to say, his efforts at just being a decent man, saving US's life by holding off the mob, being a gracious individual to the veterans of the Union army also living in the town, and holding a funeral for a forgotten woman, end up giving him the necessary votes to winning his re-election. It's not challenging, but it is heartfelt and warm. I do miss the easy charm of Will Rogers in the role, but Charles Winninger is nice as Priest. He's a good old man, set in his ways, but he just doesn't have that same kind of appeal as Rogers that I found so affectionate in Judge Priest. Overall, though, I find this to be the better film.
The story is more cohesive, comes to a nicer conclusion that's not as steeped in Confederate rose-colored glasses, and is more emotionally resonant. It's a very nice movie.
Billy Priest (Winninger) is a local judge up for re-election in the next few days against his opponent, the county prosecutor Horace K. Maydew (Milburn Stone). Priest helps to let off a young black man, US Grant Woodford (Elzie Emanuel), son to Priest's servant Uncle Plez (Ernest Whitman) of a small charge, helped by his ability with a banjo. That same day, Ashby Corwin (John Russell) returns to town after years away and gains an eye for the social pariah Lucy Lee Lake (Arleen Whelan), a woman of unknown parentage, the ward of the local doctor. She's pretty and young, but no one will approach her because of the knowledge that her mother was a woman of not a well-looked upon profession.
The closest thing this film has to a plot is Priest navigating the eventful few days before the election to both do what he thinks is right and to try and win re-election. The central piece to all of this is US going into a white part of town where a trio of hound dogs chase him up a tree after a young white woman is attacked and left unconscious. Because the dogs went after US, the people in the small community think it was him and they're ready to lynch him the first chance they get. In a scene reminiscent of the future president talking down a mob in Young Mr. Lincoln, Priest tries to talk down the mob before pulling a gun on them and threatening to shoot them should they try to break down the door, scattering them for a time. At a teetotalling election dinner where Priest must try to keep his fellow ex-Confederate soldiers happy in the face of an evening without alcohol, the sheriff rolls up with the actual perpetrator whom the girl identified after she woke up, Buck (Grant Withers) whom had insulted Lucy on the street earlier in the film.
Concurrently, an older woman (Dorothy Jordan), sick with disease, comes into town and dies in the local brothel despite the doctor's good care. She is Lucy's mother, a former paramour of the Confederate general Fairfield (James Kirkwood) whom has known that Lucy was his daughter for years due to her resemblance to the woman he had known and refused to acknowledge her as well. The woman's dying wish was to have a real funeral with a preacher giving a sermon. When she does die, Priest leads the funeral procession that he pays for himself, his act of goodwill towards an unwanted member of society inspiring the people of the town to join in and attend her funeral where he reads the story of Jesus saving Mary Magdalene. It's a real sweet moment as Priest uses his status of authority in the town to extend a gracious hand towards a woman forgotten and cast aside, even in death.
Needless to say, his efforts at just being a decent man, saving US's life by holding off the mob, being a gracious individual to the veterans of the Union army also living in the town, and holding a funeral for a forgotten woman, end up giving him the necessary votes to winning his re-election. It's not challenging, but it is heartfelt and warm. I do miss the easy charm of Will Rogers in the role, but Charles Winninger is nice as Priest. He's a good old man, set in his ways, but he just doesn't have that same kind of appeal as Rogers that I found so affectionate in Judge Priest. Overall, though, I find this to be the better film.
The story is more cohesive, comes to a nicer conclusion that's not as steeped in Confederate rose-colored glasses, and is more emotionally resonant. It's a very nice movie.
- davidmvining
- Jan 22, 2022
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Who am I to gainsay the master John Ford, Hors Concours ???
The Sun Shines Bright astonished me in first hour, I'm trying figure out why it remains so long in the dark if it was quoted one of John Ford's favorite work, the whole success is anchored in a delightful story which is set in post-civil war at small town at Kentucky where are split for political matter with tension still entrenched of an open wound, the confederates leads by the Judge Priest (Charles Winninger best role ever) and their veterans's meeting where someone stolen the American flag, the Yankees want it back, the Judge proudly takes himself the flag back at Yankee's meeting with friendly gallantry, he has been received gently by them, just a slight mocking, the sympathetic and exotic Judge is running for the re-election against the Yankee's candidate, when a colored boy is caught by the dogs after he has been acussed to committed a sexual abuse, the loyal judge Priest stop a hanging for a bunch of avengers, later they finds the real offender from his own community, worst a white man, meanwhile appears on the town a dying ex-wife of the Confederate's General an subject utterly forbidden there due she became a prostitute, she just claims to see his daughter before his near death, she really see the girl, afterwards she stays under cares of the Doctor Lake at Mallie Cramp's bad reputation house. dying there in few days, Mallie goes to Judge's house pleading for a decent funeral with all ceremonial acts, which was promptly attended by the humanist Judge even under penalty of lose the re-election, the haughty judge walks ahead of funeral cortege has been followed by his pals the citizens and even by yours contenders, John Ford made a re-reading on those hard days where the wounds of the civil war weren't healed yet, also about the racial issue was still crawling for best days, all this with the peculiar sense of humor with southern mannerism, a movie to be discover for new generation, the Judge Priest is balm to the soul of those stoned heart and a relief to believe in the promising future, it was the legacy left by the master John Ford!!
Resume:
First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 9.5
Resume:
First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 9.5
- elo-equipamentos
- Aug 14, 2020
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A surprisingly good picture, for all its faults
- bob-790-196018
- Jul 30, 2013
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The Curious Case of John Ford
heart warming
- marktayloruk
- Aug 11, 2018
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My favourite Ford film
This must be one of the most underrated US movies of all time. The long funeral sequence is one of the most moving ever filmed.
Of course, it could never be made now, but in one hundred years time, when all this nonsense has disappeared, it will be held up as a truly great film. Winninger's sermon at the church is a wonderful acting lesson. Arleen Whelan is perfectly cast as the innocent gradually realising who she really is. And there's some very good cameos from Ludwig Stossel (he played Mr. Leuchtag, who is leaving Europe for America with his wife in Casablanca) and of course Stepin Fetchit. Watch and enjoy.
Of course, it could never be made now, but in one hundred years time, when all this nonsense has disappeared, it will be held up as a truly great film. Winninger's sermon at the church is a wonderful acting lesson. Arleen Whelan is perfectly cast as the innocent gradually realising who she really is. And there's some very good cameos from Ludwig Stossel (he played Mr. Leuchtag, who is leaving Europe for America with his wife in Casablanca) and of course Stepin Fetchit. Watch and enjoy.
- brendanbruce-34208
- May 10, 2024
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