The Sun Shines Bright **** (1953, Charles Winninger, Arleen Whelan, John Russell) – Classic Movie Review 10,127

John Ford’s reworking of his own 1934 film Judge Priest features a superb performance from chubby, lovable old Charles Winninger (replacing the original’s Will Rogers) as the small town magistrate Judge William Priest, who has a tough time running for re-election in 1905 Kentucky when a black youth is accused of rape and faces a lynching.

Laurence Stallings’s screenplay weaves three of Irvin S Cobb’s Judge Priest short stories together: The Sun Shines Bright, The Mob from Massac and The Lord Provides.

The Sun Shines Bright (1953) is a slice of Americana as tasty as apple pie, with resounding turns from a notable gallery made up mostly of Ford’s regular stock company of players, especially John Russell, Arleen Whelan, Jane Darwell and Russell Simpson. but also including Stepin Fetchit, Ludwig Stössel, Paul Hurst, Mitchell Lewis, Dorothy Jordan, Elzie Emanuel, Henry O’Neill, James Kirkwood, Ernest Whitman, Trevor Bardette, Eve March, Hal Baylor, Ken Williams, Milburn Stone, Grant Withers, Francis Ford, Slim Pickens, Mae Marsh, and Clarence Muse, with Patrick Wayne (as cadet, uncredited).

Judge Priest is warmly and appealingly directed by Ford, in a film that carefully balances the sentimentality with social critique, with moving as well as comic moments. It is said to be Ford’s favourite of his own movies.

It runs 90 minutes but the original, unreleased 100-minute version is available on home video.

Ford’s film ran 100 minutes, but the studio forced him to cut it to 92 minutes, and when the film did poorly it was cut again by another two minutes. The 100-minute version was discovered accidentally while a video print was being prepared when the print given to Republic Video was Ford’s never publicly viewed copy.

The Sun Shines Bright is directed by John Ford, runs 90, 92 or 100 minutes, is made by Argosy Pictures, is released by Republic Pictures (1953) (US) and British Lion Film Corporation (1953) (UK), is written by Lawrence Stallings, based on three of Irvin S Cobb’s Judge Priest short stories, is shot in black and white by Archie J Stout, is produced by John Ford and Merian C Cooper, is scored by Victor Young, with production designs by Frank Hotaling.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,127

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