Wem die Sonne lacht

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.

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.

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.

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.

'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?!