THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT

US, 1953, 92 minutes, Black and white.
Charles Winninger, Arlene Wheelan, John Russell, Stepin Fetchit, Russell Simpson, Henry O’Neill?.
Directed by John Ford.

The Sun Shines Bright was made by veteran director John Ford the same year as he made the romantic African thriller Mogambo. The Sun Shines Bright is something of a remake of a film of twenty years earlier, Judge Priest, with Will Rogers as Judge Priest and Stepin Fetchit as his friend Jeff Poindexter. Stepin Fetchit also appears in this film with Charles Winninger as Judge Priest.

The setting is Kentucky after the civil war, the Confederate veterans still proud of their achievement, Union cavalry also resident in the town. Judge Priest is an elderly widower who runs his court in an eccentric but humane way. He is up for re-election with a conservative and pushy opponent.

The film focuses on Judge Priest and his life, his relationship with his friend and servant Jeff Poindexter – Stepin Fetchit doing his seemingly kowtowing performance, popular for twenty years but embarrassing to look at in later decades. The film also focuses on a young woman played by Arleen Wheelan, a teacher of the African American children who discovers that her mother was a local prostitute who has come back to the town to die. She asks to be buried but the religious leaders refuse. Judge Priest leads the procession, his Union ally marching with him and many of the townspeople joining in, to the scandal of the ladies of the town. In a high point of the film, Judge Priest delivers a homily on John chapter 8, the story of the woman taken in adultery. This is a very moving interpretation and application of the parable story of Jesus’ compassion.

John Ford is best known for his cavalry westerns. He also won four Oscars for best director: The Informer, The Long Voyage Home, How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man.

1.The film as a piece of Americana, 19th century, Kentucky, the post-Civil War period? The law in Kentucky?

2.The work of John Ford, American nostalgia, interpretation of the 19th century?

3.The black and white photography, the town, the river, its atmosphere?

4.The musical score, the use of ‘Dixie’, the use of Stephen Foster songs – and the title of ‘The Sun Shines Bright on My Old Kentucky Home’?

5.The aftermath of the war, the Confederates, the veterans and their memories, the division and its meetings, the general and his not going to the meetings, his hard line about his daughter? The judge, the squad, Dixie? The memories? The Union presence in the town?

6.The relationship between whites and blacks, the Stephen Foster songs – and the style? The African American singing? The court sequence, the grandfather and his grandson, the job? In the town? The 19th century tradition, the aftermath of the civil war? The 20th century attitudes?

7.The judge, his personality, life, a widower, his experience of the war, his close friends, administering the law in his court, his eccentricity, the young African American man, the madam? Helping the boy to get a job? His opponent? The doctor? Lucy Lee? His stopping the lynching and the influence on the Union soldiers? Their later marching and saluting him? Lucy Lee’s mother, her death? The issue of the funeral, his leading the march? His sermon?

8.Ashby and his return to town, his style, his attraction towards Lucy Lee, her teaching? Their walking in the procession for Lucy Lee’s mother?

9.The doctor, his work, the situation, Lucy Lee, the truth?

10.The woman and her return to the town, her story, illness and death? The madam in the court? The arrangements for the funeral?

11.The election, the votes, campaigning?

12.The funeral, the march, the people joining in, Lucy Lee in the buggy, in the church, the significance of the sermon, the women condemning the mother, John chapter 8, the judge’s application?

13.The women of the town, their judging the prostitutes?

14.The vote, the closeness, the northerners coming in, saluting the judge and voting for him? The judge voting for himself and winning the election?

15.American history, memoir, nostalgia?