Watch Judge Priest For Free

Admirable film.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Blistering performances.

It's almost impossible now to watch John Ford's "Judge Priest" without putting it into an historical context. I'm not sure Afro-American audiences could watch it at all for this is probably the most patronizing picture of Afro-Americans ever put on the screen. Five minutes of Stepin Fetchit is enough for any man. Indeed ten minutes of Will Rogers' Judge Priest is probably enough for any man too. You have to dig deep to find its few charms. Ford thought enough of it to virtually remake it as "The Sun Shines Bright" with Charles Winninger as Priest. It was vastly superior in every respect, still patronizing but now tempered with hindsight as well as considerable sentiment while Winninger was magnificent as the judge. Ford may have been American cinema's premiere poet but this is not his finest hour.

From director John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath, Mister Roberts, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), I found this film because it was listed as one of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die in the book, I hoped I would agree with that opinion. Basically, set in the 1890, Judge William 'Billy' Pitman Priest (Will Rogers) is proud, laid- back and widowed Confederate Civil War veteran who in his southern home town, somewhere in Kentucky, serves his local community as a district judge bringing justice, common sense and humanity to everyone. He deals with all forms of people in and out of the courtroom, from Daughters of the Confedracy to former slaves, but he does not take his work completely seriously, he like to have a sense of humour and is not pretentious. In his personal life he has his sister-in-law objecting to his nephew Jerome (Tom Brown) having a relationship with pretty young girl Ellie May Gillespie (Anita Louise) whose family descent is not clear. It is when the next case is brought to court that both his career and his personal life are tested, because the trial involves mysterious loner Bob Gillis (David Landau) apparently stabbing someone to honour Ellie May, and Priest goes ahead with the case despite concerns from others. Also starring Henry B. Walthall as Reverend Ashby Brand, Gone with the Wind's Hattie McDaniel as Aunt Dilsey, Stepin Fetchit as Jeff Poindexter, Rochelle Hudson as Virginia Maydew, Roger Imhof as Billy Gaynor, Frank Melton as Flem Talley, Charley Grapewin as Sergeant Jimmy Bagby, Berton Churchill as Senator Horace Maydew and Brenda Fowler as Mrs. Caroline Priest. The acting is fine, especially of course Rogers in the title role being most of the time stern and professional, but I like that scene where he puts on a hillbilly accent and has a fake conversation, this is isn't really that funny, it has some occasional giggles during bickering and some of the courtroom sequences, and the more serious stuff going on is okay, it an alright comedy drama. Worth watching, at least once, in my opinion!

What the hell is Will Rogers doing in this movie.Will Rogers and all these old Gezzers shouting about Dixie.The Fox Studio must have been desperate to make a crappy movie about a man accused of some wrong doing and being exonerated for being brave in a confederate Battle,I thought the South lost the war. because you would never know.Total crap. Whats heroic about the keeping of slaves?? This is the same inhumanness that kept people in bondage and your trying to portray the Confederate Army as Heroic. total crap.This was an excuse to portray the South as Heroic. I am embarrassed to watch this stupid movie and explain to some young people about what the civil war was about, and more disgraceful they used poor Negroes to play Dixie songs outside the courthouse.and then parade them through town. what a total disgrace. there was nothing funny about slavery,there is nothing funny about War.Insulting to Americans and all free peoples.

This is a Will Rogers film directed by the great John Ford. However, despite this excellent pedigree, the film is a big misfire--particularly when seen with 21st century sensibilities. The biggest problem is that the film is also a Stepin Fetchit vehicle and this Black actor is at his worst in portraying the offensive and clichéd "stupid Negro" role. Fetchit is slow, shiftless and dumb--an image many White Americans at the time would laugh at or at least ignore. Now, his entire act just seems gross and insulting.Now if you ignore Fetchit's rantings, what are you left with in this film? Well, even without it, you've got a comedy set in Kentucky that is not particularly interesting or compelling. While Rogers is good as the leading character and he did a funny imitation of Fetchit in one scene, the rest of the characters are either wooden and dull (such as the niece and nephew) or like characters from a Li'l Abner cartoon! This one-dimensionality and poor writing conspired to make this more of a historical curio than a film any sane person would want to see.