Judge Priest (1934)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

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.

Will Rogers did three films with director John Ford who probably knew best how to utilize Will Rogers folksy charm and personality on the screen. Judge Priest is the best of the three films Rogers did with Ford. The film is based on a character created by Rogers fellow American humorist Irvin S. Cobb.Cobb's Judge Priest stories are based on characters created from his childhood in Paducah, Kentucky. Priest is a man very much like Will Rogers in real life, full of homespun wisdom and common sense. The casting is almost perfect, I can't think of anyone else who could have done the role better.The film is an amalgam of several of those stories the main plot line being the assault of Frank Melton by town misanthrope David Landau. The case would normally come before Will Rogers, but he's forced to recuse himself because it's the first case of Tom Brown who is the nephew of Rogers. Brown is back home now, a newly minted lawyer and he's involved with a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Anita Louise. There's a connection between his personal and professional life that Brown little suspects.Cobb's childhood Kentucky is an idyllic place where even the newly freed black people are contented in their second class status. The racist overtone of Judge Priest is unmistakable and why the film is criticized today. However Irvin S. Cobb was painting an accurate picture of the servile blacks, servile because they had to be. But the Stepin Fetchit character goes way over the top.Judge Priest was later remade by Ford in the Fifties as The Sun Shines Bright and though the more obvious racial stereotyping got cleaned up somewhat, it could never be eliminated from the film.But the film because of the presence of Will Rogers gets a high rating from me. It's a chance to see one America's wittiest and wisest men at his homespun best and that opportunity should not be passed up.

I love old movies and was looking forward to seeing my first Will Rogers movie. However, this film is an embarrassment with decent actors struggling to overcome a corn-pone plot. The only reason to watch this creaking antique is to catch a glimpse of Hattie McDaniel and Stepin Fetchit who provide the "comic" relief. As Ms. McDaniel said, better to play the maid than to be one. She and Will Rogers were apparently actually good friends in real life, something which makes the movie's depiction of the happy, ignorant, thieving "darkies" doubly painful.The plot is archaic not just because it depicts former slaves happily singing "My Old Kentucky Home" as they steal the white folks's food. It is based on a story that celebrates the Confederacy and its soldiers, with Will Rogers as a former soldier (now a judge). It ends with a triumphant march through town of the Confederate veterans on Memorial Day. Although Rogers mentions in passing that he's saved Stepin Fetchit from a lynching at some point, it's done as a humorous throw away line. I really think movies like this should be seen more often: they are an excellent reminder of the world as it was not so long ago and how grateful we should be that it has passed away.

'30's comedies aren't exactly known for their subtlety and they mostly consist out of physical humor. This movie forms a great and wonderful exception to this.This is one great subtle comedy that is mostly funny thanks to its very amusing and extreme stereotyped characters. It of course also really helps that they are being portrayed by some really great actors and are being directed by one great director; John Ford.Will Rogers was totally great in his role. He seemed very natural with his acting but at the same time managed to play his character in a comical way. He was a greatly talented comedy actor, who was already a popular one during the silent era. He would had continued to play many more comical roles I'm sure, had he not died one year after this movie, in a plane crash piloted by the one-eyed pioneer aviator Wiley Post. Hattie McDaniel also does in this movie what she is best known for, playing a likable maid role. She is best known for her Acedemy Award winning role in "Gone with the Wind", which also made her the first black actor winning the great award.Even though John Ford began directing movies as early as 1917, it wasn't until the '30's that his career really took off and he gained a real big celebrity status. He also isn't best known for comedies but mostly for his western's, often starring John Wayne. Till this date he is still the director with the most Academy Awards for best directing (4 of them). I think that says already enough about the qualities of this man. With this movie he also really seemed ahead of its time, by picking an all different and very humble approach of the story and comedy.The story is actually quite simple but oh so great. It actually is quite well layered, even though the movie its simplicity might make you overlook this. It features lots of different element involving the characters in this movie, on both the comical as well as the more dramatic level. I also especially really like how the judge tries to hook up his cousin with his neighbor girl.The movie also truly benefits from its typical southern atmosphere. The movie is set in a southern town, which shows in the movie its characters, their accents and just overall atmosphere of the entire movie.This movie was a great pleasant surprise!9/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/