I was a remarkably insensitive 14 year old when I first saw "The sun shines bright", a title vaguely familiar from a song sung by my grandfather,a stretcher - bearer on the Western Front who would often break into "The sun shines bright on Charlie Chaplin" whilst working in his tailor's workshop. There were no race issues in England,the only non - white person I had ever met delivered "Easyklene" products to my grandmother's door three or four times a year. The innocence of my vision was indeed enviable. I knew a little about he American Civil War - I'd seen "Gone with the wind" and knew about the abolition of slavery. I'd heard my first jazz record,"Darktown Strutters'Ball" by Bunk Johnson but knew nothing of the indignities suffered by black people despite the war between the states being over for ninety years. I loved this sentimental portrait without actually knowing it was a sentimental portrait. The judge was obviously a wise and human man,I totally didn't get the reference to the whore,the controversial depictions of the black characters(I thought Stepin Fetchit was a great comedian on a par with "Amos 'n' Andy") and the general undercurrent of what seems to many reviewers racism tantamount to KKK levels. Now I do,but I shan't make the mistake of applying 21st century sensitivities to a 65 year old film that's basic aim was to entertain. One perceptive reviewer likened Mr Ford's portrayal of post - bellum Kentucky to his vision of Ireland in "The Quiet Man",a never - never land existing only in his head. This isn't a significant socially realistic film - Mr Ford had very little time for that sort of cinema. It is a rather whimsical,entertaining piece of fiction;an exceptionally well - made portion of Americana that displeases many today. To criticise it because it doesn't suit us today is like criticising "Battleship Potemkin" because it doesn't have commercial breaks every 15 minutes.

Deeply moving Southern vignette. The script is artfully constructed for maximum dramatic impact. So many outstanding scenes, capped by a tour-de-force climax and a delightful reprise postscript, it's almost more than the emotions can stand. Ford has a ball, often delineating his setting and characters with broad strokes, but all the more effective for the master's touch. A few slight lapses are made by two or three of the actors, but what does that matter compared to the picture's overall emotional impact? The Ford Stock Company is out in overwhelming parade force. The movies also features "A"-budget sets and strikingly atmospheric black-and-white photography, plus a music score by the ever-reliable Victor Young (who uses Steven Foster most appealingly). In all, a movie to treasure. I'd rate it 99%.Ford said to me that this was his favorite movie of all the movies he had directed. Even though critics had exalted many others of his films to the skies, Ford thought "The Sun Shines Bright" was his greatest achievement. And I am really tempted to agree!

The director was John Ford, a notorious teller of tales. When asked by critics which of his movies he liked best, he sometimes cited "The Sun Shines Bright." To understand why he'd make such an outrageous claim, we must understand that Ford loved to cause disappointment and pain in others -- especially critics.Actually it's a low-budget and confusing jumble of several of Irwin S. Cobb's stories about the laid-back South. Not a bankable name among the cast. But we do get to see the last of John's brother Francis as a tattered old drunk in a coonskin hat, a role he'd been playing for twenty years. Frank had been a matinée idol in the early years of motion pictures, a handsome young hero, and it must have pained him to be so degraded on the screen but, as I say, John loved to see pain.And if you're truly into political correctness, this is an excellent place not to look for it. The judge is the pudding-faced Charles Winninger. He's a fair and courageous judge. Everyone realizes that. But still he has one of those chocolate-colored jockeys holding up a hitching post in front of his gate. That's not to mention Steppin Fetchit: "Yassuh, Boss, but you overslepp." But it's certainly a John Ford project. Many of his stock company put in their appearances: Jane Darwell, Jack Pennick, Russell Simpson, Grant Withers, Milburn Stone, among others. We even get to see an early work of John Russell and the teen-aged Patrick Wayne. Russell is a curious-looking guy. He was an intelligence officer on Guadalcanal with the Marine Corps and he looks it -- tall, brawny, handsome. But handsome in a way that's uncanny, unearthly, as if he were really an animated plastic mannequin.It's definitely a lesser work, by turns raucous and sentimental. Ford pulls out all his usual stunts and throws them haphazardly together. There's the grand march, the singing of hymns, the mano a mano fight, the Ladies Temperance Society. If you want nothing more than to sit back and be diverted for an hour and a half, this should do the job.

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.