Well the film may be all 'Aw shucks' and corn pone but it held an odd and entertaining fascination for me. I'd never seen Will Rogers in any type of vehicle before but knew that his homespun folksiness and insight into humanity were legendary. No doubt many from today's vantage point will find the picture's treatment of blacks to be condescending and offensive. However one would do well to consider it within the context of it's era, depicting an even earlier time in our country's history during the 1890's. As Judge Priest's (Rogers) maid Dilsey, Hattie McDaniel is a delight to behold, merrily singing away as she performs her chores while offering a unique counterpoint to the dimwitted and subservient Jeff Poindexter. Yes, Stepin Fetchit can be painful to watch at times, and every time I've seen him he's been a stereotype, but the man obviously had something on the ball to become the first black millionaire in the entertainment industry.
The main story revolves around an unobtrusively quiet citizen of the town who's brought up on charges of stabbing the local barber (Frank Melton). Quite honestly, Flem Talley's laugh alone was enough to drive me up a wall, and though I wouldn't say it about someone in real life, the character in this picture literally had it coming. Through gradual exposition we learn that Bob Gillis (David Landau) is the father of a local town beauty (Anita Louise as Ellie May Gillespie) being romanced by the Judge's nephew (Tom Brown), and also a hero during the Civil War for the Confederacy.
At times lively and raucous and at others quite serious and somber (Henry Walthall's testimony as Reverend Ashby Brand), "Judge Priest" is a genuine gem coming out of the early 1930's, a time when film makers were still finding their way out of the silent era. It deserves a modest recommendation for it's folksy and humorous approach, and if there's one line that I had to replay three times to be sure I heard it right, it was the one uttered by the old codger offering the Judge a swig of his home made corn whiskey - "You can smell the feet of the boy that ploughed it!" I'm really going to have to reconsider my choice of spirits in the future.
The main story revolves around an unobtrusively quiet citizen of the town who's brought up on charges of stabbing the local barber (Frank Melton). Quite honestly, Flem Talley's laugh alone was enough to drive me up a wall, and though I wouldn't say it about someone in real life, the character in this picture literally had it coming. Through gradual exposition we learn that Bob Gillis (David Landau) is the father of a local town beauty (Anita Louise as Ellie May Gillespie) being romanced by the Judge's nephew (Tom Brown), and also a hero during the Civil War for the Confederacy.
At times lively and raucous and at others quite serious and somber (Henry Walthall's testimony as Reverend Ashby Brand), "Judge Priest" is a genuine gem coming out of the early 1930's, a time when film makers were still finding their way out of the silent era. It deserves a modest recommendation for it's folksy and humorous approach, and if there's one line that I had to replay three times to be sure I heard it right, it was the one uttered by the old codger offering the Judge a swig of his home made corn whiskey - "You can smell the feet of the boy that ploughed it!" I'm really going to have to reconsider my choice of spirits in the future.