Judge Priest (1934)
Judge William "Billy" Priest lives in a very patriotic (Confederate) southern town. Priest plays a laid-back, widowed judge who helps uphold the law in his toughest court case yet. In the meantime, he plays matchmaker for his young nephew.
Mellow as a mint julep and twice as refreshing.
Opening crawl: The figures in this story are familiar ghosts of my own boyhood. The War between the States was over, but its tragedies and comedies haunted every grown man's mind, and the stories that were swapped took deep root in my memory.
"Based on Irvin S. Cobb's character of 'Judge Priest'" was a compromise onscreen source credit. Fox wanted to use "Based on the Judge Priest Stories by Irwin S. Cobb," but Mr. Cobb objected because he had written over 70 stories, was still writing them, and the statement might inhibit future sales of them.
Fox bought the motion picture rights to the first three stories listed in the literature section. The fourth story, "The Mob from Massac," was inadvertently used without compensation.
John Ford later used the line about a drinker's breath being 'like a hot mince pie' in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949).
In a 1972 interview, a year before he died, director John Ford stated that this was his favorite film.
Some characters were created exclusively for the film including Ellie May Gillespie, Jerome Priest, and Virginia Maydew.