Binging on John Ford, Part 7: The Civil War, Will Rogers and Stepin Fetchit

Stepin Fetchit and Will Rogers in
Judge Priest

A recurrent theme in many of Ford's early sound pictures is the Lost Cause syndrome of the Civil War which portrays those who fought for the Confederacy as noble, rough-hewn gentlemen fighting for a legitimate, almost holy way of life rather than insurrectionists battling for the right to hold slaves. I recently acquired a box set of DVDs called Ford at Fox: John Ford' American Comedies from eBay for $16. The set contains three 1930s films starring popular American humorist Will Rogers, two of which rely heavily on the Lost Cause mythos. These two--Judge Priest and Steamboat Round the Bend also star Stepin Fetchit, the African-American actor (real name Lincoln Perry) who perpetuated the stereotype of a lazy, subservient black man (More on that later.) I also caught up with Rio Grande (also from eBay in an individual DVD), the third of Ford's Cavalry trilogy, also replete with Civil War themes.

Rogers was an immensely popular entertainer who rose to prominence by performing fancy rope tricks while cracking wise on current events. He started in vaudeville and then was featured in the Ziegfeld Follies before moving on to feature films. He always played a variation on himself, the relaxed, lovable wise rube dispensing front-porch wisdom. In his three films directed by Ford, Rogers doesn't even seem to be acting, but reacting to the situation while most of his co-stars gave stagey performances. According to the commentary by Ford biographer Scott Eyman (Print the Legend), Ford would give Rogers the script, but told him not to memorize any lines because they would come out phony. He should just get the sense of the scene and say the lines in his own way. Rogers is charming and relaxed in all three Ford comedies which do convey a rustic, warm mood. But they also reflect the prejudices of their time. According to Ford, the Civil War was a tragic conflict between equally well-intended adversaries and the slavery issue was just a minor footnote producing comic relief characters. (You can also see this in the obscure Prisoner of Shark Island.)

Doctor Bull (1933): Rogers is a country doctor in a small Connecticut town, dealing with small-minded citizens, constant calls on his time, and a typhoid epidemic. He's also spending his evenings with the local rich widow (a mannered Vera Allen) which causes tongues to wag. Andy Devine is very funny as a hypochondriac soda jerk. It's a sweet portrait of small-town life transitioning into the 20th century.

Judge Priest (1934): This one is the most difficult films for me since it relies so heavily on Lost Cause tropes. Rogers is a judge in another small town, this time in Kentucky. The main case deals with an assault charge. The accused was defending himself, but he's unpopular and hiding a big secret. So of course, he's set for the jailhouse unless the judge can save him.

Everyone in town is in love with the Confederacy and the judge uses that to exonerate the defendant. The big secret is he was a convict conscripted into the reb army, but he served nobly. Judge Priest gets the town minister (played by an actor who was in Birth of a Nation) to testify to the guy's bravery while Stepin Fetchit plays Dixie on the harmonica outside the courthouse window to stir the jury and the packed courtroom into a Southern patriotic frenzy. Never mind that his service record has no bearing on the case and doesn't prove a thing. Incidentally, Kentucky did stay in the Union. According to Wikipedia, there were 25-40,000 Kentuckians who served as Confederate soldiers, while 74-125,000 Kentuckians fought for the Union including 24-25,000 Black Kentuckians, free and enslaved. So I guess everybody in this town went out of state to serve under General Lee. 

Hattie McDaniel and Will Rogers in
Judge Priest

Also the judge makes a joke about saving the character played by Stepin Fetchit from lynching (Yikes!).
Hattie McDaniel also appears as Judge Priest's cook-housekeeper Dilsey and is allowed the same agency and

dignity she exhibited in Gone With the Wind. But Fetchit is portrayed as a lazy, imbecilic lackey. There is a new school of thought 

stating his character was playing at being lackadaisical in order to get the white people to

do the work instead. 

Steamboat 'Round the Bend (1935); Stepin Fetchit and Rogers are reunited. The racism here is more subtle

than in Judge Priest, but it's there. Rogers is a lovable con man turned riverboat captain. His nephew is jailed

for killing in self-defense (Here we go again). In the jail, the white prisoners are segregated from the blacks

who don't even have benches so they can sit down. Plus they all sing beautifully at appropriate moments. 

Fetchit is attached to a traveling wax museum Rogers acquires and puts on his boat to raise money to save his

nephew (got that?) Fetchit isn't even asked if he wants to join Rogers, he's come with the show like an object.

In addition, Rogers changes Fetchit's name to Jonah since he was found sleeping inside the carnival's fake whale.

He doesn't even have a right to his own name. Eugene Pallette (from The Lady Eve, The Gang's All Here and 

The Adventures of Robin Hood) is memorable as the sheriff.

Irvin S. Cobb who wrote the stories which served as the basis for Judge Priest, appears as a rival riverboat captain.

Anne Shirley is not bad as the swamp girl Rogers' nephew is in love with. The nephew is good looking but 

forgettable.

Rio Grande (1950): The Civil War plays a part in this Western, but takes a back seat to conflict with the Apache

Indians. John Wayne is Lt. Col. Yorke assigned to command a cavalry unit out west. His estranged son enlists, followed

by Yorke's estranged wife (Maureen O'Hara), determined to get her son out of this outfit and back in military

school where he flunked math. Wayne and O'Hara have not seen each other in 15 years. We never

learn the exact circumstances of their break-up, but it has something to do with Wayne commanding the Yankee

soldiers who burned down O'Hara's family plantation during the late unpleasantness between the states. 

Were they married before the war broke out, had the baby and then went their separate ways once hostilities were declared? 

I guess O'Hara was so angry over the fire she took the baby and just broke off all communication with her former husband. 

How did she do during Reconstruction, one wonders. Or I do anyhow. 

Back to the main plot. The Indians capture the children of the fort and Wayne's kid (Claude Jarman, Jr. from The Yearling), 

Ben Johnson and Harry Carey, Jr. bravely rescue them. One of the kids in an annoying little girl who likes to ring a bell constantly.

The father-son dynamic is similar that experienced by Wayne in Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way where the

story is transferred to Pearl Harbor and Brandon De Wilde is the son under estranged dad's command. 

This is one of Wayne's better performances as he displays the conflict between duty and family. Claude Jarman, Jr

and Maureen O'Hara display a lot more emotion than Wayne on their expressive feature. I liked Chill Wills as 

the no-nonsense company doctor. Victor McLaglen returns again as the Irish brawling sergeant named Quinncannon (his name in every Cavalry pic).