

The Sun Shines Bright
1953-05-02 · 102 min · ★ 6.6
With the election approaching, a judge in a Southern town at the turn of the 20th century is involved variously in revealing the real identity of a young woman, reliving his Civil War memories, and preventing the lynching of an African youth.
Trailers are previews, not full movies.
No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.
Production details
- Directors
- John Ford
- Production companies
- Argosy Pictures, Republic Pictures
- Countries
- United States of America
- Status
- Released
Top Cast
Charles WinningerWilliam Pittman Priest
Arleen WhelanLucy Lee Lake
John RussellAshby Corwin
Stepin FetchitJeff Poindexter
Russell SimpsonLewt Lake
Ludwig StösselHerman Felsburg
Francis FordFeeney
Mitchell LewisAndy Redcliffe
Grant WithersBuck Ramsey
Milburn StoneHorace K. Maydew
Dorothy JordanLucy Lee's Mother
Elzie EmanuelU.S. Grant 'You Ess' Woodford
Henry O'NeillJoe D. Habersham
Slim PickensSterling
James KirkwoodGeneral Fairfield
Ernest WhitmanPleasant 'Uncle Plez' Woodford
Trevor BardetteRufe Ramseur
Eve MarchMallie Cramp
Hal BaylorRufe Ramseur Jr.Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.
Where to watch
Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.
Availability not listed for this country.
Seasons & episodes
Recommendations

After failing to make it on Broadway, April returns to her hometown and reluctantly begins training a misfit group of young dancers for a competition.

A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.

The mob is trying to strongarm local martial arts schools, forcing young Jason Stillwell and his family to move after his father is injured defending their dojo. With his father now rejecting violence, Jason is forced to train on his own to protect himself and his best friend from the members of a rival karate school.

A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.

A wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend embark on a roadtrip to Memphis.

A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, while his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulane.

Jon Katz is close to burnout. He's a writer with writer's block; his wife has left for her sister's because he's emotionally distant; he rarely answers his phone. A kennel sends him a border collie that's undisciplined because of abuse. Despite a series of mishaps, Jon decides to keep trying with the dog, and he rents a dilapidated farm house to give the dog room to run. A local handyman refers Jon to a woman who might be able to help him train the dog. Reluctantly, Jon gives her a try. Is the dog the problem, or the owner?

Alan is a stylish tailor with moves as sharp as his suits. He has spent years searching tirelessly for his missing son Michael who stormed out over a game of Scrabble. With a body to identify and his family torn apart, Alan must repair the relationship with his youngest son and solve the mystery of an online player who he thinks could be Michael, so he can finally move on and reunite his family.

Chang, a 16-year-old, Asian American, bets the high school basketball star that he can dunk by Homecoming. The bet leads 5' 8" Chang on a quest to learn to dunk—not only to impress his crush, Kristy, but to gain the respect of his high school peers too. But before he can rise up and truly throw one down, he'll have to reexamine everything he knows about himself, his friendships and his family.

A rascally man nearing retirement juggles a workers' compensation suit while secretly working for his nemesis and flirting with his nemesis' young wife. As his estranged son returns, he faces new family responsibilities, while a banker plots to evict him from his home.

In this adaptation of the best-selling roman à clef about Bill Clinton's 1992 run for the White House, the young and gifted Henry Burton is tapped to oversee the presidential campaign of Governor Jack Stanton. Burton is pulled into the politician's colorful world and looks on as Stanton -- who has a wandering eye that could be his downfall -- contends with his ambitious wife, Susan, and an outspoken adviser, Richard Jemmons.

Renn Wheeland returns home to Cleveland for his mother's funeral. Once there, he forges new relationships while healing old ones, before confronting his problems and trying to face his grief.

Four mental patients on a field trip in New York City must save their caring chaperone, who ends up being taken to a hospital in a coma after accidentally witnessing a murder, before the killers can find him and finish the job.

Three middle aged men polish their martial arts skills to avenge their fallen master.

Caught in the middle of a bank robbery, a slacker and a bank employee become the ones who arbitrate the intense situation.

A divorced writer from the Midwest returns to her hometown to reconnect with an old flame, who's now married with a family.

When an upwardly mobile couple find themselves unemployed and in debt, they turn to armed robbery in desperation.

A koala named Buster recruits his best friend to help him drum up business for his theater by hosting a singing competition.

When dignified Albert Donnelly runs for Governor, his team moves to keep his slow-witted and klutzy younger brother, Mike, out of the eye of the media. To baby-sit Mike, the campaign assigns sarcastic Steve, who gets the experience of a lifetime when he tries to take Mike out of town during the election.

Seven mini-stories of adultery: a widow misbehaves at her husband's funeral, a wife turns to streetwalking for revenge, a prudish girl surprises, a neglected wife vies for her husband's attention, a fight over a dress, a death pact, and a detective revealed as a jealous husband's spy.
Similar titles

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

In pre-revolution Cuba, Katey Miller is about to defy everyone's expectations. Instead of a parent-approved suitor, Katey is drawn to the sexy waiter, Javier, who spends his nights dancing in Havana's nightclubs. As she secretly learns to dance with Javier, she learns the meanings of love, sensuality and independence.

Muthaiya, who is a mainstay in a political party, contests the election and loses by a margin of one vote. Muthaiya was not given a chance to contest the by-election again. In the end, he contested as an independent and won the Member of legislative assembly election

Isolated in the bell tower of Notre Dame, Quasimodo longs to experience the world beyond the cathedral walls, despite the wishes of his stern guardian, the Judge of Paris Claude Frollo. His first venture into the city leads him to Esmeralda, a fearless Romani woman whose defiance of Frollo's tyranny draws her—and Quasimodo—into his dangerous obsession.

Fresh to Las Vegas with no connections, Nomi Malone takes a job as an exotic dancer. Her talents are quickly noticed by Cristal, a headlining dancer who senses an opportunity to bolster her own act. But Nomi won’t play second fiddle and soon begins her venomous path to the top, ruthlessly backstabbing anyone who gets in her way.

A midwestern teacher questions his sexuality after a former student makes a comment about him at the Academy Awards.

In 1889, seventeen men die under mysterious circumstances, and spooked by recent events, the miners who populate the town leave in droves until there's nothing left but a shell of a community.

Olaf is to take care of the family's cleaner's store, while his dad is away on a fair. In the evening he runs into three Brazilian ladies thrown out of a limousine not knowing where to go. Olaf invites them to stay with him and his deaf pot-smoking grandfather, which at first just causes some confusion as he soon is to marry his girlfriend Vera. The next day it's topsy-turvy all over.

A washed-up Hollywood action hero is tricked into starring in a small English town’s chaotic Christmas pantomime, where a straight-talking dance instructor and his estranged daughter just might help him rediscover the magic of the season.

A small town waitress stuck in a lousy marriage finds love when an exciting out-of-towner enters her life.

Once an architect, Frank Bannister now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his "special" gift is the result of a car accident that killed his wife. But what he does not count on is more people dying in the small town where he lives. As he tries to piece together the supernatural mystery of these killings, he falls in love with the wife of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent.

An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.

This comical love story follows the story of A.J. Fikry, whose life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history and now his prized possession, a rare edition of Poe poems, has been stolen. He’s given up on people and even the books in his store offer another reminder that the world is changing too rapidly. But when a mysterious package arrives at the store, it gives Fikry the chance to make his life over and see things anew.

Three generations of women in a Mexican American family experience sexual awakenings over the course of a summer.

During the trial of a man accused of his father's murder, a lone juror takes a stand against the guilty verdict handed down by the others as a result of their preconceptions and prejudices.
While playing at the beach with their grandmother, two children witness an Elvis-like man walk out of the sea. They believe he's the "fishman" lover of a female taniwha, Hine Tai. Meanwhile their parents (played by Kirk Torrance and Nancy Brunning) are busy falling apart, and the mysterious man offers words that are either wise or dangerous. Set in a small seaside town, this magical realist fable was written by Briar Grace-Smith (Cousins) and directed by Peter Burger (What Really Happened - Waitangi). It got six nominations at the 2002 NZ TV Awards, and won for Best Drama, and for James Cowley's cinematography.

The small town of Furnas Fundas hides a secret far older than its pastures, forests, or the people who live there. During a heated election marred by scandals, Bartira, known merely as the town drunk, unexpectedly finds herself at the center of it all. It’s up to her to face a dark force that has returned to turn the town into a true bloodbath.

Katie, a shy newspaper accountant submits a reply to a "Dear Viola" letter to the editor that she works for, anonymously. She has a real knack for writing to people and getting to the heart of the matter. Soon, she takes over the newspaper's advice column and falls in love with one of her correspondents. The whole town becomes involved in the romantics.

An evil supernatural presence terrorizes the locals of a small town.

A high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.