Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Bright Road

Play trailer Poster for Bright Road 1953 1h 8m Drama Music Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 1 Reviews 75% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
First-time teacher Jane Richards (Dorothy Dandridge) is troubled to learn that one of her students, C.T. Young (Philip Hepburn), has a history of taking two years to complete each grade. Although everyone else has given up on him, Jane resolves to get him through the fourth grade on a normal schedule. Gradually, she makes some headway, only to watch C.T. backslide when a friend and fellow student (Barbara Ann Sanders) suddenly dies. Jane, nevertheless, refuses to give up.
Watch on Fandango at Home Stream Now

Where to Watch

Bright Road

Critics Reviews

View More
Manny Farber The Nation 11/24/2020
The movie has a surprise gift of humor and humanity. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
Horror fan 4 Mar 27 This was a sweet movie with great performances by the child actors. Of course Harry and Dorothy were good. Tim Treakle See more Aldo G 03/19/2024 Harry Belafonte's movie debut and Dorothy Dandridge's lead role are overshadowed by a 13 year old actor named Philip Hepburn. It's too bad that he'd only act three more times (according to imdb) and there's very little information on-line about him. The film is simplistic but deep in its good intentions. See more 07/26/2018 I was certainly pulling for this one, but it quickly became a chore to sit through, even at its 68 minute run time. Its heart is in the right place, and it provides a good role model in showing these African-American kids at school, just as squeaky clean as Beaver Cleaver, but it's very simple, and sickly, syrupy sweet. I confess I watched it out of loyalty to Dorothy Dandridge, but the real highlight was Harry Belafonte singing "Suzanne (Ev'ry Night When the Sun Goes Down)" simply beautifully. This was his first film, and it interesting that his second would also be with Dandridge, and in the decidedly more saucy film 'Carmen Jones'. There are moments when 'Bright Road' asks some interesting questions (What color is God? If all men are brothers, why don't white people and black people behave that way towards one another?, etc), and I appreciated it showing how a troubled boy just needed some encouragement, but it's all done under wooden, sunny pretenses, and nothing about it seems authentic. The film has religious overtones as well, though it was interesting to see the kids recite the Pledge of Allegiance in 1953, because the words "Under God" would not be added to the Pledge until the following year. I wish I could give it a higher rating out of sympathy. See more 03/12/2017 Very good movie with a good cast to have been made so long ago. See more 01/16/2014 directed by LB Mayer's nephew who skillfully crafts a story about a teacher See more Read all reviews
Bright Road

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Movie Info

Synopsis First-time teacher Jane Richards (Dorothy Dandridge) is troubled to learn that one of her students, C.T. Young (Philip Hepburn), has a history of taking two years to complete each grade. Although everyone else has given up on him, Jane resolves to get him through the fourth grade on a normal schedule. Gradually, she makes some headway, only to watch C.T. backslide when a friend and fellow student (Barbara Ann Sanders) suddenly dies. Jane, nevertheless, refuses to give up.
Director
Gerald Mayer
Producer
Sol Baer Fielding
Screenwriter
Emmet Lavery
Production Co
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Loew's
Genre
Drama, Music
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 27, 2016
Runtime
1h 8m
Most Popular at Home Now